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THE
KOREA REVIEW Volume
1, 1901 Homer
B. Hulbert
A.M., F.R.G.S., Editor. Printed
at The
Methodist Publishing House, Seoul. VOL
I
(1901) No.
1 (January) The
Spirit of
The Bell—Poem
1 The
New Century
3 Seoul
6 Chemulpo
11 Mok-P’o
46 Odds
and Ends A
Curious Cup
17 Off
his Guard..
18 The
Growing Buddha
18 Small
but Mighty
19 Question
and
Answer
19 Editorial
Comment
22 News
Calendar
24 In
Memoriam
28 The
History of
Korea Introductory
Note
29 Ancient
Korea
33 No.
2 (February) Opening
Lines of
Chang-Ja Poem
49 Chang-Ja
on The
Wind- Poem
49 Korean
Proverbs
50 The
Korean
Pronoun.
53 The
New Century P’Yung-Yang
56
[Page 2] Wun-San
59 Odds
And Ends Rip
Van Winkle
62 The
First Bicycle
65 Seat
Of Intelligence
67 Tight
Lacings
67 Question
and
Answer
68 Editorial
Comment
69 The
Korea Review
Album
69 News
Calendar.
71 The
History of
Korea Ancient
Korea
77 No.
3 (March) Xylographic
Art
In Korea
97 Sul-Ch’
ong,
Father Of Korean Literature Geo.
Heber Jones
102 A
Leaf From My
Journal S.
F. Moore
111 Odds
And Ends. Prophecy
113 Mathematics
vs. Chinese
114 The
Story Did It
115 Cinderella
116 An
Engineering
Feat
116 Brains
vs.
Muscle.
117 Editorial
Comment
117 News
Calendar
118 History
Of Korea
125 [Page 3] No.
4 (April) A
Vagary of
Fortune Narro.
145 The
Introduction
of Chinese Into Korea
Jas.
S. Gale.
155 Odds
and Ends. Exorcising
Spirits
163 The
Shogun
154 Small
Pox
154 Question
and
Answer
164 The
Korean
Nobility
164 Origin
of The
Po-Sam
165 Editorial
Comment
166 News
Calendar
168 History
of
Korea.
177 No.
5 (May) A
Vagary of
Fortune Narro
193 The
Tidal Wave in
The Yellow Sea.
F.
H. Morsel.
202 Odds
And Ends. Native
Gold Mining
206 Pearls.
.
207 A
Korean Heroine
.
208 Nemesis
.
208 Consanguineous
Marriage
209 Cure
For Leprosy
209 Snakes
209 Oppert
210 [Page 4] Question
and
Answer.
211 Editorial
Comment
212 News
Calendar
213 History
of Korea
221 No.
6 (June) The
Image of
Gautama Poem
Archer
Butler
Hulbert
241 Baron
Von
Mollendorff
245 Home
For
Destitute Children C.
C.
Vinton. M. D.
252 Korean
Etymology
254 Odds
And Ends. Fishing
Boats
.
.
258 A
Red Sea Path
259 A
Curious Asset.
259 Question
And
Answer Rev.
F. S.
Miller
260 Editorial
Comment
261 News
Calendar
.
263 History
of Korea
273 No.
7 (July) The
Ni-T’u Jas.
S. Gale.
289 A
Conundrum in
Court.
293 Korean
and Efate
297 W.
Du Flon
Hutchison
302 Odds
And Ends. Substitute
For
Vaccination
303
[Page 5] Could
Not Bell
The Cat
303 Question
and
Answer
304 Editorial
Comment
306 News
Calendar
308 History
of Korea
..
317 No.
8 (August) The
Korea Branch
of The R.A.S
337 The
Man In The
Street. Korean
And Efate
341 George
C. Foulk
344 Rice
And The
Ideograph..
349 Odds
And Ends. Unwelcome
Insects.
352 Death
In The Pot
352 Question
and Answer
353 Correspondence.
353 Editorial
Comment
354 News
Calendar
358 History
of Korea
369 No.
9
(September) The
Seoul
Water-Works
385 An
Anglo-Korean
Conversation
387 Korean
Proverbs
392 The
Seoul-Fusan
Railway
397 Odds
and Ends. A
Snake Story
400 The
Seventh Daughter
401
[Page 6] Confidence
Restored
402 When
Thieves Fall Out
402 Tricks
of The Trade
402 Bones
Wanted
403 Review
403 Editorial
Comment
404 News
Calendar
406 History
of Korea
417 No.
10 (October) A
Notable Book on
China
433 Rear
Admiral
Schley in Korea
440 The
Price of
Happiness
445 Odds
and Ends. Why
Morning
Calm?
454 Blue
Tile
456 A
Rebellious
Mountain
456 Question
and
Answer
457 Editorial
Comment.
457 News
Calendar.
460 History
of Korea
465 No.
11
(November) The
Founding of
The Korea Dynasty Rev.
C. T.
Collyer
483 The
Queen of
Quelpart
486 The
Wizard of
Ta-Bak San
489 Review
493 Odds
and Ends. Horse
Sense
.
494 [Page
7] Quid
Pro Quo
495 Caught
In Her Own Trap
496 Editorial
Comment
497 News
Calendar.
499 History
Of Korea
513 No.
12
(December) The
Status of
Woman in Korea.
529 (To
Be
Continued) The
Marble
Pagoda
534 The
Disturbance on
Quelpart E.
Martel
539 Odds
and Ends. A
Prophetic Dream
543 The
Stone Doctor
543 Oxen
Could Not Draw Him.
544 A
Just Division
545 A
Military Manoeuvre
.
546 Editorial
Comment
547 News
Calendar
549 History
of Korea
561 INDEX
OF The
Korea Review* 1901. *Items
in this index not otherwise signed are by the Editor. Index A
Conundrum in
Court 293 A
Curious
Asset 259 A
Curious
Cup 17 A
Just Division
545 A
Korean Heroine
208 A
Leaf From My
Journal S.
F. Moore 111 A
Military Manoeuvre
546 An
Anglo-Korean
Conversation 387 An
Engineering
Feat 116 A
Notable Book
on China 433 A
Prophetic
Dream 543 A
Rebellious
Mountain 456 A
Red Sea Path
259 A
Snake Story
400 A
Vagary of
Fortune, Narro 145, 193 Baron
Von
Mollendorff 245 Blue
Tile 456 Bones
Wanted 403 Brains
vs.
Muscle 117 Caught
In Her
Own Trap 496 Chemulpo
11 Cinderella
116 Confidence
Restored
402 Consanguineous
Marriage
209 Correspondence 353 Could
Not Bell
The Cat 303 Cure
For Leprosy
209 Death
In The Pot
352 Editorial
Comment
22, 69, 117, 166, 212, 261, 306, 354, 404, 457, 497,
547 Exorcising
Spirits
163 Fishing
Boats
258 George
C. Foulk
344 History
of Korea
33, 77, 125, 177, 221, 273, 317, 369, 417, 465, 513,
561 Home
For
Destitute Children C. C. Vinton. M. D. 252 Horse
Sense 494 In
Memoriam 28 Introductory
Note
29 Korean
and Efate
297, 341 Korean
Etymology
254 Korean
Proverbs
50, 392 Mathematics
vs.
Chinese 114 Mok-P’o
46 Native
Gold
Mining 206 Nemesis
208 News
Calendar
24, 71, 118, 168, 213, 263, 308, 358, 406, 424, 460,
499, 549 Odds
and Ends
17, 62, 113, 163, 206, 258, 303, 352, 400, 494, 543 Off
his Guard 18 Opening
Lines of
Chang-Ja Poem 49 Oppert
210 Origin
of the
Po-Sam 165 Oxen
Could Not
Draw Him 544 Pearls
207 Prophecy
113 P’yung-Yang
56 Question
and
Answer 19, 68, 164, 211, 260, 304, 353, 457, Quid
Pro Quo 495 Rear
Admiral
Schley in Korea 440 Review
403, 493,
Rice
And The
Ideograph 349 Rip
Van Winkle
62 Seat
Of
Intelligence 67 Seoul
6 Small
but Mighty
19 Small
Pox 154 Snakes
209 Substitute
For
Vaccination 303 Sul-Ch’
ong,
Father of Korean Literature Geo. Heber
Jones 102 The
Disturbance
on Quelpart E.
Martel 539 The
First
Bicycle 65 The
Founding of
The Korea Dynasty Rev. C. T. Collyer 483 The
Growing
Buddha 18 The
Image of
Gautama (Poem) Archer Butler Hulbert 241 The
Introduction
of Chinese Into Korea Jas. S. Gale. 155 The
Korea Review
Album 69 The
Korea Branch
of The R.A.S 337 The
Korean
Nobility 164 The
Korean
Pronoun 53 The
Marble
Pagoda 534 The
New Century
3, 56 The
Ni-T’u Jas.
S. Gale 289 The
Price of
Happiness 445 The
Queen of
Quelpart 486 The
Seoul-Fusan
Railway 397 The
Seoul
Water-Works 385 The
Seventh
Daughter 401 The
Shogun 154 The
Spirit of
The Bell—Poem 1 The
Status of
Woman in Korea 529 The
Stone Doctor
543 The
Story Did It
115 The
Tidal Wave
in The Yellow Sea.
F. H. Morsel
202 The
Wizard of
Ta-Bak San 489 Tight
Lacings 67 Tricks
of The
Trade 402 Unwelcome
Insects
352 W.
Du Flon
Hutchison 302 When
Thieves
Fall Out 402 Why
Morning
Calm? 454 Wun-San
59 Xylographic
Art
In Korea 97 THE
KOREA
REVIEW, Volume
1, January
1901 [page
1] The
Spirit
of the Bell. A
KOREAN LEGEND. The
master-founder stands with angry brow Before
his bell across whose graven side A
fissure deep proclaims his labor naught. For
thrice the furnace blast has yielded up Its
glowing treasure to the mould, and thrice The
tortured metal, writhing as in pain, Has
burst the brazen casement of the bell. And
now like a dumb bullock of the lists, That
stands at bay while nimble toreadors Fling
out the crimson challenge, in his face. And
the hot, clamoring crowd with oaths demand. The
fatal stroke, so hangs the sullen bell From
his thwart beam, refusing still to lend His
voice to swell the song hymeneal, To
toll the requiem of the passing dead Or
bid the day good-night with curfew sad. The
master-founder said “If but an ounce Of
that rare metal which the Spirits hide From
mortal sight were mingled with the flux It
would a potion prove so powerful To
ease the throes of birth and in the place Of
disappointment bring fruition glad.” And lo a royal
edict, at hand Of
couriers swift, speeds o’er the land like flame Across
the stubble drift of sun-dried plains. “Let
prayer be made to Spirits of the earth That
they may render up their treasure, lest Our
royal city like a Muslim mute Shall
have no tongue to voice her joy or pain.” [page 2] The
great sun reddened with the altar smoke; The
very clouds caught up their trailing skirts And
fled the reek of burning hecatombs; But
still the nether Spirits gave no sign. Not
so! A mother witch comes leading through The
city gate a dimpled babe and cries, “If
to the molten mass you add this child ‘Twill
make a rare amalgam, aye so rare That
he who once has heard the Dell’s deep tone Shall
ever after hunger for it more Than
for the voice of mother, wife or child.” Again
the furnace fires leap aloft, Again
the broken fragments of the bell Cast
off their torpor at the touch of flame. Unpitying
are the hands that cast the child Into
that seething mass. Fit type of Hell! Nay,
type of human shame that innocence Should
thus be made to bear the heavy cross For
empty pageantry. How
could it be That
Justice should permit the flowing years To
wash away the memory of that shame? Nor
did she. Through that seeming metal coursed The
life blood of the child. Its fiber clothed A
human soul. Supernal alchemy! And
when the gathered crowd stood motionless And
mute to hear the birth note of the bell, And
the great tongue beam, hang by linked chain Aloft,
smote on his brazen breast, ‘twas no
Bell
cry that came forth of his cavern throat. ‘Twas “Emmi, Emmi,
Emmi, Emmille”* “O
Mother, woe is me, O Mother mine!” H. B. H. *The
bell being struck with a wooden beam rather that with an
irom tongue gives the
effect of a sonorous Em and doubtless the legend grew
out of this fancied
resemblance. [page 3] The
New
Century. As
the World swings across the line that divides the
Nineteenth Century from the
Twentieth it finds all the civilized nations of the
earth joined in a
federation of amity and concord. There are no Hermit
Kingdoms, no Forbidden
Lands remaining. The law of human interdependence has
worked out to its logical
end, for, when Korea joined the federation, the
medieval principle of national
self-sufficiency received its final blow. There are
portions of the earth, like
Thibet, which are still difficult of access, but
Thibet is only a dependency of
China and her inaccessibility is due to physical
rather than political causes.
If the opening of Thibet had been of value it would
have been done ere now.
There is no autonomous government today that does not
acknowledge the validity
of the law of mutual interdependence. It
might be difficult to ascertain just when the
ratification of international
treaties began or what two nations set the good
example but we know that Korea was
the last to fall into line and save us the spectacle
of a divided Twentieth
Century world. It
was on Feb. 27th, 1876, that Korea made her first
modern treaty. It was with
Japan, but no exchange of Ministers occurred until
three years later and it was
not until well into the eighties that Korea began to
stir under the impulse of
her new relations. The
first use she made of the altered conditions was
naturally a commercial one.
The Korean people were quick to discover the value of
foreign trade. They are not
the first nation to prove that immemorial custom
stands little chance in the
face of better goods at cheaper prices. They decline,
and rightly too, to
change their ancient style of dress but they have
readily changed the material
of which their dress is [page 4] made. The heavy
importation of piece goods,
petroleum and friction matches has done very much to
ameliorate the condition
of the common people of Korea during the past two
decades. The
opening of trade necessitated the establishment of a
Customs Service. This was
done under the auspices of the Chinese Customs and its
efficiency and its value
to Korea have always been among the most striking
features of Korea’s progress Another
outcome of the change was the establishment of schools
and hospitals, in a
modest way at first, for the healing of the sick and
for the study of foreign
languages, sciences and arts. This work was begun in
1884 and has continued and
enlarged until at the present time we find six
government language schools
under competent foreign direction. The impulse which
this gave has resulted in
the establishment of several private schools under
purely native auspices. From
the very first the Mission schools have been prominent
in educational work. The
common schools have felt the impetus and the whole
system has been reorganized
and new studies of a liberal nature have been
introduced into the curriculum.
Normal and graduate schools have been established and
a University is
contemplated. The educational interest has spread to
the country and in the
different provincial centers schools have been
established on lines far in
advance of those which formerly prevailed. Educational
work is slow but its
results are as sure as they are slow. In
the third place the opening of Korea naturally gave an
impulse to agriculture.
The higher prices of cereals that prevailed in Japan
soon influenced the Korean
market and the export of beans and rice has been very
great. This has increased
the amount of circulating medium and has raised the
prices of all commodities.
History shows us that frequently in the past the
Korean rice crop has been so
great that travelers paid nothing for food on the way,
but these days are over.
The natural law of supply and demand has come into
play and the cost of living
in Japan and Korea is gradually becoming equalized.
The Korean people
frequently exclaim against constantly rising prices
forgetting that these are
due to natural causes which show prosperity. The
diffi- [page 5] culty lies in
the fact that during the transition stage the prices
of the necessities of life
advance more rapidly than the daily wage of the
workman. It is as true of Korea
as of other lands that the working man has to bear the
brunt of any change in
economic conditions. With
the increased demand for agricultural products the
“margin of cultivation” has
been raised. Many schemes have been worked out for the
reclaiming of waste
lands and the irrigation of other fertile tracts for
the purpose of growing the
one great Asiatic staple, rice.
In
the mining field great activity has been manifested.
Concessions have been
granted to foreign syndicates to exploit the
auriferous deposits of the
country, with results that have fully justified the
venture. These enterprises
have brought large amounts of capital into the
country, and better still have
given employment to thousands of Koreans who thus are
taking lessons in
industry at the hands of the masters of industry, the
English, Germans,
Americans and Japanese. During
this period the teachers of Protestant Christianity
have entered upon their
work in Korea and have made phenomenal
progress
in it. Not the least of their work has been to show
that there is no stronger
bulwark of patriotism and loyalty than practical
adherence to the principles of
Christianity. This
period has seen Korea lay aside, not her devotion to
Chinese ideals, but her
political subserviency to China. This in turn has
paved the way to the
establishment of the Empire of Ta Han which is Korea’s
proper status in view of
her ethnic, linguistic and geographical integrity. She
holds a dignified and
honorable place in the capitals of the Treaty Powers.
In Washington she has
purchased property and established a permanent
domicile, as might have been
expected, for the United States from the very first
has shown the most “disinterested”
interest in the welfare of Korea. American
enterprise has resulted in the building 6f a railroad
between the capital and
the port, which besides being an assured financial
success is an object lesson
of the utmost value to Korea. Other railroads north
and south from Seoul will,
at some not distant date, join Fusan with the great
Siberian system and thus
complete the most gigantic engineer- [page 6] ing feat
that the world has ever
seen. The roads north and south from Seoul have
already been begun. In the
material progress of Korea Japan has taken the leading
part. This is a logical
result of her deep interest in the opening of Korea,
for Japan naturally looks
to the peninsula for her food supply and for a market
for her manufactured
products. This reciprocity between the two helps Korea
to share the benefits of
Japan’s marvelous industrial metamorphosis and forms
the strongest guarantee of
the development of Korea’s resources. In like manner
when railroad
communication is established with Russia we may look
for a more rapid
development of the northern provinces, which will be
of mutual benefit both to
Russia and to Korea. The possibilities of the Yalu
valley have not yet been
even guessed. Every
country newly opened to foreign influences has to
learn by experience and this
makes inevitable a fluctuation in sentiment, now for
and now against what the
world calls progress. It is in better taste for the
well-wishers of Korea to
applaud and encourage her in her genuine successes
than to cavil at the
failures. And on the whole it must be granted that the
substantial progress of
Korea daring the past two decades has been enormous.
That there is still much
to do does not detract from the credit for what she
has already accomplished.
It is our purpose to do what we can in this REVIEW to
cultivate mutual
knowledge between Korea and the outside world,
believing that in so doing the
interests of this land can in some measure be
advanced. Seoul A
detailed account of all the improvements that have
been made in the city of
Seoul during the past twenty years would far exceed
the limits of our available
space and we must content ourselves with a mere list
of them. It has been said
that you can judge of a country’s status by the
addition of its roads. The
country roads of Korea remain practically as they were
but in the capital the
improvement has been very great. As originally out,
the road from the great
gate of the Kyong-bok Palace to the East Gate, a
distance of some two and a
half miles, is one of the noblest that can be found in
Eastern Asia. [page 7] But
it was encroached upon by booths and temporary shops
to such an extent that two
carts could hardly pass each other, at certain points.
These booths have been
all taken away and the main artery of the city
cleansed. The streets leading
from the South Gate, the Little West Gate and the New
Gate to the center of the
city have been widened to generous proportions.
Legation Street has been
greatly improved but is still so narrow that the heavy
carts have made
extensive repairs imperative. A new street has been
cut through from the
present Palace gate to the approach to the Kyong-bok
Palace, another from the
same point diagonally across to the Japanese
Consulate, another from South Gate
street to a point a little to the east of the Roman
Catholic cathedral, another
from the South Gate to the beginning of Legation
street, and others of minor
consequence. Outside the city roads have been built
from the South Gate to
Yong-san, from the New Gate to Ma-po and from the
Little West Gate to A-o-ga.
Outside the East Gate the road to the Queen’s Tomb has
been greatly improved.
But of all work that has been done upon the permanent
thoroughfares of the
suburbs the most memorable is the building of a
magnificent road through the
Peking Pass. In former days this was probably the
worst spot on the road
between the Capitals of Korea and China. It was in
full sight of the city of
Seoul and yet was quite impassable for carts. We can
well remember the time
when it was an act of cruelty to ride a horse through
this rocky defile, but
today it is a pleasure. In
the second place the drainage of the city demands
notice. The building of new
roads necessarily resulted in improvements in the
arrangements for sewage, but
besides that nearly the whole course of the great
central drain of Seoul, the
Cloaca Maxima of the city, has been cleaned out and
neatly stoned up on the
sides. Many of the lesser drains have likewise been
improved. In
the matter of building, great and laudable activity
has been shown. The first
foreign building to be erected was the Japanese
Legation which was completed in
1885. Since that time the Russian, English, French and
Chinese governments have
erected substantial foreign buildings, preeminent
among which both for size and
architectural beauty is the French [page 8] Legation.
The Japanese Government
has also erected a handsome Consulate building. The
Cathedral is the most
conspicuous edifice in the city and being constructed
according to the severest
canons of Gothic art is a noble and graceful pile.
Among other public buildings
in foreign style we have the Catholic church outside
the wall, the Pa-ja
school, the Methodist churches of Chong-dong and
Sang-dong, the Club-house of
the Cercle diplomatique, the I-wa School for girls,
the Seoul Union Reading
room, the Japanese Board of Trade, the First Japanese
Bank, the Japanese
School, the Government Middle School, the Methodist
Publishing House, the Roman
Catholic Orphanage and the Power House of the Seoul
Electric Railway. When we
come to the question of private dwelling houses and
business properties we must
draw the line. It will be sufficient to say that about
twenty-five of such have
been erected. These do not include Korean houses that
have been made over into:
foreign residences or foreign residences that have
been built in Korean style.
Of these there are upwards of sixty not counting those
built by Japanese or
Chinese. Of Chinese buildings there are a considerable
number scattered about
the city while of Japanese houses there are very many
as may be expected with a
Japanese population of two thousand or more. These are
mostly confined: to the
Japanese settlement, commonly called Chin-go-ga,
although not a few are found
in other parts, of the city, especially near the South
Gate. As
for transport facilities all the ordinary Korean
methods remain in use but in
addition to these the jinrikisha has made its
appearance and has found favor
with all except the higher official classes among the
Koreans. But especially
worthy of mention is the Seoul Electric Railway which
affords easy
communication between the New Gate and the Queen’s
Tomb three miles outside the
East Gate, and between Chong-no, the center of the
city, and the river town of
Yong-san. This brilliant and successful venture has
been not only a great
convenience to the Koreans but it has been an object
lesson of the utmost
value. Its interest is enhanced by the fact that it
was accomplished by a union
of American and Korean enterprise. The Seoul-Chemulpo
Railroad has secured
equal favor with the Korean people. They thoroughly
appreciate its value, as [page
9] is seen by the heavy passenger and freight traffic
that the road enjoys. The
great bridge across the Han River, an engineering feat
of no small magnitude, is
a constant reminder to the Korean of western skill in
overcoming nature’s
obstacles and a constant encouragement to go and do
likewise. If
it were not our purpose to confine this sketch to
things actually accomplished
we should mention the progress that has been made
toward laying out a public
park about the site of the pagoda and the plans that
have been completed for
supplying the city with water by aqueduct from the Han
River. But these and
other contemplated improvements are achievements of
the future and not of the
past. One
of the earliest signs of progress was the
establishment of a telegraph system
throughout the country bringing the different
provinces into closer contact
with the capital and bringing Korea as a whole into
closer contact with the outside
world. Under efficient foreign management this
department has proved an eminent
success. In
1885 a Government Hospital was established under
foreign direction and the
thousands of Koreans who take advantage of its
gratuitous services attest its
popularity and its genuine value. In
pursuance of her rights as a sovereign and independent
Power Korea has sought
and obtained admission to the Postal Union and letters
bearing the Korean stamp
are now sent to all parts of the worlds. When railroad
communication is secured
with the different provincial centers there seems to
be no reason why, under
its present efficient management, the Postal Bureau
should not become a source
of revenue to the government. The
increase of business and the need of increased
facilities for financal
transactions has called into being not only foreign
banks but Korean men of
enterprise have organized banks and have won the
confidence and patronage of
the people. Such things do their share in establishing
confidence in native
ability to carry out large financial enterprises. The
founding and successful operation of native newspapers
has been a marked
feature of the new regime. While such organs cannot be
expected to enjoy the
unlimited free- [page 10] dom of the west they have
done much to give the
people a taste for information beyond their own
contracted spheres and have
proved and are proving a potent educative force. The
radical reforms that have been introduced into the
Korean army are worthy of
the greatest praise. It has become a recognized
principle here that if an army
is worth having at all it is worth clothing, feeding
and paying properly. Thus
it has come about that instead of taking to soldiering
as a last resort the
Koreans are eager to enlist and many applications have
to be rejected.
Soldierly uniforms and efficient drill have
transformed the army and made it a
factor that cannot be ignored.
The
city of Seoul has a well-equipped police force in
foreign uniform and this has
had a perceptible effect upon the general public
behavior. In fact it would be
difficult to find a more orderly city in the Far East
than Seoul. This may be
because the Koreans are little accustomed to taking
their pleasure out of doors
in the evening by lamp and lantern light. By nine
o’clock the streets are
practically cleared of traffic. We
cannot omit mention of the newly acquired right of
every man to a fair and
public trial in a properly constituted court, and
while the operation of this
law is as yet partially theoretical the law itself
stands as a goal toward
which progress will be more or less rapid. In
the matter of coinage there has been great advance.
Though the maximum of
success remains to be achieved the new coinage is a
century in advance of that
which we were compelled to handle twelve or thirteen
years ago. It is a part of
the education of all eastern countries to learn that
the only legitimate object
in coining money is to provide the people with a
circulating medium of stable
and intrinsic value. Viewed in this light the new
coinage though not perfect
must be applauded as a step in advance. Brief
mention has been made of educational work in general
but it demands more
special notice. The conduct of educational affairs is
a good gauge of a country’s
policy. If so the radical changes introduced into the
schools of the capital
are the most hopeful sign of the times. In the first
place, and chiefest of all
in genuine value, is the introduction into almost all
the text-books of what is
called the mixed script. [page 11] This
indicates a determination on the part of the
government to relegate the Chinese
character to its proper place as a mere glossary or
thesaurus of words to be
used in accordance with the grammatical genius of the
native Korean speech. In
the second place the establishment of foreign language
schools is of wide
importance. Each Korean who learns a European language
and comes in touch with
European literature forms a distinct point of contact
between his countrymen
and the outside world of things and events and cannot
fail to help toward a
modification of the views and sentiments of the upper
classes regarding the
progress of the country. But educational advance is
most striking in the
changes in the curriculum of the common schools of the
city. Ten years ago the
science of mathematics was not dreamed of as a study
for ordinary pupils. It is
now a principal subject of study. Universal geography
and history are recent
innovations and the preparation and publication of
text books of science and
his- tory is being pushed with the greatest energy by
the educational authorities. The
latest addition to the educational equipment is a
school of surveying under
competent foreign direction which will find a wide
field of usefulness here. Before
closing this account it might be of interest to note
the things which have been
discontinued of late years. First of all come the
national examinations which
seem to have disappeared altogether and with them one
of the most picturesque
and interesting features of Korean life. We no longer
hear the weird “Kiuchiru,
Kiu-kiu Kiuchiru” which heralded the approach of a
Korean official chair. We no
longer see the signal fires on the mountains flash out
their evening message of
peace from the four corners of the land. We no longer
have the pleasure of
climbing the city wall after the evening bell has
tolled and we find ourselves
shut out of the gates. These and many another
interesting and memorable feature
of life in Korea have receded into the past not wholly
without regret on the
part of those whose fortune it has been to see Korea
in her pristine
simplicity. Chemulpo Chemulpo
at the threshold of the Twentieth Century presents a
very interesting subject.
Opened in the latter part of 1883 the port has grown
in sixteen [page 12] years
from a cluster of fishermen’s huts hidden behind a
hill along the river, with
an adjoining hamlet of military peasants supposed to
look after the forts
guarding the mouth of the Han river, into a thriving
city of over 20,000 people
of several nationalities. The growth of the city has
been steady and almost
phenomenal. Earlier years gave no hint of the extent
to which the port would
push itself territorially, its limits now being two
miles away from the Custom
House in the vicinity of which the port had its start.
Trade has grown by leaps
and bounds. Property has doubled in value several
times over. Lines of
communication have been opened up with the interior of
Korea in all directions.
And still the promise of growth and development for
the port holds fair and
strong. Territorially
the port has spread itself like the proverbial green
bay tree. When the first
treaty with a western nation was negotiated by Admiral
Shufeldt on May 22nd
1882, a tent was erected for him on the hill-side at
Chemulpo back of what is
now the Commissioner’s residence and here in a
solitude the Admiral struggled
with his doubt as to whether it would not be better to
locate the Settlement on
the small island of Wul-mi (Roze) in the harbor rather
than on the uninviting
mainland. Had this been done the town would have
spilled over into the sea long
ago. But his better judgment placed it on the main
land, and this has on the
whole proved a very satisfactory choice. It is
interesting to note, while on
the subject of the treaties, that the limits of the
port as originally provided
for in the Japanese treaty extended to 100 li, which
would have included Seoul
as our suburbs! When the American treaty was signed at
Chemulpo the place could
boast of a small village called Man-suk-dong and the
hereditary military hamlet
of Ha-do, and that was all. The hills now covered with
houses and residences
were traversed by foot paths many of which have since
been obliterated, and no
hint existed of the great changes that were so soon to
come to pass. The small
and unpromising beginning has grown into the Japanese,
Chinese, and General
Foreign Settlements and the Korean city. The
Japanese Settlement is the best located of the three
concessions, being the
most central, and is the center of the [page 13]
Japanese interests of the
port. The Japanese population numbers about 4,500 and
is under the jurisdiction
of the Japanese Consul, H. Ijuin, Esq. Here are the
offices of the Nippon Yusen
Kaisha and the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, which run lines of
steamers from Japan both
to Korea and via Korea, to China. The First National
Bank has a substantial
granite building here for the transaction of its large
banking business and
here also are the 18th and 58th National Banks to
Japan. There are now
coastwise lines of small steamers running north to the
capital of the Whang-ha
Province, via river ports on the Han, lines north to
Cheung-nam-p’o and
Pyung-yang, and south to kun-san, and recently a line
has been opened by which
it is possible to reach Kong-ju the capital of
Ch’ung-ch’ung Do in the south in
twenty-four hours from here. This shows the line along
which development is
going. The Japanese merchants have a Board of Trade
which attends to the
mercantile interests of Japan and a Rice Exchange
where large transactions take
place. The Japanese merchants hold a prominent place
in the import and export
trade of the port and have large vested interests.
Probably the most important
enterprise, however, on which the Japanese are engaged
in the port, is the
management of the Seoul-Chemulpo Railroad which has
its head office and shops
here. This important undertaking is fraught with great
promise for Korea. Under
the efficient direction of the General Manager, T.
Adachi, Esq., it has become
an indispensable factor in the life of the port and
our suburbs at Seoul. The
Chinese Settlement is at the Western end of the port
and is under the
jurisdiction of Chinese Consul, C. T. Tong, Esq. Here
reside most at the 500
Chinese residents of the port. Chief among these is
the firm of E. D. Steward,
with an American name and a thoroughly progressive
spirit. Without him it would
be hard for most of us to get along. There are a great
many Chinese gardeners
living at the port who have small gardens in the
adjacent fields. Most of these
are Shantung farmers who come over in the spring, work
their holdings, and
return for the winter to their native land, thus
causing a constant fluctuation
in the number of Chinese residents at the port. The
general foreign community is constituted very much
[page 14] the same as other
ports in the Far East. We have the Customs staff, the
Consuls, the merchants
and the missionaries. The Concession is in the eastern
end of the port and is
well laid out with streets and drains and is under the
jurisdiction of the
Consuls of the Treaty Powers and representatives
chosen from the land owners.
These together constitute the Council. There is
efficient police supervision
and all the interests of the Settlement are well cared
for. At the head of the
business interests of the port are the three firms of
Townsend and Co., E.
Meyer, and Co., and Holme Ringer and Co, E. Meyer and
Co. have charge of the
interests of the German Mining Concession which has a
large tract of mining
territory in the western part of Korea, the business
of which thus comes to
Chemulpo. Holme Ringer and Co. are also agents of the
Hong Kong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation which has a branch office here.
One of the greatest
interests at the port is that of the American Mines.
These are located in the
northern part of Korea but the head office is here in
charge of the Treasurer
of the Company, D. W. Deshler, Esq. The Eastern
Pioneer Company, which has a
mining concession in Northern Korea, also maintains an
office here. These
immense interests, the American Mines, the German
Mines, the English Mines, the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and the Seoul-Chemulpo
Railroad all unite to place
Chemulpo at the head of the business of all Korea. But
this is not all. A most interesting experiment is
being inaugurated at Chemulpo
at this time in the way of manufacturing. In previous
years the Korean
government launched forth on various manufacturing
schemes, such as a glass
factory, a match factory, and a paper mill. These were
all located at Seoul and
were not successful. The present venture at Chemulpo
is in the line of
cigarettes and a large factory has been erected on the
foreshore at the eastern
end of the town and will soon be in operation with
private capital back of it
and every prospect of success. There
are three Missions at work in Chemulpo,—the Roman
Catholic with a fine church
and a home for Sisters who work among the women and
girls of the port and
surrounding country; the Church of England Mission
with a [page 15] hospital
and a chapel in which services for the foreigners and
Japanese are held; and
the Methodist Episcopal Mission which has its
headquarters at the farther end
of the Korean city. Both the Roman Catholic and the
Methodist Missions have a
large work among the Koreans in the port and
surrounding villages, and, the
Church of England Mission is doing a most successful
medical work in the same
section. Turning
to the sights of the town we have already alluded to
the First National Bank,
which possesses one of the finest buildings in all
Korea. Then we have our Town
Hall, back of which is the. jail where we imprison our
carts and jiggies, for
we seldom have criminals to occupy it, the new
Chemulpo Club House which is
architecturally quite striking, the public gardens
which of late years have
been well laid out, the English Consulate and a number
of handsome residences.
There are three fine Consulates, two theaters, seven
banks, a large number of
bath houses, several temples, and not a saloon,
strictly speaking, in the town.
There are several hotels where travelers can find
fairly comfortable quarters.
During the hot Summer months the climate is fairly
cool and refreshing and this
is making the port a popular place in which to spend
the Summer. Among the
pioneers along this line is the American Minister,
Hon. H. N. Allen whose villa
at Allendale is one of the landmarks. Of late years
Chemulpo has come into
prominence as a place in which to hold summer
gatherings and already the annual
meetings of two missionary bodies have been held here. From
a trade standpoint Chemulpo enjoys the advantage of
feeding several important
centers. Of course the wealth of the land is centered
at the capital and
practically all the luxuries imported into Korea come
through Chemulpo, and
besides the heavy population of the capital and its
environs the outlying towns
of Su-wun, Ch’un-ch’ung, Ka-p’ung, Kwang-ha and others
obtain their foreign
goods by way of Chemulpo. But more important than
these outlying towns are the
cities of Song-do and Ha-ju, both of which are reached
by small Japanese
steamers in a few hours from Chemulpo. It is this
large coastwise traffic
branching out from Chemulpo that makes this port of
importance. G. H. J. [page 16] Mok-p’o.
The
port of
Mok-p’o was opened to foreign trade in 1897 and has
from the very beginning
justified the wisdom of that step. It must be borne in
mind that the province
of Chul-la of which Mok-p’o is the natural maritime
outlet is called the garden
of Korea because of the great importance of its
agricultural produce and as the
exports of Korea are almost exclusively agricultural
it was to have been
expected that Mok-p’o as an exporting center would
prove a success. Its
progress has been healthy and rapid. Like many of the
open ports of Korea the
anchorage is in the current of a river and the tides
run strong but it is a
land-locked harbor and one in which the frailest craft
could outride the
severest weather; In this matter of tides the harbors
of Wun-san, Fu-san and
Ma-sam-p’o have a decided advantage over those of the
Western coast. The
approach to Mok-p’o is particularly beautiful, the
high hills rising close on
either hand. It is marvelous to see how quickly the
spirit of trade can
transform the appearance of such a place as Mok-p’o.
Two years ago nothing was
to be seen from the anchorage but a mass of squalid
Korean huts in the
foreground and a bare rocky hill in the background.
Today we find the Korean
huts gone and in the immediate foreground stands the
residence of the
Commissioner of Customs on a commanding knoll near the
water side. Behind it
and on either hand the Japanese have bought up the
land and erected their neat
if unsubstantial dwellings. The marshy foreshore has
been reclaimed and out of
what seemed at first very untoward conditions a
flourishing town has sprung up.
The close proximity of the anchorage to the bund or
sea-wall places Mok-p’o far
ahead of Chemulpo in the matter of convenience of
lightering the boats. As was
expected, it has been found impossible for the large
steamship lines to ignore
this port and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha boats and the
Osaka Shosen Kaisha boats
touch here regularly. The things that Koreans import
are used mostly by the
common people, at least the piece goods and matches
and yarns are used mostly
by them so that the very dense population of this
south-western province,
though nominally poor, will absorb an ever increasing
amount of foreign goods
and Mok-p’o will grow in consequence. It would be no
matter of surprise if this
port should some day lead all the other ports in the
amount of its trade. [page
17] The
most striking of the improvements made in Mok-p’o is
the long sea-wall which
has been put in at great cost and labor. The anchorage
is so near this wall
that it is said a pontoon landing stage is to be
built, to which vessels can
tie up. This will be far ahead of anything else in
Korea in the line of landing
facilities. [We
regret to say that sketches of the other ports did not
arrive in time for
insertion in this number, but they will be published
in the next.] Odds
and
Ends. A
Curious Cup. In
time
past the Koreans were possessed of a knowledge of
mechanical laws for
which we generally fail to give them credit. Some days
ago a Korean brought a
bamboo drinking cup to sell. Through the bottom of it
there was a hole. One
could not see through the hole but by blowing through
it was easily seen that
the hole was genuine. The owner affirmed that the cup
would not leak until
filled to the very brim, but that at the instant the
water reached the top it
would all run out through the hole. As we were
incredulous he put it to the
test. The cup was filled half full but did not leak a
drop. It was filled
nearly to the brim but still it did not leak. But as
soon as it reached the top
the entire contents of the cup passed through the hole
and ran to the ground.
The Korean by-standers considered it almost
supernatural and the owner averred
that he had refused an offer of sixty yen for the
curious thing. He was himself
unaware of how the trick was done until we explained
that the hole was a siphon
in the thick side of the cup and that when the cup was
full a column of water
was formed in the downward part of the hole which was
longer and therefore
heavier than the upward column of water and
consequently the water was all
drawn off. Being asked what might be the use of such a
cup he replied that it
was made in the interests of moderation. With such a
cup one must not fill it
to the brim with wine but [page 18] would be compelled
to abstemiousness. We
replied that it would be a good thing if the hole went
straight through. Off
His
Guard.
A
celebrated teacher near Ha-ju, the capital of Whang-ha
Province, was seated on
his maru or inner verandah when his pupils entered the
court-yard. Calling to
them to stop there he propounded this question: “Could
any of you advance an argument that would make me come
down from this maru to
the court-yard?” The
pupil ordinarily accounted the brightest answered: “I
could set fire to the building and that would make you
come down.” The teacher
objected that this was an appeal to force rather than
to reason. Another student
there-upon answered: “O
Teacher there is no argument that could make you come
down but if you were down
here I could easily make you go back.” The
teacher was incredulous and said “Let us see,” and
forthwith came down,
whereupon the pupil turned to his fellows and said: “See
how easy it was to bring him down.” The
Growing
Buddha.
The
monk
Sin-don, whose corrupt practices did more than
anything else to bring
about the fall of the Ko-ryu dynasty in 1392, imagined
at one time that his
power was waning and in order to check this he
determined to perform a “miracle.”
At dead of night he dug a deep hole in the ground
beside his door. At the
bottom he placed a large jar of beans. He then poured
in water till the jar was
full and on top of all he placed a gilded Buddha so
that the crown of its head
was just about level with the surface of the ground.
He covered it all with
earth and smoothed it down so that nothing at all was
visible. In the morning
he met his gathered worshipers with a very serious
face and announced that
before evening a gilded Buddha would come up out of
the ground beside his door.
And sure enough the beans began to swell, and promptly
on schedule time the
gilded Buddha pushed his head through [page 19] the
ground and the worshipers
all went down on their faces before the monk. Sin-don
knew beans. Small
but
Mighty.
So the story goes in Korea that Mr.
Fox in his morning stroll met Mr. Tiger. “I
eat foxes,” says Mr. Tiger. “Certainly,”
says Mr. Fox “but first let me invite you to walk
through this wood with me and
when we reach the other side you are welcome to your
breakfast.” “Very
well,” said Mr. Tiger, “but you must walk in front so
that I can watch you.” As
they advanced, the wild boar, the deer and the bears
leaped up and fled from before
them. Mr. Fox looked over his shoulder and said
jauntily: “See
you what all these do when they behold me coming?” The
Tiger looked in
amazement. “I
seek my breakfast elsewhere,” he grumbled. Question
and
Answer. In
response to the offer of the Review to secure the
answer to any question that
might be propounded, the following questions have been
sent in and answers have
been secured. It may be seen from these how
interesting and valuable this
department of the magazine can be made if any of its
patrons wish information
on special topics. These questions were submitted to
persons quite competent to
answer them, but if any of our friends are aware of
any other explanation than
the one here given we should be pleased to hear from
them. (1)
Question. Why does the Korean so frequently patch
white clothes with red
material? Answer.
This is never done except when the injury has been
caused by fire. The proper
explanation is that the Koreans consider it an omen of
ill luck to burn the
clothes and they believe the ill luck will be averted
by patching with red.
This as far as the Korean goes, but it would be
interesting to know whether red
is used because it is the color of fire and [page 20]
on the principle that dog’s
bite can be cured by the hair of the dog.” Or may it
be that it goes back
further still and forms the remnant of an ancient fire
worship? It
is also said, but without good authority, that the red
patch is a visible
confession of clumsiness on the part of the owner, as
if he would say “Behold
the man who is so awkward as to allow his clothes to
be burned.” (2)
Question. Why does the Korean always seize his ear
when he burns his finger? Answer.
For the same reason that a Westerner might put his
finger in his month under
similar trying circumstances. Having wet the injured
member the rapid
evaporation cools it. So the Korean seizes the ear
because it is partially
detached from the body and therefore the coldest part
and he believes he can
relieve the pain by so doing. The only value this
remedy seems to possess is
that one always has it with him. (3)
Question. Why do the Koreans avoid stepping or sitting
on the thresholds of
their houses? Answer.
There seems to be a universal superstition against
this. The Korean goes to
some pains to teach his children to step over the
threshold of the door and
does not hesitate to punish them if they seem careless
about it. They are not
pleased to have us sit on their thresholds when
calling, as we are tempted to
do in order to avoid removing our shoes. Two
explanations are given for this.
The first is that the So-hak, the “Little Learning,” a
book studied by all
boys, lays it down as a rule of propriety that the
door of a host’s house must
never be touched by the feet of his guest; for the
door being the means by which
the owner finds entrance and exit is, through its
usefulness alone, one of the
most honorable parts of the house. How discourteous
then would be to tread it
under foot! There is another reason current, among the
people. It is contained
in the common saying that the man who steps on his own
threshold steps on the
throat of the Sung-ju or guardian deity of the house.
The threshold is sacred
to the Sung-ju, and to tread on it is as disrespectful
an act as to tread on
the demon’s neck, and will be followed by swift and
sure retribution. The
Koreans [page 21] say that the person who allows the
threshold of his house to
be sat upon will be visited by robbers that night. (4)
Question. What is the idea of hanging rags on trees
and where did it originate? Answer.
This question introduces us to one of the most
interesting phases of Korean
shamanism, the Sung-whang-dang or altar to the
tutelary gods of a neighborhood.
Such altars may be found all over the land and near
them trees decorated with
rags. These are among the most important factors in
the work of the shamans and
to them the devotees are often sent. As this part of
Korean life is grossly
superstitious no rational explanation is to be
expected. Of the rags, papers,
and various objects of which the question makes
inquiry there is a great
variety. Sometimes it is a long piece of rag or even a
piece of thread, or it
may be a coin, or the collar of a coat, or a little
rice, or a cluster of
colored rags. These are part of the symbolism of
shamanism and belong really to
the same category as the fetishes which play so
prominent a part in the whole
system. They are symbolic of the desires of the
petitioner at the altar. A man
goes to a female shaman to have his fortune told and
he learns that he will
surely die that year. To ward off death and lengthen
his life, an offering is
made at the shrine of the tutelary god of the region
and the collar of his coat
is hung up as an indication of his desire and possibly
as a substitutive,
offering in his own behalf. The thread and the longer
strips of rags are
generally for children and are symbolic of a petition
for long life. The coins
indicate a petition for riches, the rice a petition
for good crops. The colored
rags generally stand for the petition of a bride, for
the Koreans have a
superstition that when a bride leaves her father’s
house to go to the home of
her husband the household gods all try to go with hen
This would mean the
speedy destruction of her father’s household, so at
the first altar on the way
she petitions them to come no further, but to remain
at this altar and regard
her offering as a substitute for herself. Sometimes
there will be found other offerings such as salt,
cotton, silk and kindred
objects. These have been offered by merchants dealing
in those commodities for
success in their trade. [page 22] Where
this custom originated I cannot say. I doubt if a
conclusive answer, is
possible. It is part, of the symbolism which is a
feature of shamanism, in
Korea. The principle underlying it came along with the
cult itself from the
ancestral home of the Koreans, wherever that may have
been. Whether from the
earliest times, the custom has been one and unchanged
I cannot say, but a
principle which gives reins to fancy as this does may
have various
manifestations in different ages. G.
H. J Editorial
Comment. The
publication of an English magazine in Korea calls for
no apology. It was a
matter of deep regret that the editors of the Korean
Repository were compelled
to suspend its publication, for it supplied, in
excellent form, the material
which the public most desired to receive. That no one
was in haste to take up
the work they laid down is not surprising for in the
first place there is the
difficulty of maintaining an equal degree of
excellence and in the second place
because the net proceeds of such an enterprise are
entirely esoteric rather
than material. Furthermore it must be acknowledged
that to most people Korea is
interesting solely as a political problem. Many causes
combine to render her
deeply interesting from this point of view; but it is
manifestly not the
province of such a magazine as this, published at the
Capital of the Empire of
which it treats, to enter the political arena. Such
discussions to be of value
require the possession of special knowledge which is
rightly confined to the
realm of diplomacy and to which the outsider cannot
aspire without
impertinence. In lands where government is
administered by popular suffrage the
freest discussion of such topics is not only
admissible but necessary; but in a
country like Korea where the public are not made aware
of the causes and
springs of political action such discussion is largely
futile. This fact
narrows the field of service of such a magazine to
that portion of the reading
public who are interested in the Korean people
themselves, their history,
custom, laws, arts, [page 23] sciences, religions,
language, literature,
folklore and ethnological relations. At the same time
we shall attempt to keep
a faithful record of events that transpire in the
peninsula, whether they be
political or otherwise. When
we remember that the beginning of authentic Korean
history antedates, the
advent of Christ and that almost nothing has been done
to give this history to
the English speaking world; and when we remember that
Korea is a distinct and
integral nation separated from all her neighbors by
radical differences both of
a temperamental and a linguistic character, we must
agree that the exploitation
of this wide field of research is worthy of attention.
Something has been done
already but vastly more remains to be done. Folklore
has been investigated to
some extent but those who have done the most would be
the first to admit that
only a beginning has been made. Theories have been
advanced both in Korea and
Japan as to the ethnic affinities of the Korean people
and while exhaustive
discussion of such themes belongs properly to the
Korean Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society there are numberless collateral and
supplementary lines of
investigation which could find a medium of expression
in such a magazine at
that which is here contemplated. No
record in English of current events in Korea is being
kept, to which the
general public can have access. The daily press of
China and Japan gives us
occasional glimpses but they are fragmentary and often
erroneous in spirit if
not in letter. A plain record of these events is of
value, if only for purposes
of future reference. There
is also needed some central point about which we can
gather and compare notes
and exchange suggestions about Korean things in
general. The KOREA REVIEW
places itself at the service of all its patrons for
this purpose and in order
to facilitate such interchange of ideas it undertakes
to play the part of a
bureau of information in regard to things Korean and
to secure, if possible, an
answer to any question other than political, that any
of its subscribers may
propound. It would urge the importance of this portion
of its work and invites
its patrons to send in any question for which they may
not have found a
solution. This invitation is extended especially to
our foreign subscribers. [page
24] Any
popular publication to be a live one must belong
rather to its public than to
its proprietors and the subscribers must take an
owner’s interest if it is to
succeed. Especially is this true of a periodical that
is published not as a
financial venture but as a mere medium of
communication between those who are
interested in Korea. This is not a plea for free copy.
All contributed matter
will be paid for at a uniform rate which though too
small for adequate
compensation will indicate the Review’s adherence to
the principle of quid pro
quo. News
Calendar. In
beginning this news calendar at the opening of the new
century it is our
purpose to give a straightforward and trustworthy
statement of any event of
importance that takes place in Korea or that affects
Korea. A monthly
periodical is not a newspaper and it can do no more
than preserve a record of
passing events in such a form as will be readily
accessible for reference in
time to come. To make this department of the Review a
success we request the
cooperation of our readers, trusting that any facts of
interest that are not
ordinarily accessible will be communicated to the
Review for publication. The
well-known former Minister of Law, Han Kyu-jik who was
imprisoned on the charge
of having corresponded with Pak Yong-hyo, has been
acquitted and released. Yi
Yong-t’a, the Judge of the Supreme Court, was
appointed Minister to The United
States on the 5th inst. Min
Yong-ch’an the Korean Commissioner to the Paris
Exposition arrived in Chemulpo
on the 7th inst. M.
Colin de Plancy has been appointed by the French
Government full Minister to
Korea. Min
Yong-ik who has resided many years in Hong Kong and
Shanghai has been deprived
of his position as adopted son of Min Seung-ho on the
ground of his refusal to
return to Korea [page 25] and perform the duties of
that position and because
of his failure to assume mourning after the demise of
the Queen. Min
Chong-muk was dismissed from the position of Minister
of the Household because,
without the cognizance of the Court, he gave
permission to Japanese Monks in
Pon-wun Monastery, Seoul, to erect a Buddha in memory
of the late Queen; but
was recalled after a few days and made the
Commissioner for the moving of the
Queen’s Tomb. The
text of a treaty between the Belgian and Korean
Governments has been drawn up,
its tenor being practically the same as that of the
other treaties. It is being
negotiated on behalf of the Belgian Government by M.
Leon Vincart who may
shortly take up his residence in Seoul as the Belgian
Representative. It
has been decided that the date of the removal of the
Queen’s Tomb will be the
28th of the 9th Moon of 1901. On
Dec. 29th, 1900 Prof. Geo. Russell Frampton arrived in
Seoul to assume the Head
Mastership of the Government English School. Prof.
Frampton is a graduate of
St. John’s College London S. W. and comes to Korea
from the Diocesan Home and
Orphanage School of Hong Kong, in which he taught two
years.
On
June 16th, 1900 at a meeting of foreign residents of
Seoul the Korea Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society was founded and a
constitution was adopted. J. H.
Gubbins, C. M. G. was elected President of the Society
and the Rev. J. S. Gale,
Corresponding Secretary. During
the year 1901 the Postal Bureau issued 953,675 postage
stamps of all
denominations. According
to the official report of the recent census the
population of Korea is as
follows. Seoul
.........
196,898. Kyung-geui
Province
669,798. North
Ch’ung-ch’ung
275,882. South
Ch’ung-ch’ung Province...
422,601. North
Chul-la Province
386,132. South
Chul-la Province.
437,660. North
Kyung-sang Province
590,602. [page 26] South
Kyung-sang Province
.483,616. Kang-wun
Province
276,736. Whang-ha
Province
361,907. North
P’yung-yang Province
393,973. South
P’yung-yang Province
390,299. North
Ham-gyung Province
285,028. South
Ham-gyung Province
437,019, This
gives a total for the whole country of 5,608,351. but
it is evident that this
is not the total population of Korea. It may be that
minors were not included
in this count or that this represents only that
portion of the population which
pays taxes to the central government. We incline to
the latter hypothesis. On
Jan. 3rd each of the foreign representatives in Seoul
received a letter,
written in Chinese and signed with a fictitious name,
in which very threatening
language was used. The matter was referred to the
Foreign Office. A
preliminary investigation into the murder of Mr. Brand
at the English mine at
Eun-san took place at the Supreme Court on Jan. 14 in
the presence of the
Secretary of the British Legation, and a number of
Koreans were remanded for
trial. The
Chinese Minister in Seoul is about to return to China
to take part in the peace
negotiations pending between China and the allied
Powers. The Secretary of
Legation will act in his stead during his absence. The
total amount of customs import duties collected at the
port of Fusan during the
past twenty three years is $158,270.22 and the total
amount of export duties is
$158,649 50 and Tonnage dues $9,245.37. Total
$326,165. 09. Within
the last few weeks all the Korean army officers have
adopted the Russian
Military uniform. After
a long period of neglect the city of Song-do, the
capital of medieval Korea, is
coming in for its share of attention, stone bridges
are being repaired, the
pavilion of the South Gate is being restored and one
or two official Korean
residences in foreign style are being erected. Besides
this, new barracks are
about to be built and two Roman Catholic [page 27]
churches. But more important
than all is the building of a new palace on the site
of the one destroyed
during the invasion of 1592. The dimensions of the
building may be guessed from
the fact that seventy-two thirty-two-foot girders have
been ordered. It
is reported that the river off the north-east corner
of the island of Kang-wha
is the resort of many pirates who are exacting heavy
toll from passing craft. The
preliminary surveys for the railroad north from Seoul
have been completed as
far as Song-do and it is probable that grading will
begin in the spring. It is
said that the contract for grading has already been
given to a Chinese firm. A
few days before the beginning of the New Year Prof.
Sidahara, a graduate of the
Imperial University, Tokyo, and lately professor in
the Middle School of that
city, arrived in Seoul upon invitation of the
Educational Department to teach
in the newly founded Middle School. The faculty of
this school consists of one
American, one Japanese, two Koreans who speak English,
two who speak Japanese
and three others. This is the first government school
to be housed in a
commodious and excellently situated foreign building. It
is with great pleasure that we record the
convalescence of Dr. O. R. Avison the
physician in charge of the Government Hospital, from a
severe attack of typhus
fever. The foreign community, the Korean government
and the common people most
of all have narrowly escaped an irreparable loss. We
wish him long life and
success in the building of the large and thoroughly
equipped hospital which the
generosity of friends in America has made an assured
fact. A
few nights ago robbers broke into the mint at Yong-san
and stole upwards of $500,
in nickels. The
Koreans are agitated over the rumor that the former
leader of the Righteous
Army, Yu Suk-in, is bringing a Chinese Army across the
Yalu, bent on avenging
the death of the Queen. The
Japanese Minister to Korea, Mr. Hayashi, has left
Tokyo on his way to Korea. Victoria
is
dead. Th’
immortal
Soul That
tenanted
imperial clay is gone. The
silver cord
is loosed, the golden bowl Is
broken, and
the grey World is alone. [page
29] THE
HISTORY
OF KOREA. Introductory
Note. Authentic
Korean history may be said to begin with the year 57
B. C. in the Kingdom of Sil-la
in southern Korea. Whatever antedates this period is
traditional and legendary
and must be given as such. And yet there is much
reason for believing that
these traditions were founded on facts. The traditions
of Tan-gun and Ki-ja are
so persistent and the country contains so many menu
meats that corroborate them
that we are forced to believe that these personages
once existed. From
the year 57 B. C. the history of Korea is recorded in
a clear and rational
manner, free from any fundamental admixture of the
mythical or supernatural
element. To be sure the first genuine history was not
compiled until 543 A. D.
precisely 600 years after the founding of the kingdom
of Sil-la but we are told
that the groundwork of that history existed in
government records and notes and
that it was from these that the work was compiled.
King Chin-heung commanded
that a congress of scholars with the great Kim-ga
Ch’il-bu at their head should
take charge of this important work. It
was just half a century later in 599 that the first
great history of Ko-gu-ryu
was published in 100 volumes. It was the Yu-geui or
“Record of Remembrance.” Then
again in 990 just seventy two years after the founding
of Koryu and fifty-five
after the fall of Sil-la it was found that in the
turmoil and excitement
incident to the founding of the new dynasty and the
fall of the ancient southern
state the matter of history had been neglected; so a
commission was appointed
by King Sang-jong and the records were carefully
revised and put in order. It
was not until 1145 that the Sam-guk-sa or “Record of
the Three Kingdoms” was
compiled. This was the first at- [page 30] tempt to
compile a connected history
of the three ancient Kingdoms of Sil-la, Pak-je and
Ko-gu-ryu. We are not told
what Pak-je records existed but that there was ample
material in, the Sil-la
and Ko-gu-ryu history for the making of the Sam-guk-sa
seems beyond dispute. So
that when in 1484 the great scholar So Sa-ga compiled
the Tong-guk T’ong-gam he
had at his disposal material that had come down in
unbroken line from the very
beginning of Sil-la. But the Tong-guk T’ong-gam is by
no means the only work
based on those ancient records. The Tong-sa Whe-gang a
book of great accuracy
(according to the evidence of the author of the
Tong-sa Kang-mok) was compiled
in twenty-four volumes covering the same period that
is covered by the Tong-guk
T’ong-gam. The Tong-sa Po-yu, the Tong-sa Chan-yo and
the Tong-sa Kang-mok are
among the best known of the other ancient histories of
Korea. Early in the
present century four of these works were brought
together and compared, and as
a result the Tong-sa Kang-yo was compiled. The four
histories that were made
the basis of this work were (1) The Tong-guk
T’ong-gam, (2) The Tong-sa
Chan-yo. (3) The Tong-sa Whe-gang, (4) The Tong-sa
Po-yu. This work, called the
Tong-sa Kang-yo, shows evidence of careful research
and critical comparison and
the present writer is of the opinion that it must be
more authoritative than
any single one of the four works from which it was
compiled. If not, critical
study and the thorough sifting of historical material
must be confessed to be
of no value. The
present attempt to give Korean history to the English
reading public is based
upon this book, the Tong-sa Kang-yo, and in the main
its statements are
accepted as being the nearest to actual fact that we
can now arrive, except by
a critical comparison of the great histories, many of
which are gone beyond
recovery. But
besides this work many others have been consulted
bearing upon ancient history.
These will be cited in the text, though mention may
well be made of that
monument of research the Chinese work entitled the
Mun-hon T’ong-go. There is
perhaps no Korean work that gives so full an account
of the ancient tribes and
peoples that inhabited the peninsula two thousand
years ago. [page 31] So
much for the ancient and medieval history of Korea
which ended in 1392; but
when we enter the field of modern history it is far
more difficult. Of course
the Yun-yu Keui-sul gives us much valuable material
and the histor.es of
special periods such as that of the Japanese Invasion
of 1592 afford abundant
data. But no complete history of modern Korea could be
compiled from these
alone, notably because they end before the beginning
of the 19th Century. It
requires the perusal and comparison of private
manuscripts that never have been
published and the sifting of an enormous mass of
conflicting statements. The
nearer we come to the middle of the nineteenth century
the greater the
difficulties become. The history of the past century
is more difficult to
obtain than that of all the preceding eighteen
centuries. The
rise of the political parties in the middle of the
sixteenth century and the
violent antipathies thus aroused have laid all
subsequent accounts open to the
charge of partisanship and absolute authenticity can
be claimed for nothing
since that date. The
present writer does not claim to have examined all
these private manuscripts
but he has availed himself of the labors of a Korean
scholar who has spent the
major portion of his life in this one pursuit. By him
this work has been
carefully done and while it would be rash to say that
individual prejudice and
party fealty have not colored the book to some extent
it will suffice to say
that in no human probability could a scholar be found
who would give us a
wholly unprejudiced account. This much should be said,
that he was an
eye-witness of alt the main events that transpired
during the opening of Korea
to foreign intercourse and the writer has been able to
verify his statements in
such manner as to leave little doubt as to his general
historic veracity.
This history is divided into three
parts. I. Ancient History, which covers the legendary
period and the authentic
history down to the beginning of the tenth century
when the kingdom of Ko-ryu
was founded. II. Medieval History embracing the whole
course of the Koryu
dynasty till its fall in 1392; and III. Modern
History, which comprises the
whole of the present dynasty down to the founding of
the empire of Ta-Han in1897.
[page 32] The
system of romanization used in this work is that which
has been adopted by the
Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and while it
is by no means perfect
it comes as near to striking a mean between the
cumbersomeness of a perfectly accurate
system and the ambiguousness of an extremely simple
system as can perhaps be
devised at present. We
realize that the hyphenizing of proper names is a
typographical infelicity but
that we are forced to it for the sake of clearness. On
the first page of Korean
history we should not know whether Tangun is Tan-gun
or Tang-un. These
differences are so important that it leaves us no
option but to separate the
syllables. It
is likewise very unsatisfactory to disfigure a page of
English with Chinese
characters and therefore it has been found best to
append to each monthly
portion of this history an index of all proper names
with their Chinese
equivalents. As these characters are pronounced very
differently in Korea,
Japan and China the work would be worthless from a
scientific standpoint without
such an index, if only for purposes of comparison and
verification. The
relation of events that cover a period of over two
thousand years demands so
much space that much interesting detail is perforce
omitted though often it is
the detail that gives us a clue to the spirit of the
age. The fact that the
three wise men of T’am-ra (Quelpart) found in their
floating chests a colt, a
calf, a pig, a dog and woman give is us a clearer
notion of the status of woman
in those days than all the other pagesof history.
Whether the choice of
material here made is wise the future must decide, but
at least a beginning
with have been made toward opening up Korean history
to the English speaking
world. [page 33] PART
I ANCIENT
KOREA Chapter
I. The
Tan-gun....his antecedents....his origin...he becomes
king.... he teaches the
people. ... his capital.... he retires.... extent of
his kingdom....
traditions... monuments. In
the primeval ages, so the story runs, there was a
divine being named Whan-in,
or Che-Sok, “Creator.” His son, Whan-ung, being
affected by celestial ennui,
obtained permission to descend to earth and found a
mundane kingdom. Armed with
this warrant, Whan-ung with three thousand spirit
companions descended upon
Ta-bak Mountain, now known as Myo-hyang San, in the
province of P’yung-an,
Korea. It was in the twenty-fifth year of the Emperor
Yao of China, which
corresponds to 2332 B. C. He
gathered his spirit friends beneath the shade of an
ancient pak-tal tree and
there proclaimed himself King of the Universe. He
governed through his three
vice-gerents, the “Wind General,” the “Rain Governor,”
and the “Cloud Teacher,”
but as he had not yet taken human shape, he found it
difficult to assume
control of a purely human kingdom. Searching for means
of incarnation he found
it in the following manner. At
early dawn, a tiger and a bear met upon a mountain
side and held a colloquy. “Would
that we might become men” they said. Whan-ung
overheard them and a voice came
from out the void saying, “Here are twenty garlics and
a piece of artemisia for
[page 34] each of you. Eat them and retire from the
light of the sun for thrice
seven days and you will become men.” They
ate and retired into the recesses of a cave, but the
tiger, by reason of the
fierceness of his nature, could not endure the
restraint and came forth before
the allotted time; but the bear, with greater faith
and patience, waited the
thrice seven days and then stepped forth, a perfect
woman. The
first wish of her heart was maternity, and she cried,
“Give me a son.”
Whan-ung, the Spirit King, passing on the wind, beheld
her sitting there beside
the stream. He circled round her, breathed upon her,
and her cry was answered.
She cradled her babe in moss beneath that same pak-tal
tree and it was there
that in after years the wild people of the country
found him sitting and made
him their king. This
was the Tan-gun, “The Lord of the Pak-tal Tree.” He
also, but less widely,
known as Wang-gum.. At that Korea and the territory
immediately north was
peopled by the “nine wild tribes” commonly called the
Ku-i. Tradition names
them respectively the Kyun, Pang, Whang, Pak, Chuk,
Hyun, P’ung, Yang and U.
These, we are told, were the aborigines, and were fond
of drinking, dancing and
singing. They dressed in a fabric of woven grass and
their food was the natural
fruits of the earth, such as nuts, roots, fruits and
berries. In summer they
lived beneath the trees and in winter they lived in a
rudely covered hole in
the ground. When the Tan-gun became their king he
taught them the relation of
king and subject, the rite of marriage, the art of
cooking and the science of
house building. He taught them to bind up the hair by
tying a cloth about the
head. He taught them to cut down trees and till
fields. The
Tan-gun made P’yung-yang the capita! of his kingdom
and there, tradition says,
he reigned until the coming of Ki-ja, 1122 B. C. If
any credence can be given
this tradition it will be by supposing that the word
Tan-gun refers to a line
of native chieftains who may have antedated the coming
of Ki-ja. It
is said that, upon the arrival of Ki-ja, the Tan-gun
retired to Ku-wul San (in
pure Korean A-sa-dal) in the present town of Mun-wha,
Whang-ha Province, where
he resumed his spirit form and disappeared forever
from the earth. [page 35] His
wife was a woman of Pi-so-ap, whose location is
unknown. As to the size of the
Tan-gun’s kingdom, it is generally believed that it
extended from the vicinity of
the present town of Mun-gyung on the south to the
Heuk-yong River on the north,
and from the Japan Sea on the east to Yo-ha (now
Sung-gyung) on the west. As
to the events of the Tan-gun’s reign even tradition
tells us very little. We
learn that in 2265 C. the Tan-gun first offered
sacrifice at Hyul-gu on the
island of Kang-wha. For this purpose he built an altar
on Mari San which
remains to this day. We read that when the great
Ha-u-si (The Great Yu), who
drained off the waters which covered the interior of
China, called to his court
at To-san all the vassal kings, the Tan-gun sent his
son, Pu-ru, as an envoy.
This was supposed to be in 2187 B.C. Another work
affirms that when Ki-ja came
to Korea Pu-ru fled northward and founded the kingdom
of North Pu-yu, which at
a later date moved to Ka-yup-wun, and became Eastern
Pu-yu. These stories show
such enormous discrepancies in dates that they are
alike incredible, and yet it
may be that the latter story has some basis in fact,
at any rate it gives us
our only clue to the founding of the Kingdom of Pu-yu. Late
in the Tan-gun dynasty there was a minister named
P’ang-o who is said to have
had as his special charge the making of roads and the
care of drainage. One
authority says that the Emperor of China ordered
P’ang-o to cut a road between
Ye-mak, an eastern tribe, and Cho-sun. From this we
see that the word Cho-sun,
according to some authorities, antedates the coming of
Ki-ja. The
remains of the Tan-gun dynasty, while not numerous,
are interesting. On the
island of Kang-wha, on the top of Mari San, is a stone
platform or altar known
as the “Tan-gun’s Altar,” and, as before said, it is
popularly believed to have
been used by the Tan-gun four thousand years ago. It
is called also the Ch’am-sang
Altar. On Chun-dung San is a fortress called Sam-nang
which is believed to have
been built by the Tan-gun’s three sons. The town of
Ch’un-ch’un, fifty miles
east of Seoul, seems to have been an important place
during this period. It was
known as U-su-ju, or “Ox-hair Town,” and there is a
curious confirmation of
this tradition [page 36] in the fact that in the
vicinity there is today a plot
of ground called the U-du-bol, or “Ox-head Plain.” A
stone tablet to P’ang-o is
erected there. At Mun-wha there is a shrine to the
Korean trinity, Whan-in,
Whan-ung and Tan-gun. Though the Tan-gun resumed the
spirit form, his grave is
shown in Kang-dong and is 410 feet in circumference. Chapter
II. Ki-ja....
striking character.... origin.... corrupt Chu....
story of Tal-geui.... Shang
dynasty falls.... Ki-ja departs.... route....
destination.... allegiance to
China.... condition of Korea.... Ki-ja’s
companions.... reforms.... evidences
of genius.... arguments against Korean theory....
details of history meager....
Cho-sun sides against China.... delimitation of
Cho-sun.... peace with Tsin
dynasty.... Wi-man finds asylum.... betrays
Cho-sun.... Ki-jun’s flight. Without
doubt the most striking character in Korean history is
the sage Ki-ja, not only
because of his connection with its early history but
because of the striking
contrast between him and his whole environment. The
singular wisdom which he
displayed is vouched for not in the euphemistic
language of a prejudiced
historian but by what we can read between the lines,
of which the historian was
unconscious. The
Shang, or Yin, dynasty of China began 1766 B. C. Its
twenty-fifth
representative was the Emperor Wu-yi whose second son,
Li, was the father of
Ki-ja. His family name was Cha and his surname Su-yu,
but he is also known by
the name So-yu. The word Ki-ja is a title meaning
“Lard of Ki,” which we may
imagine to be the feudal domain of the family. The
Emperor Chu, the “Nero of
China” and the last of the dynasty, was the grandson
of Emperor T’a-jung and a
second cousin of Ki-ja, but the latter is usually
spoken of as his uncle.
Pi-gan, Mi-ja and Ki-ja formed the advisory board to
this corrupt emperor. All
that Chinese histories have to say by way of censure
against the hideous
debaucheries of this emperor is repeated in the Korean
histories; his
infatuation with the beautiful concubine, Tal-geui;
his compliance with her
every whim; his [page 37] making a pond of wine in
which he placed an island of
meat and compelled nude men and women to walk about
it, his torture of innocent
men at her request by tying them to heated brazen
pillars. All this is told in
the Korean annals, but they go still deeper into the
dark problem of Tal-geui’s
character and profess to solve it. The legend, as
given by Korean tradition, is
as follows. The
concubine Tal-geui was wonderfully beautiful but
surpassingly so when she
smiled. At such times the person upon whom she smiled
was fascinated as by a
serpent and was forced to comply with whatever request
she made Pondering upon
this, Pi-gan decided that she must be a fox in human
shape, for it is well
known that if an animal tastes of water that has lain
for twenty years in a
human skull it will acquire the power to assume the
human shape at will. He set
inquiries on foot and soon discovered that she made a
monthly visit to a
certain mountain which she always ascended alone
leaving her train of
attendants at the foot. Armed detectives were put on
her track and, following
her unperceived, they saw her enter a cave near the
summit of the mountain. She
presently emerged, accompanied by a pack of foxes who
leaped about her and
fawned upon her in evident delight. When she left, the
spies entered and put
the foxes to the sword, cutting from each dead body
the piece of white fur
which is always found on the breast of the fox. When
Tal-geui met the emperor
some days later and saw him dressed in a sumptuous
white fur robe she shuddered
but did not as yet guess the truth. A month later,
however, it became plain to
her when she entered the mountain cave and beheld the
festering remains of her
kindred. On
her way home she planned her revenge. Adorning herself
in all her finery, she
entered the imperial presence and exerted her power of
fascination to the
utmost. When the net had been well woven about the
royal dupe, she said. “I
hear that there are seven orifices in the heart of
every good man, I fain would
put it to the test.” “But
how can it be done?” “I
would that I might see the heart of Pi-gan;” and as
she said it she smiled upon
her lord. His soul revolted from the act and yet be
had no power to refuse.
Pi-gan was sum- [page 38] moned and the executioner
stood ready with the knife,
but at the moment when it was plunged into the
victim’s breast he cried. “You
are no woman; you are a fox in disguise, and I charge
you to resume your
natural shape.” Instantly
her face began to change; hair sprang forth upon it,
her nails grew long, and,
bursting forth from her garments, she stood revealed
in her true character―a
white fox with nine tails. With one parting snarl at
the assembled court, she
leaped from the window and made good her escape. But
it was too late to save the dynasty. Pal, the son of
Mun-wang, a feudal baron,
at the head of an army, was already thundering at the
gates, and in a few days,
a new dynasty assumed the yellow and Pal, under the
title Liu-wang, became its
first emperor. Pi-gan
and Mi-ja had both perished and Ki-ja, the sole
survivor of the great trio of
statesmen, had saved his life only by feigning
madness. He was now in prison,
but Mu-wang came to his door and besought him to
assume the office of Prime
Minister. Loyalty to the fallen dynasty compelled him
to refuse. He secured the
Emperor’s consent to his plan of emigrating to Cho-sun
or “Morning Freshness,”
but before setting out he presented the Emperor with
that great work, the
Hong-bum or “Great Law, which had been found inscribed
upon the back of the
fabled tortoise which came up out of the waters of the
Nak River in the days of
Ha-u-si over a thousand years before, but which no one
had been able to
decipher till Ki-ja took it in hand. Then with his
five thousand followers he
passed eastward into the peninsula of Korea. Whether
he came to Korea by boat or by land cannot be
certainly determined. It is
improbable that he brought such a large company by
water and yet one tradition
says that he came first to Su-wun, which is somewhat
south of Chemulpo. This
would argue an approach by sea. The theory which has
been broached that the
Shantung promontory at one time joined the projection
of Whang-ha Province on
the Korean coast cannot be true, for the formation of
the Yellow Sea must have
been too far back in the past to help us to solve this
question. It is said
that from Su-wun he went northward to [page 39] the
island Ch’ul-do. off
Whang-ha Province, where today they point out a “Ki-ja
Well.” From there he
went to P’yung yang. His going to an island off
Whang-ha Province argues
against the theory of the connection between Korea and
the Shantung promontory. In
whatever way he came, he finally settled at the town
of P’yung-yang which had
already been the capital of the Tan-gun dynasty. Seven
cities claimed the honor
of being Homer’s birth place and about as many claim,
to be the burial spot of
Ki-ja. The various authorities differ so widely as to
the boundaries of his
kingdom, the site of his capital and the place of his
interment that some doubt
is cast even upon the existence of this remarkable
man;but the consensus of
opinion points clearly to P’yung-yang as being the
scene of his labors. It
should be noticed that from the very first Korea was
an independent kingdom. It
was certainly so in the days of the Tan-gun and it
remained so when Ki-ja came,
for it is distinctly seated that though the Emperor
Mu-wang made him King of
Cho-sun he neither demanded nor received his
allegiance as vassal at that time.
He even allowed Ki-ja to send envoys to worship at the
tombs of the fallen
dynasty. It is said that Ki-ja himself visited the
site of the ancient Shang
capital, but when he found it sown with barley he wept
and composed an elegy on
the occasion, after which he went and wore allegiance
to the new Emperor. The
work entitled Cho-so says that when Ki-ja saw the site
of the farmer capital
sown with barley he mounted a white cart drawn by a
white horse and went to the
new capital and swore allegiance to the Emperor; and
it adds that in this he
showed his weakness for he had sworn never to do so. Ki-ja,
we may believe, found Korea in a semi-barbarous
condition. To this the reforms
which he instituted give abundant evidence. He found
at least a kingdom
possessed of some degree of homogeneity, probably a
uniform language and certainly
ready communication between its parts. It is difficult
to believe that the
Tan-gun’s influence reached far beyond the Amnok
River, wherever the nominal
boundaries of his kingdom were. We are inclined to
limit his actual power to
the territory now included in the two province of
P’yung-an and Whang-ha. [page
40] We
must now inquire of what material was Ki-ja’s company
of five thousand men made
up. We are told that he brought from China the two
great works called the
Si-jun and the So-jun, which by liberal interpretation
mean the books on
history and poetry. The books which bear these names
were not written until
centuries after Ki-ja’s time, but the Koreans mean by
them the list of
aphorisms or principles which later made up these
books. It is probable,
therefore, that this company included men who were
able to teach and expound
the principles thus introduced. Ki-ja also brought the
sciences of manners
(well named a science), music, medicine, sorcery and
incantation. He brought also
men capable of teaching one hundred of the useful
trades, amongst which silk
culture and weaving are the only two specifically
named. When, therefore, we
make allowance for a small military escort we find
that five thousand men were
few enough to undertake the carrying out of the
greatest individual plan for
colonization which history has ever seen brought to a
successful issue. These
careful preparations on the part of the self-exiled
Ki-ja admit of but one
conclusion. They were made with direct reference to
the people among whom he
had elected to cast his lot. He was a genuine
civilizer. His genius was of the
highest order in that, in an age when the sword was
the only arbiter, he
hammered his into a pruning-hook and carved out with
it a kingdom which stood
almost a thousand years. He was the ideal colonizer,
for he carried with him
all the elements of successful colonization which,
while sufficing for the
reclamation of the semi-barbarous tribes of the
peninsula, would still have
left him self-sufficient in the event of their
contumacy. His method was
brilliant when compared with even the best attempts of
modern times. His
penal code was short, and clearly indicated the
failings of the people among
whom he had cast his lot. Murder was to be punished
with death inflicted in the
same manner in which the crime had been committed.
Brawling was punished by a
fine to be paid in grain, Theft was punished by
enslaving the offender, but he
could regain his freedom by the payment of a heavy
fine. There were five other
laws which are not mentioned specifically. Many have
surmised, and perhaps
rightly, that they were of the nature of the o-hang or
[page 41] “five precepts”
which inculcate right relations between king and
subject, parent and child,
husband and wife, friend and friend, old and young. It
is stated, apocryphally
however, that to prevent quarreling Ki-ja compelled
all males to wear a
broad-brimmed hat made of clay pasted on a framework.
If this hat was either
doffed or broken the offender was severely punished.
This is said to have
effectually kept them at arms’ length. Another
evidence of Ki-ja’s genius is his immediate
recognition of the fact that he
must govern the Korean people by means of men selected
from their own number.
For this purpose he picked out a large number of men
from the various districts
and gave them special training in the duties of
government and he soon had a
working corps of officials and prefects without
resorting to the dangerous
expedient of filling all these positions from the
company that came with him.
He recognised that in order to gain any lasting
influence with the people of
Korea he and his followers must adapt themselves to
the language of their
adopted country rather than make the Koreans conform
to their form of speech. We
are told that he reduced the language of the people to
writing and through this
medium taught the people the arts and sciences which
he had brought. If this is
true, the method by which the writing was done and the
style of the characters
have entirely disappeared. Nothing remains to give
evidence of such a written
language. We are told that it took three years to
teach it to the people. The
important matter of revenue received early attention.
A novel method was
adopted. All arable land was divided into squares and
each square was
subdivided into nine equal parts; eight squares about
a central one. Whoever
cultivated the eight surrounding squares must also
cultivate the central one
for the benefit of the government. The latter
therefore received a ninth part
of the produce of the land. Prosperity was seen on
every side and the people
called the Ta-dong River the Yellow River of Korea. As
a sign that his kingdom was founded in peace and as a
constant reminder to his
people he planted a long line of willows along the
bank of the river opposite
the city, so P’yung-yang is sometimes called The
Willow Capital. [page 42] It
is contended by not a few that Ki-ja never came to
Korea at all and they base
their belief upon the following facts. When the Han
Emperor Mu-je overcame
northern Korea and divided it into four parts he
called the people savages,
which could not be if Ki-ja civilized them. The
Chinese histories of the Tang
dynasty affirm that Ki-ja’s kingdom was in Liao-tung.
The histories of the Kin
dynasty and the Yuan or Mongol dynasty say that Ki-ja
had his capital at
Kwang-nyung in Liao-tung, and there is a Ki-ja well
there today and a shrine to
him. There was a picture of him there but it was
burned in the days of Emperor
Se-jong of the Ming dynasty. A Korean work entitled
Sok-mun Heun-t’ong-go says
that Ki-ja’s capital was at Ham-pyung-no in Liao-tung.
The Chinese work Il-t’ong-ji
of the time of the Ming dynasty says that the scholars
of Liao-tung compiled a
work called Song-gyung-ji which treated of this
question. That book said that
Cho-sun included Sim-yang (Muk-den), Pong-ch’un-bu,
Eui-ju and Kwang-nyung; so
that half of Liao-tung belonged to Cho-sun. The work
entitled Kang-mok says
that his capital was at P’yung-yang and that the
kingdom gradually broadened
until the scholar O Si-un said or it that it stretched
from the Liao River to
the Han. This last is the commonly accepted theory and
so far as Korean
evidence goes there seems to be little room for doubt. Ki-ja
was fifty-three years old when he came to Korea and he
reigned here forty
years. His grave may be seen today at To-san near the
city which was the scene
of his labors. Some other places that claim the honor
of containing Ki-ja’s
tomb are Mong-hyun, Pak-sung and Sang-gu-hyun in
northern China. It
was not till thirty-six generations later that Ki-ja
received the posthumous
title of T’a-jo Mun-sung Ta-wang. The
details of the history of K-ja’s dynasty are very
meager and can be given here
only in the most condensed form. * *The
following details of the Ki-ja dynasty are taken from a
work recently compiled
in P’yung-yang and claiming to be based on private
family records of the
descendants of Ki-ja. It is difficult to say whether any
reliance can be placed
upon it but as it is the only source of information
obtainable it seems best to
give it. The dates are of course all B. C. [page 43] In
1083 Ki-ja died and was succeeded his son Song. Of his
reign of twenty-five
years we know little beyond the fact that he built an
Ancestral Temple. His
successor, Sun, was a man of such filial piety that
when his father died he
went mad. The next king, Iak, adopted for his
officials the court garments of
the Sang Kingdom in China. His son, Ch’un, who
ascended the throne in 997
raised fifty-nine regiments of soldiers containing in
all 7300 men. The flag of
the army was blue. In 943 the reigning King, Cho,
feeling the need of cavalry,
appointed a special commission to attend to the
breeding of horses, and with
such success that in a few years horses were abundant.
In 850 King Sak hung a
drum in the palace gate and ordained that anyone
having a grievance might
strike the drum and obtain an audience. In 843 a law
was promulgated by which
the government undertook to support the hopelessly
destitute. In 773 King
forbade the practice of sorcery and incantation. In
748 naval matters received
attention and a number of war vessels were launched.
The first day of the fifth
moon of 722 is memorable as marking the first solar
eclipse that is recorded in
Korean history. A great famine occurred in 710. King
Kwul selected a number of
men who could speak Chinese and who knew Chinese
customs. These he dressed in
Chinese clothes which were white and sent them across
the Yellow Sea with a
large fleet of boats loaded with fish, salt and
copper. With these they
purchased rice for the starving Koreans. At this time
all official salaries
were reduced one half. In 702 King Whe ordered the
making; of fifteen kinds of
musical instruments. He also executed a sorceress of
An-ju who claimed to be the
daughter of the Sea King and deceived many of the
people. In 670 King Cho sent
an envoy and made friends with the King of Che in
China. He also revised the
penal code and made the theft of a hundred million
cash from the government or
of a hundred and fifty millions from the people a
capital crime. He ordered the
construction of a building of 500 kan for an asylum
for widows, orphans and
aged people who were childless, In 634 one of the wild
tribes of the north sent
their chief, Kil-i-de-du, to swear allegiance to
Cho-sun. In 659 there came to
Korea from the Chu Kingdom in China a man by the name
of Puk Il-jung, who
brought with him a medi- [page 44] cine called
myun-dan-bang which he claimed
was the elixir of youth. By his arts he succeeded in
gaining the ear of the
king and for many years was virtually ruler of the
country. At last a king came
to the throne who had the wisdom and nerve to order
his execution At this the
whole land rejoiced. Banished men were recalled and
prisoners were liberated.
In 593 King Ch’am came to the throne at the age of
five. His uncle acted as
regent. But a powerful courtier Kong Son-gang secured
the regent’s
assassination and himself became virtual ruler. He
imprisoned the king in a
small pavilion and tried to make him abdicate, but in
this was unsuccessful and
himself met the assassin’s steel. In 560 the Ha tribe,
inhabiting the northern
Japanese island of I-so, sent their chief,
Wha-ma-gyun-hu-ri, to swear
allegiance to Cho-sun. In 505 the wild tribes to the
north became restive and
King Yu gathered 3000 troops and invaded their
territory, taking 1000 heads and
adding a wide strip of country to his realm. He put
teachers in each of the
magistracies to teach the people agriculture and
sericulture. In 426, during
the reign of King Cheung, occurred a formidable
rebellion. U Yi-ch’ung of T’a-an
(now Cha-san) arose and said “I am the Heaven Shaker.”
With a powerful force he
approached the capital and besieged it. The king was
forced to flee by boat and
take refuge at Hyul-gu (probably an island). But not
long after this the loyal
troops rallied about the king and the rebel was chased
across the northern
border. In 403 the king of Yun sent an envoy to Korea
with greetings. This Yun
kingdom had its capital at Chik-ye-sung where Peking
now stands, and its
territory was contiguous to Cho-sun on the west. But
in spite of these friendly
greetings the king of Yun sent an army in 380 and
seized a district in western
Cho-sun. They were soon driven back. Fifteen years
later a Yun general, Chin-gan
came with 20,000 troops and delimited the western
border of Cho-sun but the
Cho-sun general Wi Mun-un gathered 30,00a men and
lying in ambush among the
reeds beside the O-do River surprised the enemy and
put them to flight. In 346
a wild chieftain of the north came and asked aid
against Yun. It was granted to
the extent of 10,000 troops. These with 1000 cavalry
of the wild tribe attacked
and took the border fortress of Sang-gok. Soon after,
Yun sued for peace and it
was granted. [page 45] This
ends the apocryphal account of the Ki-ja dynasty. Its
contents are
circumstantial enough to seem plausible yet we cannot
but doubt the
authenticity of any records which pretend to go back
to such a remote period. The
Chou dynasty in China had long been on the decline and
now, in 305 B. C. had
reached . a point of extreme weakness. In view of this
the governor of the
tributary state of Liao-tung who had always passed
under the title of Hu or “Marquis”
dared to assume the title Wang or “King” and so to
defy the power of China.
Chosun threw herself into the balance in favor of her
great patron and hastened
to attack Liao-tung in the rear. But before this
course had become inevitable a
warning voice was raised and one of the councillors,
Ye, who was gifted with
more knowledge of the signs of the times than his
fellows pointed out the
inevitable overthrow of the Chou dynasty, and he
advised that Cho-sun make her
peace with the new “King” of the Yon kingdom of
Liao-tung, rather than brave
his anger by siding against him. The advice was
followed and Cho-sun threw off
the light reins of allegiance to China and ranged
herself alongside the new
kingdom. This we learn from the annals of the Wei
dynasty of China. But
apparently Chosun, stretching as it did to and beyond
the Liao River, was too
tempting a morsel the ambitious king of Yun to leave
untasted. So he picked a
quarrel with the king of Cho-sun and delimited his
territory as far as the Yalu
River, a stretch of 2,000 li, even to the town of
Pan-han whose identity is now
lost. He followed up this success by overcoming the
wild tribes to the north
and added 1,000 li more to his domains, securing it
from attack, as he
supposed, by building a wall from Choyang to
Yang-P’yung.
When Emperor Shih of the Tsin
dynasty ascended the throne of China in 221 B. C. and
soon after began that
tremendous work the Great Wall of China, the fortieth
descendant of Ki-ja was
swaying the scepter of Cho-sun under the name Ki-bi,
posthumous title Chong-t’ong
Wang. As soon at: the news of this great undertaking
reached the ears of this
monarch he hauled down his colors and surrendered at
discretion, sending an
envoy to do obeisance for him. King
Ki-bi died and his son Ki-jun, the last of the dy-
[page 46] nasty reigned in
his stead. For some years all was quiet, but at last
the scepter was wrested
from the hands of the shortlived Tsin dynasty by the
founder of the illustrious
Han, and across the border from Cho-sun all was
turmoil and confusion.
Fugitives from the three states of Yun, Che and Cho
were seeking asylum
anywhere, and thousands were hurrying across the Yalu
and craving the
protection of Ki-jun. The only protection he could
give them from the
victorious Han was remoteness from the latter’s base
of operations; so he
allowed them to settle along the valley of the Yalu
and its southern
tributaries. This was in the twentieth year of his
reign, 200 B. C. Unfortunately
for Cho-sun, the Han emperor made No-gwan, one of his
generals, governor of
Yun. This gentleman had ideas of His own, and finding
such good material for an
army among the half-wild people of his province he
decided to go on an empire
hunt on his own account. The
story of his desperate fight and final defeat at the
hands of the Han forces,
of his flight northward to the wild tribe of Hyung-no,
is interesting; but we
must turn from it to follow the fortunes of one of his
lieutenants, a native of
the Yun, named Wi-man. Retreating eastward alone and
in disguise, according to
some writers, or according to others with an escort of
1,000 men, he eluded His
pursuers and at last crossed the P’a-su (the Yalu of
today) and was received
with open arms by his own kin who had already settled
there. In the days of the
Han dynasty the word P’a-su meant the Yalu River, but
in the days of the Tang
dynasty it meant the Ta-dong. Hence much confusion has
arisen. Wi-man
threw himself upon the protection of Ki-jun who,
little knowing the nature of
the man he was harboring, good-naturedly consented and
accompanied his welcome
with the substantial gift of a hundred li square of
land in the north. Wi-man,
on his part, engaged to act as border guard and give
timely warning of the
approach of an enemy. He was already on good terms
with the people of the
Chin-bun tribe, and now he began to cultivate their
friendship more assiduously
than even In a short time he found himself at the head
of a considerable
following composed partly of Yun refugees and partly
of Chin-bun adventurers. [page
47] Being
thus prepared and weighing all the chances, he
concluded to stake his whole fortune
on a single throw. Sending a swift messenger to the
court of Ki-jun at P’yung-yang,
he informed that peace loving monarch that an
innumerable army was advancing
from China in four divisions and would soon be at the
doors of Chosun, and that
he, Wi-man, must hasten to the capital with all his
force to act as body-guard
of the King. The ruse was successful and before Ki-jun
and his court had
awakened to the situation Wi-man was on them. An
attempt was made to stop his
advance when quite too late, but it held the traitor
in check long enough for
Ki-jun and his immediate court to load their treasure
on boats; and as the
triumphal army of Wi-man entered the gates of
P’yung-yang the last
representative of the dynasty of Ki-ja slipped quietly
down the river, seeking
for himself a more congenial home in the south. This
occurred, so far as we can
judge from conflicting documents, in the year 193 B.
C. This was an
event of utmost importance in the
history of the peninsula. It opened up to the world
the southern portion of
Korea, where there were stored up forces that were
destined to dominate the
whole peninsula and impress upon it a distinctive
stamp. But before following
Ki-jun southward we must turn back and watch the
outcome of Wi-man’s treachery. Chapter
III. Wi-man....
establishes his kingdom.... extent.... power soon
waned.... ambitious
designs.... China aroused.... invasion of Korea....
U-gu tries to make
peace.... siege of P’yung-yang.... it falls.... the
land redistributed.... the
four provinces.... the two provinces. Having
secured possession of Ki-jun’s kingdom, Wi-man set to
work to establish himself
firmly on the throne. He had had some experience in
dealing with the wild
tribes and now he exerted himself to the utmost in the
task of securing the allegiance
of as many of them as possible. He was literally
surrounded by them, and this
policy of friendliness was an [page 48] absolute
necessity. He succeeded so
well that ere long he had won over almost all the
adjacent tribes whose
chieftains frequented his court and were there treated
with such liberality
that more than once they found themselves accompanying
embassies to the court
of China. It
is said that when his kingdom was at its height it
extended far into Liao-tung
over all northern and eastern Korea and even across
the Yellow Sea where it
included Ch’ung-ju, China. Its southern boundary was
the Han River. So
long as Wi-man lived he held the kingdom together with
a strong hand, for he
was possessed of that peculiar kind of power which
enabled him to retain the
respect and esteem of the surrounding tribes. He knew
when to check them and
when to loosen the reins. But he did not bequeath this
power to his
descendants. His grandson, U-gu, inherited all his
ambition without any of his
tact. He did not realise that it was the strong hand
and quick wit of his
grandfather that had held the kingdom together and he
soon began to plan a
still further independence from China. He collected
about him all the refugees
and all the malcontents, most of whom had much to gain
and little to lose in
any event. He then cut off all friendly intercourse
with the Han court and also
prevented the surrounding tribes from sending their
little embassies across the
border. The Emperor could not brook this insult, and
sent an envoy, Sup-ha, to
expostulate with the headstrong U-gu; but as the
latter would not listen, the
envoy went back across the Yalu and tried what he
could do by sending one of
the older chiefs to ask what the king meant by his
conduct. U-gu was still
stubborn and when the chief returned to Sup-ha
empty-handed he was put to
death. Sup-ha paid the penalty for this rash act, for
not many days after he
had been installed governor of Liao-tung the tribe he
had injured fell upon him
and killed him. This
was not done at the instigation of U-gu, but
unfortunately it was all one to
the Emperor. It was the “Eastern Barbarians” who, all
alike, merited
punishment. It was in 107 B. C. that the imperial
edict went forth commanding
all Chinese refugees in Korea to return at once, as
U-gu was to be put down by
the stern hand of war. [page 49] [page
49] THE
KOREA
REVIEW, February
1901 The
Opening
Lines of Chang-ja (4th Cent. B. C.) There
is a fish
in the great north sea, And
his name is
Kon. His
size is a
bit unknown to me, Tho’
he
stretches a good ten thousand li, Till
his wings
are grown; And
then he’s a
bird of enormous sail, With
an endless
back and a ten-mile tail, And
he covers
the heavens with one great veil When
he flies
off home. Jas.
S. Gale. Chang-ja
on the
Wind. When
the great
earth-clod heaves forth a sigh, We
say the wind
is rising: And
when the
wind gets up on high, The
funnels of
the earth they cry, In
a way that’s
most surprising, And
the hills
and the trees are sore afraid. And the gaps in the
hundred acre shade. The
names months
and eyes and ears, The
pits and
bogs and holes and meres Are
full of
waves and whistling shafts, And
oxen calls,
and whirling” draughts, And
whispers
soft, and Markings stron,. And
snarlings
loud, and shriekings long, And
voices low
that call before. And
rumblings in
the rear that roar; So
all the
valves of earth gape wide, And
ruck from side
to side. Jas. S.Gale, [page
50] Korean
Proverbs The
reason why Korean speech abounds in proverbs, bonmots
and epigrams is because
the great majority of the people are debarred the
privilege of literary
culture. It is a way they have of spicing their talk
to make it take the place
of written books. One has but to watch the
professional storyteller to see how
fine an edge he gives to the narrative style. One
thinks of the time when the
hard wandered from castle to castle in Europe vending
wares that were
priceless. Some of the proverbs of Korea have already
been put into English but
the stock is practically inexhaustible. Whatever may
be said for or against
them at least they never lack point. 니불속
에서활개친다 “He
swings his hands under his blanket.” To
swing the hands when walking is to put on airs, hut to
do it only, under a
blanket means that the man does not dare to do it in
public. It describes a man
who is overbearing at home but very meek in the
presence of his superiors. 슈청즉
무어 “The
water is so clear no fish can live in it.” This
is an hyperbola descriptive of a man who is such a
stickler for etiquette that
only the most absolute perfection in conduct pleases
him, and consequently no
one can live with him in comfort. 아는놈
동이닷 “As
one would bind his friend.” If
one were called upon to bind his friend he would be
sure not to draw the cords
tight; so the proverb is descriptive of carelessness
or excessive leniency. 항우도
됭됭이덩쿨에걸녓다 “Even
King Hang-u got entangled in the tang-dangi vine.” This
means that even the strongest may come to grief for
King Hang-u was a man of
gigantic strength who claimed to be able to root up a
mountain by main force.
It makes its think of Gulliver and the Lilliputians
binding him down. [page 51] 비위는
노락이회먹겟다 “He
eats the thousand-legged worm raw.” This
is supposed to describe the man who listens to blame
or abuse with perfect
nonchalance. 암치뼉
다귀에불개야미덥뷔듯 “Like
red ants running for a fish bone.” A
graphic way of describing a crowd intent upon seeing
some passing show and
shouldering each other in their eagerness. 업친되
덥친다 “He
never falls down but someone has to fall over him.” Or
as we say “It never rains but it pours,” showing that
misfortunes often come in
pairs. 물고못
먹는범이다 “Like
a tiger that bites but does not eat.” This
is equivalent to our saying “His bark is worse than
his bite.” 우물에
서슉룅달난다 “He
wants to draw warm water from the well.” A
very neat way of describing the man who is so eager to
secure a certain end
that he is unwilling to spend time necessary to its
achievement. 나먹자
니슬코개주자니앗갑다 “He
does not want to eat it himself and it is too good to
give to the dog.” A
state of mind that is too common to us all to need
explanation. 신션노
롬에독긔자로썩는다 “While
the sage plays the axe handle rots.” This
refers to the Rip Van Winkle story given under Odds
and Ends in this number of
the REVIEW. It typified the man who lets trivial
things interfere with the
serious business of life. 가마귀
날아가자뵈떠러진다 “When
the crow starts to fly the pear falls.” As
the two things happened simultaneously it looked if
the crow had stolen the
pear and then dropped it. This means an unjust
accusation with appearances all
against the victim. [page 52] 대쟝의
집이식칼이늘다 “There
are no good knives in a blacksmith’s house.” As
the blacksmith makes and sells knives he keeps only
old worn out ones for his
own private use. So anyone is likely to be wanting in
that which he most
affects. He does not practice what he preaches. 꾀여진
파긔요업지른물이다 “A
broken gourd will never again hold water.” A
broken vow can never be made good again. 하로개
지호랑이무서운줄모른다 “A
one day old dog does not fear the fierce tiger.” An
effective way of describing inexperience. 것지도
못하고뛴다 “He
wants to leap before he can walk.” Showing
the necessity of learning things in logical order and
not trying to do the more
difficult thing first. 개살구
즈레터졋다 “The
wild apricot breaks itself.” The
wild apricot is hard but in order to make people
believe it is as good as the
cultivated kind it breaks itself to show that it is
soft like the cultivated
one. A good description of the man who ruins himself
in trying to make people
believe he is as wealthy as his rich neighbor. 법은멀
고주먹은갓갑다 “The
law is far, the fist is near.” A
most suggestive description of that sentiment in man
which under sufficient
provocation makes him want to deal out justice
irrespective of properly
constituted tribunals. It is the watch word of lynch
law. 동성아
자미술도싸야사먹는다 “I
will not buy wine even from my own Aunt unless it is
cheap.” It
is refreshing to find this much evidence that the
Korean can look at a purely
business proposition as such even though his own
relative is at the other end
of it. 먹기는
뵈지가먹고뛰기는파발이뛴다다 “The
courier eats while the horse runs.” This
refers to the old time government postal relay system.
The post riders vied
with each other in “breaking [page 53] the record”
between stations and the
riders took the credit to themselves when really it
belonged to the horses, so
this describes the man who reaps the credit for
another’s work. 선님이
죵만업수이넉인다 “The poor old
gentleman can despise no one but
the slave.” Which
gives us an inside glimpse at Korean life, for the
aged gentleman without money
is the most pitiable object in Korea. He is too good
to work, too proud to beg,
too poor to live. 밋는나
무에곰이폐인다 “Dry
rot in trusted wood.” A
forcible way of describing a betrayal of confidence. 주먹마
즌감투다 “A
Kam-t’u struck with the fist.” A
kam-t’u is the horse-hair-net hat worn by gentlemen
inside the ordinary hat. It
is of course easily crushed and broken. When a man is
utterly put to shame they
say he is a Kam-t’u struck with the fist. 갓밧치
뢰일모레다 “The
cobbler says ‘tomorrow or day after.” Showing
that there is at least one close bond of sympathy
between the Korean and the
Westerner. Koreans know as well as we that
procrastination is the thief of time
but with them he is a very well dressed gentlemanly
thief and the wares he
steals are not of great value. The
Korean
Pronoun. Bishop
Caldwell the great comparative grammarian of the South
Indian dialects says of
the personal pronouns, “They evince more of the
qualities of permanence than
any other part of speech and are generally found to
change but little in the
lapse of ages.” A
careful study of the Korean pronoun brings to light
certain interesting facts
about the origin and development of the Korean
language. The quotation given
above is illustrated by a somewhat remarkable
conjunction of facts in the [page
54] case of the Korean pronoun. I have, before now,
indicated a line of
argument by which the southern origin of the Korean
people can be proved with a
fair degree of satisfaction, but in this brief paper I
wish to particularize
the bearing of the Korean pronoun upon that argument.
The proposition, in
brief, is that although northern Korea originally
belonged to tribes which had
a northern origin the people of southern Korea who
developed the earliest
civilization which survived and who were the first to
dominate the whole
peninsula and impose their language upon the whole
people, were distinctly of
southern origin having entered Korea not by way of
China but by way of the
islands of the Pacific; and further-more that these
early southern Koreans were
a small branch of that great family which being driven
from northern India by
Aryan conquests passed to the east and south, the
eastern branch finding a new
point of departure in the Malay peninsula and
radiating from that point in
three directions (1) northward along the line of
islands that lie off the coast
of China; (2) eastward into Oceania, and (3)
southeastward into Australasia. The
question here propounded is, what have the Korean
personal pronouns to do in
proving that the Korean language came thus from the
south rather than, as is
commonly believed, by way of Manchuria and northern
Asia? The
Korean pronouns of the first and second person are
built upon the same
foundation—the letter n. The first person is na, the
second is somewhere
between no and nu, but tor convenience I use the
second of these―nu. The
best representatives of the pre-Aryan stock of India
are the Tamils, Telugus,
Malayalams and Canarese of Southern India and it is to
them we must look for
the most primitive forms of these pronouns for they
were the first to
crystalize their language into written literature and
they are also by far the
most homogeneous mass of pre-Aryans in the world. The
following is a tabulated
list of the first and second personal pronouns of the
most important of the
South Indian non-Aryan dialects. 1st
person 2nd person
1st person 2nd person Tamil
nan
ni
Kota
ane
ni (infl.) Telugu.......... ne
ni
Gond
anna
ni
“ Canarese.......
na
nin
Coorg
nan nin
[page 55] Malayalam... nyan
ni
Ku
ann
inn Tulu
yan
ninu
Uraon
en nin Tuda
an
ni Comparing
this with the Korean na and nu we see that in the
first person there is practical
identity, and in the second person the 11 is present
in both cases though the
vowel is different. Compare
the Korean again with those tribes of central India
that presumably came, into
closer contact with the Aryan conquerors. 1st
person 2nd person
1st person 2nd person Gayeti
nona
ime
Kuri
in
am Rutluk
nanne ima
Kaikadi nanu
ninu Naikude......
an
njwa
Savara gna
aman Kolami
an
niwa
Gabada nai-pa no Madi
nan
mima
Yerukala.
na-nu ninu Here
the similarity is still staking enough in the first
person but in the second
there is more variation, in many cases the n being
replaced by m. Now
passing eastward into Burmah let us see how the
pronouns compare with the
Korean. 1st
person 2nd person 1st person 2nd person Burman
na
Tetenge ne. Mikir ne
Khari-naga..
ni Barma nang Karen
nah Then
going eastward into the Pacific we find 1st
person 2nd person
1st person 2nd person Malay ana
Polynesian ...
van Papuan
nan ninua
Australian
nga Efate
nigo In
other words, in every language which may have been an
offshoot from the
southern branch of the Turanian family which formerly
occupied the whole of
India we find n in the first personal pronoun. It is
almost as pronounced in
the distant dispersions of that people as in their
original. It is always n. And
in the second person the n is almost as persistent. But
let us turn now to the northern branches of the
Turanian family which inhabit
northern and western Asia today. 1st
person 2nd person
1st person 2nd person E.
Turkish
men sen
Ostiak..............
ma .......... nen Turkoman
man
Somoiede .... man
tan [page 56] Khivan
mam
Mongol.........
bi (from mi) tchi W. Turkish
.......... ben
Manchu ........ bi “
si Finnish
mina
se
Magyar
te Lappish
mon
ton
Calmuck
.......
dzi Votiak.................
mon ton Here
in every case we find the first person in m right up
to the very borders of
Korea. There seems to be absolutely no people of
northern Asia who form the
pronoun otherwise. And in the second person we find
that nearly all these
northern tribes have followed the lead of the Aryans
in the use of t or s for
the second person. The
oldest evidence that we have is the Behistun tablet
which is indisputably
Turanian or Scythian. Unfortunately the first personal
pronoun does not there
appear but the second is ni which would indicate that
the form in n was the
original Turanian one. If so it is not improbable that
while the southern
branch of that great family passed into India before
the genesis of a
distinctly Aryan stock, the northern branch did not
pass northward till after a
considerable admixture with the Aryans had taken
place, for both the m of the
first person and the t or s of the second person are
striking features of the
Indo-European languages. We
find then that between the Korean pronouns and those
of the Southern Turanian
dispersion there is practical identity while between
the Korean and the North
Asian peoples there are no marks of similarity
whatever. There is no
distinctively first personal pronoun in Japanese but
the fact that the pronoun
of the second person is Anata strengthens us in the
belief that both Japanese
and Korean are far off echoes of a southern tongue
which at some period
enormously remote dominated the primitive world. The
New
Century. P’yung
Yang.
Laved
on
the west by the waters of the Yellow Sea, bounded on
the north and south by
the Yalu and Ta-dong Rivers respectively and cut off
from the east by a
magnificent range of mountains lies a land [page 57]
of great natural beauty.
Though not heavily wooded there are still groves of
pine which increase in size
and frequency as one goes north, while fringing most
of the kills and mountains
is a thin line of sentinel pines which are reminders
of a time when northern
Korea was one unbounded forest. It extends from
Po-reup San in the south near
Chin-nam-p’o northward into the mountain fastnesses
where deer and leopard are
rarely startled by the footsteps of men until in a
fitting climax we reach the
Ever White Mountains where legend places the
miraculous birth of the first King
of Korea. This
broad stretch of country is inhabited by a people
whose sturdy characteristics
augur well for the regeneration of a nation which has
usually been denominated
mediocre. They possess in a degree the usual
characteristics of the Korean,
among which are hospitality, an imagination that
frequently ignores the limits
of fact, love of family, an inadequate idea of the
value of time, and a high
sense of humor; and yet they possess enough of the
positive virtues to make
them the most rugged, industrious and promising type
in Korea. The
commercial centers of this region are Chin-nam-p’o,
P’yung-yang and Eui-ju.
Until very lately Chin-nam-p’o had only a few
straggling huts but now since the
opening of the port to foreign commerce it is
estimated to have a population of
15000 exclusive of the Japanese and the Chinese in the
foreign concession. The
only westerners there at present are the genial
Commissioner of Customs, Mr. L.
A. Hopkins and his wife. Reports show ever increasing
quantities and values of
exports and imports. An inspiring sight for Americans
is “Old Glory” floating
at the mastheads of a fleet of schooners lying at
anchor in the harbor. These
together with a beautiful little steamer form the
registered transportation
fleet of the O. C. M. Co., of which Capt. E. S.
Barstow is the efficient
superintendent. The
history of this region takes us back over 3000 years
to times contemporaneous
with King David, when Ki-ja came from China and made
P’yong-yang his capital.
But legend takes us back many a century before that
and leads us into many a
seductive by-way. The first outside influence of note
was the massacre of the
crew of the General Sherman in 1866. [page 58] One
of men on that boat had come for the special purpose
of preaching the Gospel
and many facts as to his sincerity and purpose have
been brought out in
conversation with one of the Korean participants in
that unhappy affair. But
the important epoch in this region began when the
Japanese gained their victory
over the Chinese on July 15, 1894. This victory of
superior guns and methods
inaugurated an era of new ideas, and since that time
there has been a rapid
development in the modernization of the district. The
three great forces which
are contributing to this internal as well as material
uplift are; first
agriculture, which, stimulated by the opening of the
port and the outside
demand for food stuffs, has helped to disseminate new
ideas and to break up the
exclusiveness of ages; second the granting of mining
concessions, which has
greatly aided in the work of waking up the Koreans to
a true idea of the
possibilities of their country; and third but not
least, missionary enterprise,
of which more presently. From
a well-nigh deserted and demolished city which war and
pestilence left in 1895,
P’yung-yang has gained in population and trade until
now at the opening of the
new Century it has a population of nearly 100,000
people whose earnestness and
thrift are a guarantee of still greater commercial
success. This commercial
success is augmented by a constant stream of money
brought in by the mining
companies and paid out by thousands a month to their
employees. Of
the two great mining companies that known as “The
Wun-san Mines of Korea,”
which includes “The Oriental Consolidated Mining Co.,”
“The Jenessie Mining Co.”
and “The Korean Mining and Development Co.” has been
longest at work. Under the
able direction of H. F. Meserve, General Manager, it
has three mills in
successful operation. They are situated at
Chittabally, Kok-san-dong and
Tabowie, the first being about three miles from the
Un-san magistracy and the
other about twenty-five miles distant. Some fifty
Americans and British are in
charge of the various departments of work and besides
the hundreds of Koreans
there are also a number of Japanese and Chinese
employed. The good-will of
these Americans and British toward missionary work is
shown by the fact that
they donate $250 annually to the hospital in
P’yung-yang which is in charge of
Dr. J. H. Wells. [page 59] The
British Mining concession in the hands of “The Eastern
Pioneer Co.” is opening
up work at its mines in Eun-san under the skillful
management of Mr. Gustave
Braecke, General Manager. Discoveries of coal and
copper, in addition to the
gold, promise big things for the future. A dozen
foreigners and a large gang of
Koreans and Japanese are at work. These
great industrial enterprises are exerting a great
influence over the material
welfare of this northern region. Money is plentiful
and all lines of human
effort feel the effect. All this would nave been lost
had not these concessions
been granted. P’yung-yang
is almost surrounded by outcroppings of coal and a few
attempts at surface
mining have been made. It is of little value for
steaming but as a stove coal
it is excellent. Lack of enterprise on the part of
those who have the work in
hand has prevented any large development of this
industry. It could be laid
down in Seoul at $10 a ton and show a handsome profit. A
considerable amount of timber is floated down the
river but as yet the large
local demand has absorbed it all. Logs that bring
twenty dollars apiece in
Seoul are sold here for two dollars and a half. Of
what has been accomplished as a result of missionary
effort the printed
reports, available to those who wish to see them show
a most remarkable advance
when we consider the period during which such efforts
have been made. At the
present moment the Presbyterian Church has adherents
to the number of 11000 and
the Methodist workers have about 2300 under their
care. As to the number of
Roman Catholics we have no figures at hand but as they
have a number of foreign
workers in these parts their following must be
considerable. Commercially,
industrially and religiously, therefore, this section
presents a picture which
prompts an optimistic view. What agricultural, mining
and missionary effort
have already done for the material and spiritual
benefit of these people is but
a sign and a beginning of what is to be. The
grappling, by the Western Powers,
of the great Eastern Question will help to ensure the
Koreans against any
intolerable political conditions either from without
or from within and [page 60]
leaves her free to work out the great problems of
human destiny unhindered and
uncoerced. Wun-san. Near
the
center of Korea’s 650 miles of eastern coast line and
about half way between
Fusan and Vladivostock lies Yung-hung Bay, or
Broughton Bay, a superb natural
harbor in the south western portion of which lies the
Port Wun-san. The
northern arm of the bay is known as Port Lazareff,
coupled for so many years
with Russia’s desire for an outlet on the Pacific. The
whole inlet covers forty
square miles, affording anchorage for a goodly portion
of the world’s navies.
It is sheltered on all sides by mountains and its
mouth is well guarded by
islands. It is easy of entrance, has an average depth
of about nine fathoms
with good holding ground and is free from ice in
winter. Near the bay are five
or six towns of some importance, the largest of which
Wun-san with a population
of about 15000. The
natural scenery and climate of Wun-san are unequalled
by that of any other port
in Korea and is surpassed by that of very few places
anywhere. The beech, in
some places bold and rocky, is however for the most
part low and sandy,
affording the best of sea bathing; Back of the beach
are winding valleys formed
by low mountain spurs among which are miles of winding
paths where the
horseman, pedestrian or bicyclist can enjoy a constant
succession of ocean,
mountain and valley scenery. The massive mountain
chain which follows the
contour of the coast here, approaches within twelve
miles of the sea and its
peaks are capped with snow for more than half the
year. Within
two days’ journey from the port there are many spots
of unquestioned grandeur
and beauty about which many a legend has been woven.
From this neighborhood the
kings of Ancient Korea are said to have sprung and it
is the original home of
the founder of the present dynasty. The Monastery
Suk-wang Sa, twenty miles
away, was erected five hundred years ago by that King
over the spot when he
received the “Divine Message” to rule. Here he spent
his early youth and many
of the magnificent trees that grace the spot are said
to have been planted by
his hand. In a sacred building are preserved his robes
of state. Nearby, at
Yung-hung, are the tombs of his ancestor. [page 61] The
climate of Wunsan is fine and healthful. The heat of
summer is tempered by sea
breezes and the nights are always cool. Here Korea’s
matchless autumn sky
continues through the winter and the dryness of the
atmosphere greatly modifies
the cold. The mean annual temperature is 53.3o Fahr.
The mean for the summer is
73o and for the winter 29o. Wun-san is slightly cooler
than Chemulpo in summer
and a trifle warmer in winter. The rainfall in Wun-san
is forty-four inches, a
little greater than 011 the west coast, the snow
frequently attains a depth of
three or four feet. Game of many kinds abounds, both
in the shape of bird and
beast. Wunsan
was opened to commerce with the Japanese in 1880 and
to the trade of all
nations in 1883. The course and value the home and
foreign trade are given in
the following tables, which are compiled from the
Annual Returns and Decennial
Reports published by the Customs. Comparative
Table. Years
1885-1889
1890-1894
1895-1899
1900... Total
Imports, Foreign..
3,438,968.....
3,711,628..... 6,934,850.....
1,440,527.. Total
Imports, Native.
776,244.....
1,784,894..... 2,421,469.....
431,911.. Total
Exports, Foreign..
571,837.....
1,024,652..... 2,105,684.....
814,183.. Total
Exports, Native...
747,034.....
1,914,525..... 2,575,893.....
661,780.. Gold
Exports
2,685,326.....
2,987,399..... 4,927,733.....
1,425,570.. Total
net Revenue
254,198,36..
309,259,74.. 6OO,555.69.. 138,104,99 As
to imports, foreign piece goods advanced from 883,556
pieces between 18901894
to 2,775,057 in 1895-1899, while in the same time
native piece goods dropped
from 1,029,964 pieces to 92,649. Matches advanced from
44,381 gross to 254,016
gross. Kerosene oil from 668,260 gal. to 1,326,870
gal. As
to exports, beans advanced from 323,415 piculs between
1891-1894 to 556,313
between 1895-1899, nearly all other products showed a
distinct falling off,
excepting whale’s flesh, which advanced form $90,782
between 1895-1899 to
$178,141 in 1900 alone. The
foreign trade is in the hands of the Japanese of whom
there are 1600 and of the
Chinese who number seventy. The native town has nearly
doubled in population
since the opening of the port. Of Westerners there are
twenty-three adults and
eleven children. The Customs staff were the first
foreigners here. Of the
original staff only one, Mr. J. Knott, now remains. The
first missionary in the place was Rev. M. C. Fenwick
who arrived in 1891
followed in 1894 by W. B. McGill, M. D. [page 62] He
is the first medical missionary in Korea who can boast
of an entirely
self-supporting native practice. Probably no other
itinerant either native or
foreign has been so successful in the selling of
scriptures and tracts. The
work of the American Presbyterian Mission (North)
which was begun in 1892
passed into the hands of the Canadian Presbyterian
Mission in 1899 and the
latter is represented by three families and a single
lady worker. Work has been
recently opened by the Methodist Mission (South) whose
present representative
came to Wun-san in 1892 as a missionary of the
Canadian Colleges’ Mission. The
district worked from this center comprises both the
northern and southern
portions of Ham-gyung Province but Kang-wun Province
to the south as well.
Mission work here has been subjected to many
disadvantages, change and
interruptions but in spite of this regular services
are held at five or six
points in and about the port with an average total
attendance of about 200,
more than half of whom are communicants. With the
exception of the medical work
above referred to and the opening of one or two day
schools the work has been
purely evangelistic. The
Roman Catholic Church is represented by one priest but
of the scope and success
of their work we have no definite information. Among
the few interesting events that have occurred here
mention should be made of
the great fire of 1891 and the landing of Japanese
troops at the opening of the
China Japan war in the summer of 1894. Excellent
steamship services have been established with Japan,
China and Siberia.
Telegraphic communication with Seoul and with the
world at large was
established in 1891 and during 1900 the line has been
extended northward
ninety-three miles to the port of Song-jin, which was
opened to foreign trade
in May 1899. Odds
and
Ends. Rip
Van
Winkle. Here
is
a tale that the ambitious ethnologist might use to
prove that the Korean is
own brother to the good old Dutch of New York, and the
man who gibes at chess
can use it for a text. [page 63] Pak-suni
the wood-chopper knocked the ashes out of his pipe,
stood up and stretched,
pulled his waist cord tight and deftly knotted it. It
was high time he was off
to get that load of brushwood or his Xantippe of a
wife was like to clout him
over the head with a pagaji. ‘Tis ever thus, he
thinks, the man and master has
to slave while lazy women folk stand about the
neighborhood well and gossip. Reaching
backwards with prehensile toe he secures his straw
sandal and shouldering his
jigi saunters up the hill path humming that good old
strain “With
shoe on foot and staff in hand, I’m
starting out to view the land. By
mountain, river, glen, A
thousand li will seem but ten.” As
he ascends the low scrub growth thickens till he
enters a grove of pines every
one of which is sacred because of that round mound
over yonder with a flat
stone table in front and a semicircular bank behind
and half embracing it. To
cut down one of these trees would be like cutting off
one of the spines in the
back of the great dragon that fills the supernatural
foreground of the Korean’s
mental view. So he trudged on over, the hills till he
reached a secluded dell
where no one could hear the ring of his axe. He had
laid down his axe and
deposited his ji-gi on the ground and was in the act
of tightening his loin
string again preparatory to work when at a distance he
spied two old men seated
on the ground beneath a great nent-ti tree playing
chess. This was a curious
place to be playing chess; he must go and see what it
all meant. He approached
the players with, a deprecatory cough for salutation
but as they did not look
up nor seem to be cognizant of his presence he sat
down with his hands about
his knees to watch the progress of the game. It had
reached a very critical
point and he did not wonder that the players studied
long and carefully before
putting finger to piece. The
bright sun was sifting down through leaves and the
wind made a soothing murmur,
and it was not long before the Pak-suni’s head fell
forward on his breast and
he fell into a deep sleep. How long he slept he did
not know when one of the
players throwing forward a knight said in a voice like
that of a great bell: [page
64] “Chang.” Pak-suni
woke with a start. He saw the game had made some
progress and one of the
contestants had indeed put the other’s king in check.
He watched a few moments
longer and then dozed off again. Four times he was
aroused by the challenging “Chang”
of the players but at last he slept so soundly that
the game went on to the end
without his waking. When
at last he opened his eyes and looked about he felt
cold and stiff and the sun
was setting. He looked at his clothes and wondered
whether those chess players
were not after all only a pair of rascals who had
bewitched him long enough to
steal his good clothes and leave these rags in their
place. He
got up with difficulty and tottered to the place where
he had left his axe and
ji-gi. Of the latter nothing remained, but on the
ground he found an old rusty
axe head without a handle. Muttering
imprecations against the two old imposters and
trembling at thought of what his
wife would say he made his way homeward. As he entered
the once familiar street
he seemed to be at a loss to find his bearings. Surely
that house by the bridge
had not been newly thatched in a single day. The dog
which turned tail skulked
through the hole in a door and then yapped back at him
was not the right dog
for that hole. A knot of neighbors was gathered about
the door-way of the
village hostelry but none of them seemed familiar.
They turned and looked at
him curiously. “Whom
are you looking for, old gentleman?” asked one, taking
his pipe from between
his teeth. “I’m
looking for—for—” and he named one of his neighbors. “He’s
been dead these fifteen years. His son lives here but
he has gone up to Seoul
with a load of bean cakes.” The bewildered man looked
about the group of
strange faces and then asked: “Do
any of you know Pak-suni the wood chopper?” “Hush!”
said one, “don’t say that name so loud,” and lowering
his voice to a whisper, “When
I was a boy my mother told me that he went out one day
to gather wood and never
came back. We believe that he tried to cut down [page
65] one of the pines up
there by the grave and the devils got after him and
carried him away.” “I’m
Pak-suni” As
if they had heard a word from the grave they leaped
back and ran every way
tumbling over each other and fighting for first place.
The air was full of
wooden shoes and curses. Old Pak-suni for he was also
no longer young, burst
out laughing at the ludicrous sight, which only
intensified the horror of the
situation for the fugitives. In a trice the street was
cleared and the forlorn
old man stood there alone. But presently down the
muddy street came an old
toothless woman carrying a bundle of washing on her
head. As she passed the old
man said, “Can you tell me where I can find Paksuni’s
wife? She’s
my―ahem—niece.” The woman turned and stared. “I’m
not your niece, what do you mean?” He stepped forward
so that she could see him
clearly. ‘‘Don’t
you know me? I’m Pak-suni.” The aged crone let fall
the bundle of clothes and
springing forward seized her long neglectful lord by
the remnant of his once
luxuriant top-knot and hauled him down the street
demanding with each step why
he had run away and left her to slave all these years. He
enjoyed this. Here at least was one thing that, among
all the changes, had not
changed. He feared that he had been transported to
some other world but this
brought his feet down flat upon the earth. The
neighbors lay awake that night
listening with abated breath while she plied him
alternately with her tongue
and with a hong-duk-ka. From
that time on let those who will, believe that life
went smoothly for this
Korean Rip Van Winkle. The
First
Bicycle
Orientals
are not so highly impressed by the products of western
industry as we sometimes
think they ought to be. If you say to the Korean,
“Look at our submarine boat,”
he yawns and answers “O yes, we had one here some
three hundred years ago. It
was an Ironclad in the shape of a tortoise and could
go on the surface or below
as well. We used it to drive back the Japanese
reinforcements at the time of
our little trouble with Hideyoshi.” You look blank and
ask, “But why then did
not you keep on and improve your boat and get all the
good results [page 66] from
your great invention?” He smiles and says, “You
westerners look at these things
differently from us. After the need for the craft had
passed we simply threw it
away. If occasion should again arise someone would
make another, perhaps a
better one. Now you westerners keep making these
expensive things and using up
your revenues in repairs and maintenance. That is like
keeping a fan in your
hand from the end of summer clear around to the
beginning of next summer simply
because you are going to need it then.” You try him
again: “But just look at
our wonderful bridges.” “O yes but they are only
needed here in emergencies.
Our ferrymen have to live you know. When we really
need one we make it, as when
the Chinese demanded that we bridge the Im-jin River
some centuries ago to
expedite the crossing of their army. At that time we
built a suspension bridge
a hundred and fifty yards lone in a few days but after
it was done and we had
reaped the benefit there was no use in paying out good
money to keep the bridge
up just for ordinary people. So we let it fall of its
own weight.” You
make one more effort, “But there is the bicycle.” He
actually laughs at your
impressive tone and answers, “Shall I tell you why we
gave up bicycles? Well it
happened this way. It was in the days of Mencius, if I
am not mistaken, that a
man in China invented the bicycle. It was made o£ wood
and it had two different
sets of mechanisms. One was to use when you went
somewhere and the other was to
use when you came back. One day the inventor took off
the “coining- back”
attachment and took it indoors to readjust it in some
way. Unfortunately his
mother passed a moment later and seeing the bicycle
leaning against the house
she thought it would be a fine chance for a spin; so
she mounted and started
off, and that was the last that was ever heard of hen
Naturally the absence of
the “coming-back’’ attachment made it impossible to
come-back. Knowing what you
do, of our feeling toward our parents it is not
necessary to indicate why we
have never since then made use of that interesting
machine.” It is to be hoped
that this startling tale will leave you strength
enough to wonder what became
of the old lady and whether she may not still be going
like the Wandering Jew.
From what we know of the roads in China she ought to
have reached [page 67] Kashgar
by this time, unless she has had a puncture meanwhile,
(ungenerous thought!) We
would put it out just as a suggestion to our
globe-cycling mends that they keep
their eyes open for her for there are without doubt
papers in America that
would gladly print the details―for instance whether
she uses the free wheel or
the bevel gear, and it may be that some of our ladies’
fashion papers would be
glad to know whether she wears—but the subject of
female apparel is quite too
erudite for us. Seat
of
Intelligence.
The
foreign teacher stood before his Korean class and
proceeded to explain that the
seat of intelligence is the brain. No sooner had he
made this revolutionary
proposition than half of his class jumping to their
feet pressed their thumbs
inward against their stomachs and exclaimed “No, here,
here.” The teacher
frowned but a moment later he smiled a far-away sort
of smile and looking into
their faces replied musingly, “Well—possibly—yes in
isolated cases.” Tight Lacing. It
is the part of wisdom to accept truth from whatever
source it comes. We never
knew why it was that ants have such small waists but
our mental opacity was
pierced by the following Korean ray of light. An
earth-worm in reckless mood determined to embark upon
the stormy sea of
matrimony, so he called in the ant to act as
go-between and secure him the
maiden of his choice, or rather her’s. The ant
accepted the charge and picked
out for him a young and blithesome centipede but
failed to inform either party
as to the genus of the other. After the preparations
were well under way the
ant was sitting one day with the prospective bride
descanting upon the virtues
of her chosen husband when the young centipede asked
what form of insect her
future lord might be. The ant replied that he was an
earth-worm. The centipede
drew back in horror. “What a great, long, slimy
earth-worm? I never, never
could have the patience to make pa-jis for such a long
shanked fellow as he.
Thereupon the ant went into a hopeless fit of laughter
and had to run directly
to Sir Earth-worm and relate the joke. He took it in
high dudgeon. “And what or
who is she that she should jibe at my shape?” “She is
a centipede,” replied [page
68] the ant. “A centipede,” he roared, “what were you
thinking of? Do you
suppose I am willing to slave night and day to earn
enough to keep a centipede
in shoes?” Whereat the ant, oblivious of the domestic
tragedy that was
impending fell to laughing again so hard that she was
afraid she would split
her sides; so she seized a rope and wound it tightly
about her. But when her
paroxysm of laughter was over and she unwound the rope
she found to her dismay
that her waist was hopelessly constricted. Question
and
Answer. (5) Question.
I observed one day that when a
high official alighted from his chair his servant
offered his hand as a support
but before doing so covered his hand with the skirt of
his coat. Is there any
caste significance in this and is it a common custom? Answer.
This is sometimes done by outside servants when
assisting their masters but
there is no binding law of etiquette to this effect.
It is cannot be said to be
common and yet it is not so uncommon as to excite
comment or observation by
Koreans themselves. (6)
Question. Is tobacco indigenous in Korea? Answer.
No. It was about three hundred years ago that the
Japanese received it from the
Spanish. The Japanese brought it to Korea shortly
after and the Manchus who
invaded Korea two centuries and a half ago obtained it
from the Koreans. During
all these wanderings it has retained its name nearly
intact, being called
ta-ba-go in Japan tam-p’a-kwe in China and simply
tam-ba in Korea. (7)
Question. How many periodicals are published in the
Korean language at the
present time? Answer.
It is of value to record the fact that at the
beginning of the century there
are six publications in the Korean language. Two of
them, the Whang-sung
Sin-mun and the Che-guk Sin-mun, are published in
Seoul tinder Korean [page 69]
editorship, two of them, the Han-sung Sin-mun of Seoul
and the Cho-sun Shin-po
of Chemulpo are published by Japanese, and the
remaining two, the Christian
News of Seoul and the Sin-hak Wul-bo of Chemulpo are
edited by Americans, The
former is an eight page weekly edited by Rev. H. G.
Underwood, D. D., and the
latter is a forty page monthly magazine edited by Rev.
Geo. Heber Jones of
Chemulpo. (8)
Question. Why do Koreans bury an unmarried girl in the
middle of the road? Answer.
Improbable though it may seem, this curious custom
prevails in Chul-la Do, such
graves having been seen by several Missionaries.
Whether it prevails in other
parts of Korea, the writer is unable to say. Two
explanations are given, of which the following seems
the more satisfactory.
According to Eastern ideas the life of a girl who dies
unmarried has been an
utter and complete failure, a disappointment only;
therefore it is to be
expected that in the next world her spirit will be
restless and revengeful. To
prevent this, she is not buried on the hillside among
those whose lives have
been happy and prosperous, but in the center of the
public road, where all
passers-by may trample her spirit under their feet and
thus keep it in
subjection. Editorial
Comment. The
Korea
Review Album One
of the most serious embarrassments to the writer on
Korean topics is the lack
of proper illustrations. One good photo-graph-will
often tell more than two pagesof
the best written manuscript. As the KOREA REVIEW is
gotten up with the view of
furnishing information about Korea we do not see how
we can get along without
illustrating. On the other hand we do not see how on
our present modest
financial basis we can furnish illustrations to our
subscribers. The result of
this dilemma is that we have decided to publish what
we shall call The Korea
Review Album, of Korean pictures. We have secured a
goodly number of choice
pictures on Korean scenery, customs, superstitions,
monuments, architecture,
punishments, [page 70] etc. etc. which will be
developed into half-tone plates
and printed on a heavy quality of paper of a size
suitable for insertion in an
album of good proportions or for mounting in frames if
so desired. Thirty
of these pictures will be issued with each yearly
number of the Korea Review.
In other words it will constitute the ILLUSTRATED
KOREA REVIEW. The additional
cost for these illustrations will be three yen a year.
The subscription to the
REVIEW itself will remain as before but the
ILLUSTRATED REVIEW will be seven
yen a year. To all who have subscribed for the REVIEW
these thirty pictures,
gotten up in the most attractive shape, will be
furnished for three yen extra. A
complete collection of these pictures will form the
most reliable work possible
on Korean life. It may be that the pictures can be put
out more rapidly than we
have indicated, in which case a complete album of
several hundred pictures can
be put out in a year’s time. If so, notice will be
given in good time to our
subscribers. Particular pains will be taken to secure
pictures of genuine value
and interest and there will be no duplicate pictures
nor two pictures bearing
on the same subject unless for very special reasons. In
the January 22nd issue of the Japan Daily Mail and in
the January 26th issue of
the weekly Mail there appeared an editorial dealing
with an article reported to
have been printed in Gunton’s Magazine. That article
was reviewed by a Mr. Yamaguchi
and it was upon quotations of Yamaguchi’s quotations
that the editorial above
mentioned was based. Judging from these quotations it
is certain that the
original article was wholly reprehensible both in
spirit and in expression.
Nothing that the Editor of the Mail says about these
wild statements is too
severe. No man with the rudiments either of common
sense or of common charity
could have made the statements there quoted nor can we
conceive of anyone
believing them however reliable may have seemed the
source from which they
came. We are in perfect agreement with the views of
the Editor of the Mail with
one single exception. We cannot agree with him as to
the identity of the man.
who published the statements of that missionary. It is
plain that the person
referred to by the Mail was the Editor of The Korea
Review, for there has been
no other man named H. B. [page 71] Hulbert who has
furnished the Japan Mail
with matter relating to Korea. Now
we wish to state most distinctly and categorically
that we had nothing whatever
to do with the article in question, nor do we know who
wrote it. The statements
there made are diametrically opposed to all our
notions of Japan. Furthermore
the person charged with this serious offence has not
written an article on Japan
since the year 1887 and then only on the ordinary
sights and sounds of that
country. He has never before heard of Gunton’s
Magazine nor does he know
whether it is an American or an English publication.
From the beginning of his
residence in the East in 1886 his attitude has been
one of entire friendliness
toward Japan and in his references to Japan in
articles on Korea will be found
evidence of the kindliest feelings for that country. The
article referred to must have been written by someone
with a very superficial
knowledge of the East and withal of a most credulous
mind. The serious mistake
of the Editor of the Japan Mail lay in his jumping to
the conclusion that
simply because the article was written by a Mr.
Hulbert it must necessarily be
this particular one. After confessing that he had not
seen the original article
he charges it up against us in language that in the
very proportion in which it
properly characterizes the real author in that same
proportion libels us. We
have no doubt that as soon as the Editor of the Japan
Mail learned of the
mistake he hastened to undo as far as possible the
injury which his negligence
had caused to a fellow journalist and a personal
acquaintance. The reputation
of the Japan Mail should be a sufficient guarantee
that no pains would be
spared to right such a wrong, especially when
committed against one who has
always been a warm friend and advocate of Japan. News
Calendar . G.
Hayashi Esq., the Japanese Minister, returned to Seoul
on the sixth inst. It
has been decided to station a Korean consul at Chefoo
but it is said that for
the present a French gentleman will act as
Vice-Consul. [page 72] We
are informed that the Household Department secured the
services of a German
physician. The
severe weather of the early days of February
necessarily occasioned great
suffering among prisoners. It is reported that two
boys succumbed to the cold. Advices
from Wun-san show that in that section the ground is
covered with four feet of
snow on the level. It
is interesting to note that during the year 1900 the
number of people
vaccinated in Korea was 46027. These cases were well
distributed over the
country, the remoter sections having rather more than
those neat the capital. We
are informed that before coining to Seoul as French
Minister Colin de Plancy
will be in Japan some five or six months. It
is reported that under the auspices of Mr. Yi Yong-ik
silver money is to be
minted by the Government. One
afternoon in December last Mrs. Jordan formerly of
Seoul gave an afternoon tea
to the “Korean” visitors at Lausanne, Switzerland.
Those present were Mr. and
Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Scranton and her daughters, Mrs.
Gibson, Mrs. Gale and her
daughters, Miss Everett, Dr. and Baldock and Rev. H.
G. Appenzeller and family. The
articles carried from Korea for exhibition in Paris
did not find a ready sale
and in view of the heavy expense of shipment they have
been stored in France
for the present. It
was found a short time since that the prefectures of
North Kyung-sang Province
were six years in arrears in their subscriptions to
the Official Gazette. The
aggregate sum was over a thousand dollars. For this
remissness the governor was
ordered to be reprimanded. Such is the unhappy
predicament of those who
postpone the inevitable day. The
Emperor of Japan has conferred upon the Prince
Imperial of Korea the order of
the Chrysanthemum, The decoration was brought to Korea
by the Japanese
Minister. There
have been so many applications for licenses of
incorporation of Korean
companies that the Ministry of commerce has decided to
discontinue the granting
of such licenses [page 73] Gen.
Yun the newly appointed Governor of South Chul-la
Province passed through Mok-p’o
the other day on his way to his new pest. The
great piles of rice that lie upon the bund of Mok-p’o
give evidence of the
growing importance of the port. Of late the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha boats have not
been stopping at this port but they will not be able
long to pass without
calling. The
astonishing enterprise of the Japanese is evinced in
their erection at Mok-po
of one of the finest foreign buildings in Korea. They
are beyond doubt the “Yankees”
of the East. A
bold band of armed robbers surrounded the station and
village of Oricol and
looted them. A telegram for help was sent to Chemulpo
and a special train of
policemen and soldiers was sent up but by the time it
arrived the robbers had
disappeared. It
is reported that the Japanese have secured a fine site
on a hill outside the
city of P’yung-yang for their Consulate and other
buildings, that a regular
post office is to be established in April, the mails
at present going through
the Consulate, and that the site for the Japanese
settlement is to be outside
the South Gate. A
Memorial Service was held in the English Church, Seoul
on 2nd February, the day
on which the remains of the much-beloved Queen
Victoria were laid in the
mausoleum at Frogmore near Windsor. The lessons were
taken from the 44th
chapter of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, “Let us now
praise famous men, etc;”
from the 5th chapter of the Gospel of John and from
the 15th chapter of 1st
Corinthians. The rest of the service was choral and
included hymns 401, 140,
and 398 in Hymns Ancient and Modern. The officiating
clergyman was the Rev. M.
N. Trollope, assisted by the Rev. F. R. Hillary.
Several Korean officials were
present on behalf the Emperor of Korea. All the
Legations were represented by
their respective Ministers. The general community was
also largely represented. Since
writing the editorial note relative to charges made
against us by the Japan Mail
we learn with some satisfaction that the editor of
that paper has so far
retracted his state- [page 74] ments as to publish our
telegram denying the
charges, and to state that he is glad they are not
true. It is pleasant to know
that he is glad. We should have expected that his
gladness would be tempered
with a certain degree of chagrin at having made what
proves to be a sheer
blunder. But irrespective of this the main-point was
the public denial of the
gross charges. This having been done the incident is
closed. We are too
conscious of editorial fallibility ourselves to be
censorious. The pleasant
review of our first number in the Mail shows that the
relations between that
paper and the Korea Review are as cordial as need be. The
Kisogawa Maru which arrived at Chemulpo on the 21st
inst brought eighteen
American men who are bound for the mines at Un-san.
The run from Mok-p’o to
Chemulpo was exceedingly rough. The monotony of ship
life was broken by the
failing of the large saloon lamp which threatened to
cause a considerable
blaze. But the prompt application of the biceps
Americanus prevented such a
catastrophe. Fire at sea, especially in a storm, is
one of those things that
are more interesting to read about than to experience. The
Korean Government has secured the services of Franz
Eckert, Kgl. Preussischer
Musik direktor, to organize an Imperial Band in Seoul.
Mr. Eckert who arrived
on Feb. 19th was employed for twenty years by the
Japanese government in a
similar capacity, and we cannot doubt that his long
experience in the East will
be of great value in training Koreans. That experience
combined with the Korean’s
taste for music will, we doubt not, result in air
excellent band. Robbery
is not confined to the country districts. We are sorry
to learn that the
Methodist Publishing House has been broken into and
three valuable founts of
matrices stolen. A bicycles is also missing from the
residence of Mr. Gale. Up
to the moment of going to press there was no definite
news about the condition
of Dr. Johnson of Ta-gu. The combination of gastritis,
pneumonia and typhus
renders his condition very grave. Both Dr. Irvin and
Rev. Mr. Ross of Fu-san
have gone to Ta-gu. But we are still permitted to hope
that medical science
will prevail and that Providence through this
instrumentality will restore a
valuable worker to his post. [page 75] We
are putting out with this number a full statement of
our plan for a Korea
Review Album. We are of the opinion that public
patronage will render this
attempt to picture Korea to the outer world a success.
A few hundred selected
pictures of Korean scenery, monuments, customs, and
the like can do more to
give a correct notion of what this country and people
are like than any amount
of writing can do. Thirty photogravure pictures will
be published with this
year’s magazine. It will constitute the Illustrated
Korea Review. On
the 10th inst. a very charming entertainment was given
in the Seoul Union
Reading Rooms, consisting of charades and tableaus by
the Children. The
costumes were very gay and the afternoon was voted a
complete success. No small
part of the credit for this success is due to Mr.
Sands who spared no pains in
getting up the handsome costumes which the small
people wore. We
are pleased to learn that, after the inevitable delay,
Prof Frampton has signed
his contract with the Government as Head Master of the
English Language School. Lady
Om sent several hundred blankets to the Police
Department on the 15th inst. to
be distributed among the prisoners. The
native papers state that the amount of domestic mail
matter that passed through
the Korean Post office during 1900 was 1,308,627
pieces. The
Educational Department has been requested by the Law
Department so select ten
suitable men from among the students of the French
language as a nucleus of a
new Law School which is contemplated. Early
ill the month three hundred guns and ten thousand
rounds of ammunition which
the Government had ordered from Germany arrived in
Chemulpo. A
Russian Red Cross Hospital ship, carrying 150 wounded
Russian soldiers, entered
Ma-san-p’o on the 5th inst. On
the 20th inst. Mr. Yamadza, Secretary of the Japanese
Legation left Seoul en
route for Japan. The
Superintendent of the Seoul Fusan R. R. arrived in
Chemulpo from Japan on the
19th inst. [page 76] The
disagreement between the Korean and Japanese rice
merchants in Chemulpo seems
to have reached a critical stage. The native papers
say that the Korean
merchants have formed an agreement to sell no more
rice to Japanese except upon
a strictly cash basis. The Japanese have likewise
determined to pay no more
money in advance to Koreans for rice. In the past the
Japanese have frequently
lost heavily by paying for rice crops far in advance
and Koreans likewise have
lost by giving rice to the Japanese on credit. It will
be a good things for
both parties to come down to a “spot cash” basis. That
will put an end to the
difficulties on both sides. On
Wednesday the 20th instant a General Meeting of the
Korea Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society was held at the Seoul Union Reading
Room. The paper of the day
was by Rev. M, N. Trollope and his subject was
Kang-wha. A long residence on
that island has made him an authority on its
geography, history and folk-lore.
The paper was consequently of extreme interest. After
a careful description of
the geography and topography of the island there
followed an account of all the
monuments and other historical remains in which it
abounds and filially a
graphic account of the more important epochs in its
history. It appears that in
spite of the unexampled spread of the Mongol power,
even to the banks of the
Danube, they never conquered the island of Kang-wha.
Nor was it because they
did not try. Mongol armies more than once encamped oil
the opposite mainland
and by threat and promise tried to induce the King to
return to Song-do but
they never ventured across the water. It was due to
their ignorance of boats
and of navigation that saved Kanawha from their
ravages. The
Society is to be congratulated on securing a paper of
the highest scholarly
grade on a subject that is perhaps as fascinating and
important as any in
connection with Korea. By
a mistake in proof reading one foot was dropped from
the third line of the
quatrain in the story of Rip Van Winkle under the
heading Odds and Ends. The
line should read: By
mountain, river, glade and glen. [page 77] Chapter
III.—Continued. In
the autumn of that year the two generals, Yang-bok and
Sun-ch’i, invaded Korea
at the head of a strong force: but U-gu was ready for
them and in the first
engagement scattered the invading army, the remnants
of which took refuge among
the mountains. It was ten days before they rallied
enough to make even a good
retreat. U-gu was frightened by his own good luck for
he knew that this would
still further anger the Emperor; so when an envoy came
from China the king
humbled himself, confessed his sins and sent his son
to China as hostage
together with a gift of 5,000 horses. Ten thousand
troops accompanied him. As
these troops were armed, the Chinese envoy feared
there might be trouble after
the Yalu had been crossed. He therefore asked the
Prince to have them disarmed.
The latter thought he detected treachery and so tied
at night and did not stop
until he reached his father’s palace in P’yung-yang,
The envoy paid for this
piece of gaucherie with his head. Meanwhile
Generals Yang-bok and Sun-ch’i had been scouring
Liao-tung and had collected a
larger army than before. With this they crossed the
Ya-lu and marched on P’yung-yang.
They met with no resistance, for U-gu had collected
all his forces at the
capital, hoping perhaps that the severity of the
weather would tire out any
force that might be sent against him. The siege
continued two months during,
which time the two generals quarreled incessantly.
When the Emperor sent Gen,
Kong Son-su to see what was the matter, Ger. Sun-chi
accused his colleague of
treason and had him sent back to China, where he lost
his head. The siege,
continued by Gen. Sun-ch’i, dragged on till the
following summer and it would
have continued longer had not traitor within the town
assassinated the king and
fled to the Chinese camp. Still the people refused to
make terms until another
traitor opened the gates to the enemy. Gen. Sun-ch’i’s
first act was to compel
Prince Chang, the heir apparent, to do obeisance. But
the people had their
revenge upon the [page 78] traitor who opened the gate
for they fell upon him
and tore him to pieces before he could make good his
escape to the Chinese
camp. Upon
the downfall of Wi-man’s kingdom, the country was
divided by the Chinese into
four provinces called respectively Nang-nang, Im-dun,
Hyun-do and Chin-bun. The
first of these, Nang-nang, is supposed to have covered
that portion of Korea
now included in the three provinces of P’yung-an,
Whang-ha and Kyung-geui. Im-dun,
so far as we can learn, was located about as the
present province of Kang-wun,
but it may have exceeded these limits. Hyun-do was
about coterminous with the
present province of Ham-gyung in the northeast.
Chin-bun lay beyond the Yalu
River but its limits can hardly be guessed at. It may
have stretched to the
Liao River or beyond. It is exceedingly doubtful
whether the conquerors
themselves had any definite idea of the shape or
extent of these four
provinces. Twenty-five years later, in the fifth year
of Emperor Chao-ti 81 B.
C. a change in administration was made. Chin-bun and
Hyun-do were united to
form a new province called Pyung-ju, while Im-dun and
Nang-nang were thrown
together to form Tong-bu. In this form the country
remained until the founding
of Ko-gu-ryu in the twelfth year of Emperor Yuan-ti,
36 B. C. It
is here a fitting place to pause and ask what was the
nature of these wild
tribes that hung upon the flanks of civilization and,
like the North American
Indians, were friendly one day and on the war-path the
next. Very little can be
gleaned from purely Korean sources, but a Chinese work
entitled the Mun-hon T’ong-go
deals with them in some detail, and while there is
much that is quite fantastic
and absurd the main points tally so well with the
little that Korean records
say, that in their essential features they are
probably as nearly correct as
anything we are likely to find in regard to these
aborigines (shall we say) of
north-eastern Asia. Chapter
IV. The
wild tribes .... the “Nine Tribes” apocryphal ....
Ye-mak .... position ....
history .... customs .... Ye and Mak perhaps two ....
Ok-ju [page 79] ....
position .... history .... customs .... North Ok-jo
.... Eum-nu .... position
.... customs .... the western tribes .... the Mal-gal
group .... position ....
customs .... other border tribes. As
we have already seen, tradition gives us nine original
wild tribes in the
north, named respectively the Kyun, Pang, Whang, Pak,
Chuk, Hyun, P’ung, Yang,
and U. These we are told occupied the peninsula in the
very earliest times. But
little credence can be placed in this enumeration, for
when it comes to the
narration of events we find that these tribes are
largely ignored and numerous
other names are introduced. The tradition is that they
lived in Yang-gok, “The
Place of the Rising Sun.” In the days of Emperor
T’ai-k’an of the Hsia dynasty,
2188 B. C. the wild tribes of the east revolted. In
the days of Emperor
Wu-wang, 1122 B. C. it is Said that representatives
from several of the wild
tribes came to China bringing rude musical instruments
and performing their
queer dances. The Whe-i was another of the tribes, for
we are told that the
brothers of Emperor Wu-wang fled thither but were
pursued and killed. Another
tribe, the So-i, proclaimed their independence of
China but were utterly
destroyed by this same monarch. It
is probable that all these tribes occupied the
territory north of the Yalu
River and the Ever-white Mountains. Certain it is that
these names never occur
in the pagesof Korean history proper. Doubtless there
was more or less
intermixture and it is more than possible that their
blood runs in the veins of
Koreans today, but of this we cannot be certain. We
must call attention to one more purely Chinese notice
of early Korea because it
contains perhaps the earliest mention of the word
Cho-sun. It is said that in.
Cho-sun three rivers, the Chun-su, Yul-su, and San-su,
unite to form the
Yul-su, which flows by (or through) Nang-nang. This
corresponds somewhat with
the description of the Yalu River. We
now come to the wild tribes actually resident in the
peninsula and whose
existence can hardly be questioned, whatever may be
said about the details here
given. We
begin with the tribe called Ye-mak, about which there
are full notices both in
Chinese and Korean records. The Chinese accounts deal
with it as a single tribe
but the Korean accounts, which are more exact, tell us
that Ye and [page 80] Mak
were two separate “kingdoms.” In all probability they
were of the same stock
but separate in government. Ye-guk
(guk meaning kingdom) is called by some Ye-wi- guk. It
is also know as Ch’ul.
It was situated directly north of the kingdom of
Sil-la, which was practically
the present province of Kyung-sang, so its boundary
must have been the same as
that of the present Kang-wun Province. On the north
was Ok-ju, on the east the
Great Sea, and on the west Nang- nang. We may say then
that Ye-guk comprised
the greater portion of what is now Kang-wun Province.
To this day the ruins of
its capital may be seen to the east of the town of
Kang-neung. In the palmy
days of Ye-guk its capital was called Tong-i and
later, when overcome by
Sil-la, a royal seal was unearthed there and Ha-wang
the king of Sil-la adopted
it as his royal seal. After this town was incorporated
into Sil-la it was known
as Myung-ju. In
the days of the Emperor Mu-je, 140 B. C., the king of
Ye-guk was Nam-nyu. He
revolted from Wi-man’s rule and, taking a great number
of his people,
estimated, fantastically of course, at 380,000,
removed to Liao-tung, where the
Emperor gave him a site for a settlement at
Chang-ha-gun. Some accounts say
that this colony lasted three years. Others say that
after two years it
revolted and was destroyed by the Emperor, There are
indications that the
remnant joined the kingdom of Pu-yu in the north-east
for, according to one
writer, the seal of Pu-yu contained the words “Seal of
the King of Ye” and it
was reported that the aged men of Pu-yu used to say
that in the days of the Han
dynasty they were fugitives. There was also in Pu-yu a
fortress called the “Ye
Fortress.” From this some argue that Nam-nyu was not a
man of the east but of
the north. Indeed it is difficult to see how he could
have taken so many people
so far especially across an enemy’s country. When
the Chinese took the whole northern part of Korea, the
Ye country was
incorporated into the province of Im- dun and in the
time of the Emperor
Kwang-mu the governor of the province resided at
Kang-neung. The Emperor
received an annual tribute of grass-cloth, fruit and
horses. The
people of Ye-guk were simple and credulous, and not
naturally inclined to
warlike pursuits. They were modest [page 81] and
unassuming, nor were they fond
of jewels or finery. Their peaceful disposition made
them an easy prey to their
neighbors who frequently harassed them. In later times
both Ko-gu-ryu and
Sil-la used Ye-guk soldiers in part in effecting their
conquests. People of the
same family name did not intermarry. If a person died
of disease his house was
deserted and the family found a new place of abode. We
infer from this that
their houses were of a very poor quality and easily
built; probably little more
than a rude thatch covering a slight excavation in a
hill-side. The use of hemp
was known as was also that of silk, though this was
probably at a much later
date. Cotton was also grown and woven. By observing
the stars they believed
they could foretell a famine; from which we infer that
they were mainly an
agricultural people. In the tenth moon they worshipped
the heavens, during
which ceremony they drank, sang and danced. They also
worshipped the “Tiger
Spirit.” Robbery was punished by fining the offender a
horse or a cow. In
fighting they used spears, as long as three men and
not infrequently several
men wielded the same spear together. They fought
entirely on foot. The
celebrated Nang-nang bows were in reality of Ye-guk
make and were cut out of
pak-tal wood. The country was infested with leopards.
The horses were so small
that mounted men could ride under the branches of the
fruit trees without
difficulty. They sold colored fish skins to the
Chinese, the fish being taken
from the eastern sea. We
are confronted by the singular statement that at the
time of the Wei dynasty in
China, 220―294 A. D. Ye-guk swore allegiance to China
and despatched an envoy
four times a year. There was no Ye-mak in Korea at
that time and this must
refer to some other Ye tribe in the north. It is said
they purchased exemption
from military duty by paying a stipulated annual sum.
This is manifestly said
of some tribe more contiguous to China than the one we
are here discussing. Mak-guk,
the other half of Ye-mak, had its seat of government
near the site of the
present town of Ch’un-ch’un. Later, in the time of the
Sil-la supremacy, it was
known as U-su-ju. It was called Ch’un-ju in the time
of the Ko-ryu rule. The
ancient Chinese work, Su-jun, says that in the days
[page 82] of
Emperor Mu-song (antedating Ki-ja)
the people of Wha-ha Man-mak came and did obeisance to
China. This may have
been the Korean Mak. Mencius also makes mention of a
greater Muk and a lesser
Mak. In the time of the Han dynasty they spoke of
Cho-sun, Chin-bun and Ye-mak.
Mencius notice of a greater and lesser Mak is looked
upon by some as an insult
to the memory of Ki-ja, as if he had called Ki-ja’s
kingdom a wild country; but
the above mention of the three separately is quoted to
show that Mencius had no
such thought. The
annals of Emperor Mu-je state, in a commentary, that
Mak was north of Chin-han
and south of Ko-gu-ryu and Ok-ju and had the sea to
the east, a description
which exactly suits Ye-mak as we know it. The
wild tribe called Ok-ja occupied the territory east of
Ka-ma San and lay along
the eastern sea-coast, it was narrow and long,
stretching a thousand li along
the coast in the form of a hook. This well describes
the contour of the coast
from a point somewhat south of the present Wun-san
northward along the shore of
Ham-gyung Province. On its south was Ye-mak and on its
north were the wild
Eum-nu and Pu-yu tribes. It consisted of five thousand
houses grouped in
separate communities that were quite distinct from
each other politically, and
a sort of patriarchal government prevailed. The
language was much like that of
the people of Kogu-ryu. When
Wi-man took Ki-jun’s kingdom, the Ok-ju people became
subject to him, but
later, when the Chinese made the jour provinces, Ok-ju
was incorporated into
Hyun-do. As Ok-ju was the most remote of all the wild
tribes from the Chinese
capital, a special governor was appointed over her,
called a Tong-bu To-wi, and
his seat of government was at Pul-la fortress. The
district was divided into
seven parts, all of which were east of Tan-dan Pass,
perhaps the Ta-gwul Pass,
of to-day. In the sixth year of the Emperor Kwang-mu,
31 A. D., it is said that
the governorship was discontinued and native magnates
were put at the head of
affairs in each of the seven districts under the title
Hu or Marquis. Three of
the seven districts were Wha-ye, Ok-ju and Pul-la. It
is said that the people
of Ye-guk were called in to build the government
houses in these seven centers.
[page 83] When
Ko-gu-ryu took over all northern Korea, she placed a
single governor over all
this territory with the title Ta-in. Tribute was
rendered in the form of
grass-cloth, fish, salt and other sea products.
Handsome women were also
requisitioned. The land was fertile. It had a range of
mountains at its back
and the sea in front. Cereals grew abundantly. The
people are described as
being very vindictive. Spears were the weapons mostly
used in fighting. Horses
and cattle were scarce. The style of dress was the
same as that of Ko-gu-ryu. When
a girl reached the age of ten she was taken to the
home of her future husband
and brought up there. Having attained a marriageable
age she returned home and
her fiance then obtained her by paving the stipulated
price. Dead
bodies were buried in a shallow grave and when only
the bones remained. they
were exhumed and thrust into a huge hollowed tree
trunk which formed the family
“vault.” Many generations were thus buried in a single
tree trunk. The opening
was at the end of the trunk. A wooden image of the
dead was carved and set
beside this coffin and with it a bowl of grain. The
northern part of Ok-ju was called Puk Ok-ju or “North
Ok-ju.” The customs of
these people were the same as those of the south
except for some differences
caused by the proximity of the Eum-nu tribe to the
north, who were the Apaches
of Korea. Every year these fierce people made a
descent upon the villages of
the peaceful Ok-ju, sweeping everything before them.
So regular were these
incursions that the Ok-ju people used to migrate to
the mountains every summer,
where they lived in caves as best they could,
returning to their homes in the
late autumn. The cold of winter held their enemies in
check. We
are told that a Chinese envoy once penetrated these
remote regions. He asked “Are
there any people living beyond this sea?” (meaning the
Japan Sea.) They replied
“Sometimes when we go out to-fish and a tempest
strikes us we are driven ten
days toward the east until we reach islands where men
live whose language is
strange and whose custom it is each summer to drown a
young girl in the sea.
Another said “Once some clothes floated here which
were like ours except that
the sleeves were as long as the height of a man.”
[page 84] Another
said “A boat once drifted here containing a man with a
double face, one above
the other. We could not understand his speech and as
he refused to eat he soon
expired.” The
tribe of Ok-ju was finally absorbed in Ko-gu-ryu in
the fourth year of King T’a-jo
Wang. The
Eum-nu tribe did not belong to Korea proper but as its
territory was adjacent
to Korea a word may not be out of place. It was
originally called Suk-sin. It
was north of Ok-ju and stretched from the Tu-man river
away north to the
vicinity of the Amur. Its most famous mountain was
Pul-ham San. It is said to
have been a thousand li to the north-east of Pu-yu.
The country was mountainous
and there were no cart roads. The various cereals were
grown, as well as hemp. The
native account of the people of Eum-nu is quite droll
and can hardly be
accepted as credible. It tells us that the people
lived in the trees in summer and
in holes in the ground in winter. The higher a man’s
rank the deeper he was
allowed to dig. The deepest holes were “nine rafters
deep.” Pigs were much in
evidence. The flesh was eaten and the skins were worn.
In winter the people
smeared themselves an inch thick with grease. In
summer they wore only a
breach-cloth. They were extremely filthy. In the
center of each of these winter
excavations was a common cesspool about which
everything else was clustered.
The extraordinary statement is made that these people
picked up pieces of meat
with their toes and ate them. They sat on frozen meat
to thaw it out. There was
no king, but a sort of hereditary chieftainship
prevailed. If a man desired to
marry he placed a feather in the hair of the damsel of
his choice and if she
accepted him she simply followed him home. Women did
not marry twice, but
before marriage the extreme of latitude was allowed.
Young men were more
respected than old men. They buried their dead,
placing a number of slaughtered
pigs beside the dead that he might have something to
eat in the land beyond the
grave. The people were fierce and cruel, and even
though a parent died they did
not weep. Death was the penalty for small as well as
great offences. They had
no form of writing and treaties were made only by word
of mouth. In the days of
Emperor Yuan-ti of the Eastern Tsin dynasty, an envoy
from this tribe was seen
in the Capital of China. [page 85] We
have described the tribes of eastern Korea. A word now
about the western part
of the peninsula. All that portion of Korea lying
between the Han and Yalu
rivers constituted what was known as Nang-nang and
included the present
provinces of P’yung-an and Whang ha together with a
portion of Kyung-geui. It
was originally the name of a single tribe whose
position will probably never be
exactly known: but it was of such importance that when
China divided northern
Korea into four provinces she gave this name of
Nang-nang to all that portion
lying, as we have said, between the Han and the Yalu.
The only accounts of
these people are given under the head of the Kingdom
of Ko-gu-ryu which we
shall consider later. But between Nang-nang and the
extreme eastern tribes of
Ok-ju there was a large tract of country including the
eastern part of the
present province of Py’ung-an and the western part of
Ham-gyung. This was
called Hyun-do, and the Chinese gave this name to the
whole north-eastern part
of Korea. No separate accounts of Hyun-do seem to be
now available. Before
passing to the account of the founding of the three
great kingdoms of Sil-la,
Pak-je and Ko-gu-ryu, we must give a passing glance at
one or two of the great
border tribes of the north-west. They were not Koreans
but exercised such
influence upon the life of Korea that they deserve
passing notice. In
that vast tract of territory now known as Manchuria
there existed, at the time
of Christ, a group of wild tribes known under the
common name Mal-gal. The
group was composed of seven separate tribes, named
respectively―Songmal,
Pak-tol, An-gu-gol, Pul-lal, Ho-sil, Heuk-su (known
also as the Mul-gil and the
Pak-san. Between these tribes there was probably some
strong affinity, although
this is argued only from the generic name Mal-gal
which was usually appended to
their separate names, and the fact that Mal-gal is
commonly spoken of as one.
The location of this group of tribes is determined by
the statement (1) that it
was north of Ko-gu-ryu and (2) that to the east of it
was a tribe anciently
called the Suk-sin (the same as the Eum-nu,) and (3)
that it was five thousand
li from Nak-yang the capital of China. We are also
told that in it was the
great river Sog-mal which was three li wide referring
it would seem to the Amur
River. These tribes, though [page 86] members of one
family, were constantly
fighting each other and their neighbors and the
ancient records say that of all
the wild tribes of the east the Mal-gal were the most
feared by their
neighbors. But of all the Mal-gal tribes the Heuk-su
were the fiercest and most
warlike. They lived by hunting and fishing. The title
of their chiefs was
Ta-mak-pul-man-lol-guk. The people honored their
chiefs and stood in great fear
of them. It is said that they would not attend to the
duties of nature on a
mountain, considering, it would seem that there is
something sacred about a
mountain. They lived in excavations in the sides of
earth banks, covering them,
with a rough thatch. The entrance was from above.
Horses were used but there
were no other domestic, animals except pigs. Their
rude carts were pushed by
men and their plows were dragged by the same. They
raised a little millet and
barley, and cultivated nine kinds of vegetables. The
water there was brackish
owing to the presence of a certain kind of tree the
bark of whose roots tinged
the water like an infusion. They made wine by chewing
grain and then allowing
it to ferment. This was very intoxicating. For the
marriage ceremony the bride
wore a hempen skirt and the groom a pig skin with a
tiger skin over his head.
Both bride and groom washed the face and hands in
urine. They were the
filthiest of all the wild tribes. They were expert
archers, their bows being
made of horn, and the arrows were twenty-three inches
long. In summer a poison
was prepared in which the arrow heads were dipped. A
wound from one of these
was almost instantly fatal. The almost incredible
statement is made in the
native accounts that the dead bodies of this people
were not interred but were
used in baiting traps for wild animals. Besides
the Mal-gal tribes there were two others of
considerable note, namely the
Pal-ha and the Ku-ran of which special mention is not
here necessary, though
their names will appear occasionally in the following
page s. They lived
somewhere along the northern borders of Korea, within
striking distance. The
last border tribe that we snail mention is the Yu-jin
whose history is closely
interwoven with that of Ko-gu-ryu. They were the
direct descendants, or at
least close relatives, of the Eum-nu people. They were
said to have been the
very lowest and weakest of all the wild tribes, in
fact [page 87] a mongrel
tribe, made up of the offscourings of all the others.
They are briefly
described by the statement that if they took up a
handful of water it instantly
turned black. They were good archers and were skillful
at mimicking the deer
for the purpose of decoying it. They ate deer flesh
raw. A favorite form of
amusement was to make tame deer intoxicated with wine
and watch their antics.
Pigs, cattle and donkeys abounded. They used cattle
for burden and the hides
served for covering. The houses were roofed with bark.
Fine horses were raised
by them. It was in this tribe that the great conqueror
of China, A-gol-t’a,
arose, who paved the way for the founding of the great
Kin dynasty a thousand
years or more alter the beginning of our era. Chapter
V. Southern
Korean .... Ki-jun’s arrival .... differences which he
found three groups ....
Ma-han .... position .... peculiarities ....
characteristics .... worship ....
tatooing .... numbers .... Chin-han .... Chinese
immigration .... customs ....
Pyon-han .... position .... habits .... the
philological argument .... southern
origin .... Ki-jun and his descendants. We
must now ask the reader to go with us to the southern
portion of the peninsula
where we shall find a people differing in many
essential respects from the
people of the north, and evincing not merely such
different but such opposite
characteristics from the people of the north that it
is difficult to believe
that they are of the same origin. When
King Ki-jun, the last of the Ki-ja dynasty proper was
driven from P’yung-yang
by the unscrupulous Wi-man, he embarked, as we have
already seen, upon the
Ta-dong River accompanied by a small retinue of
officials and servants. Faring
southward along the coast, always within sight of land
and generally between
the islands and mainland, he deemed it safe at last to
effect a landing. This
he did at a place anciently known as Keum-ma-gol or
“Place of the Golden Horse,”
now Ik-san. It should be noticed that this rendering
is simply that of the
Chinese characters that were used to represent the
word Keum-ma-gol. In all
probability it was a mere [page 88] transliteration of
the native name of the
place by the use of the Chinese, and the rendering
here given was originally
un-thought of. They
found the land inhabited, but by a people strange in
almost every particular.
The explicitness with which all native accounts
describe the people whom Ki-jun
found in the south is in itself a striking argument in
favor of the theory that
a different race of people was there encountered. The
southern part of the
peninsula was divided between three groups of peoples
called respectively
Ma-han, Chin-han and Pyon-han. How these names
originated can hardly be learned
at this date, but it would seem that they were native
words; for the last of
the three, Pyon-han, was also called Pyon-jin,. a word
entering into the
composition of many of the names of the towns peopled
by the Pyon-han tribes.
It is necessary for us now to take a brief glance at
each of these three
groups, for in them we shall find the solution of the
most interesting and
important problem that Korea has to offer either to
the historian or
ethnologist. The
Ma-han people occupied the south-western part of the
peninsula, comprising the
whole of the present province of Ch’ung-ch’ung and the
northern part of
Chul-la. It may have extended northward nearly to the
Han river but of this we
cannot be sure. On its north was the tribe of
Nang-nang, on the south was
probably a part of Pyon-han but one authority says
that to the south of Ma-han
were the Japanese or Wa-in. These Japanese are
carefully described and much
color is given to this statement by certain
coincidences which will be brought
out later. No Korean work mentions these Japanese and
it may be that the
Japanese referred to were those living on the islands
between Korea and Japan.
But we can easily imagine the thrifty islanders making
settlements of the
southern coast of Korea. The
first striking peculiarity of the Ma-han people, and
one that differentiates
them from the northern neighbors, was the fact that
they were not one tribe but
a congeries of small settlements each entirely
independent of the others, each
having its own chief, its own army, its own laws. It
is said that they lived
either among the mountains or along the coast, which
would point to the
existence of two races, the one in- [page 89] land,
indigenous, and the other,
colonists from some other country. The Ma-han people
were acquainted with
agriculture, sericulture and the use of flax and hemp.
Their fowls had tails
ninety-five inches long. Here is one of the
interesting coincidences that
uphold the contention that the Japanese were in the
peninsula at that time.
These peculiar fowls are now extinct, but, within the
memory of people now
living, such fowls were quite common in Japan and
preserved specimens in the
museum at Tokyo show that the above measurements are
by no means unusual in
that breed of fowl. It would seem then that Japan
procured them from Korea, or
else the Japanese colonists introduced them into
Korea. Another
point which differentiates the south from the north
was the fact that a walled
town was a thing unknown in the south; as the Korean
writer puts it “There was
no difference between town and country.” Their houses
were rough thatched huts
sunken a little below the surface of the ground, as is
indicated by the
statement that the houses were entered from the top.
These people of Ma-han
were strong and fierce and were known by the loudness
and vehemence of their
speech. This accords well with the further fact that
they were the virtual
governors of all south Korea, for it was Ma-han who
furnished rulers for
Chin-han. These people did not kneel nor bow in
salutation. There was no
difference in the treatment of people of different
ages or sexes. All were
addressed alike. Another
marked difference between these people and those of
the north was that the
Ma-han people held neither gold nor silver in high
repute. We may safely reckon
upon the acquisitive faculty as being the most keen
and pervasive of all the
faculties of eastern as well as western peoples, and
that the north should have
been acquainted with the uses and values of these
metals while the south was
not, can argue nothing less than a complete ignorance
of each other. The
southern people loved beads strung about the head and
face, a trait that
naturally points to the south and the tropics. In the
summer they worshipped
spirits, at which time they consumed large quantities
of intoxicating beverages
while they sang and danced, several “tens of men “
dancing together and keeping
time with their feet. In the autumn, after the
harvest, they [page 90] worshipped
and feasted again. In each of the little settlements
there was a high priest
whose business it was to worship for the whole
community. They had a kind of
monastic system, the devotees of which fastened iron
drums to high posts and
beat upon them during their worship. Another
striking statement is that tatooing was common. This
is another powerful
argument in favor of the theory of a southern origin,
for it is apparent that
tatooing is a form of dress and is most in vogue where
the heat renders the use
of clothing uncomfortable. As might be expected, this
habit has died out in
Korea, owing without doubt to the comparative severity
of the climate; but
within the memory of living men it has been practiced
on a small scale, and
today there is one remnant of the custom in the
drawing of a red colored thread
under the skin of the wrist in making certain kinds of
of vow or promises. In
the larger towns the ruler was called Sin-ji and in
the smaller ones Eup-ch’a.
They had tests of endurance similar to those used by
North American Indians.
One of them consisted in drawing a cord through the
skin of the back and being
hauled up and down by it without a murmur. We
are told that in Ma-han there were 100,000 houses,
each district containing,
from 1,000 to 10,000 houses. This would give an
approximate population of
500,000. The names of the fifty-four districts or
kingdom included in Ma-han
are given in the appendix together with those of
Chin-han and Pyon-han. We
are told that the aged men of Chin-han held the
tradition that thousands of
Chinese fled to Korea in the days of the Tsin dynasty,
255-209 B. C., and that
the people of Ma-han gave them land in the east and
enclosed them in a
palisade, and furnished them with a governor who
transmitted the office to his
son. This could refer however only to a small portion
of Chin-han. There was a
large and widely scattered native population occupying
approximately the
territory covered by the present Kyung-sang Province.
It is probable that these
Chinese refugees exercised a great influence over them
and taught them many
things. It is not improbable that it was owing to this
civilizing agency that
Sil-la eventually became master of the peninsula. But
it should be carefully [page
91] noted that this Chin-han did not derive its name,
from the Chin (Tsin)
dynasty of China through these Chinese refugees. The
character used in
designating Chin-han is not the same as that used for
the Chin dynasty. The land was
fertile. The mulberry flourished
and silk culture was a common employment. . Horses and
cattle were used both
under the saddle and as beasts of burden. Marriage
rites were scrupulously
observed and the distinction between the sexes was
carefully preserved. When a
body was interred men followed the bier waving
feathers in the air to help waft
the soul of the departed on its flight to heaven. The
country contained much
mineral wealth. Ye-mak, Ma-han and the Japanese all
obtained metal from
Chin-han. Iron was the medium of exchange. They were
fond of music and the dance.
Their music was made by means of a rude harp and an
instrument made by
stretching wire back and forth inside a metal cylinder
which, when struck,
caused the strings to vibrate. When a child was born a
stone was placed against
its head to flatten it. Tattooing was common in those
parts contiguous to the
Japanese, which would imply that the custom was a
borrowed one. When two men
met on the road it was considered good form for each
to stop and insist upon
the others passing first. It
is hardly necessary to dwell upon the characteristics
of the Pyon-han people,
for they were nearly the same as, those of the people
of Chin-han. Some say
they were within the territory of Chin-han, others
that they were south both of
Ma-han and Chin-han, and nearest to the Japanese. They
tatooed a great deal.
Beyond this fact little is known of them excepting
that their punishments were
very severe, many offences being punished with death. It
is difficult to say what was the nature of the bond
be- tween the different
districts which made up the whole body of either
Ma-han, Chin-han or Pyon-han.
On the one hand we are told that the districts were
entirely separate and yet
we find Ma-han as a whole, performing acts that imply
some sort of federation
at least if not a fixed central government, in fact
one Chinese work states
that a town named Cha-ji was the capital of all three
of the Hans. We must
conclude therefore from these and subsequent
statements that some sort of
central government prevailed, at least in Ma-han.
[page 92] The
names of the several kingdoms which composed the three
Hans are preserved to
us, mutilated, in all probability by reason of Chinese
transliteration, but
still useful from a philological and ethnological
standpoint. If the reader
will glance but casually at the list of these separate
districts as given in
the appendix, he will see that there was good cause
for the division into three
Hans. We will point out only the most striking
peculiarities here, as this
belongs rather to the domain of philology than to that
of history. In Ma-han we
find seven of the names ending ro. We find two or
three of the same in Pyon-han
but none in Chin-han. In Ma-han we find fourteen names
ending in ri but none in
either of the others. In Pyon-han we find ten names
beginning with Pyon-jin
which is wholly unknown to the other two. In this we
also find three with the
unique suffix mi-dong. In Chin-hail we find nine
ending in kan and five in
kaye, which are found in neither of the others. It is
hardly necessary to say
that these cannot be mere coincidences. In each group
we find at least one
considerable set of endings entirely lacking in the
others. As our own ending
ton, ville, burgh, chester and coln have an original
significance, so these
ending ro, ri, mi-dong, Kan and ka-ya have a meaning
which should supply us
with important clues to the origin of the people of
southern Korea. The
marked polysyllabism of these names makes it
impossible to imagine a Chinese
origin for them. It is seldom that a Manchu or Mongol
name of a place exceeds
two syllables. On the other hand we find in Japan and
Polynesia a common use of
polysyllabic geographical names. A thorough discussion
of the subject here
would be out of place, but this much must be said,
that several of these
endings, as ro, piri and kan, find their almost exact
counterpart in the
Dravidian Languages of southern India, where they mean
village, settlement and
kingdom. The
argument in favor of the southern origin of the people
of the three Hans is a
cumulative one. The main points are; the structure and
vocabulary of the
language, the nonintercourse with the people of
northern Korea, the custom of
tattooing, the diminutive size of the horses found
nowhere else except in the
Malay peninsula, the tradition of the southern origin
of the people of the
island of Quelpart, the physiologic- [page 93] al
similarity the people,
especially the females, of Quelpart and Formosa, the
seafaring propensities of
the people of the three Hans, their ignorance of the
value of gold and silver,
the continuous line of islands stretching along the
whole coast of China
together with the powerful ocean current which sweeps
northward along the
Asiatic coast, the tradition of the Telugu origin of
the ancient sultans of
Anam and the love of bead ornaments. Such
was the status of southern Korea when Ki-jun arrived
at Keum-ma-gol. By what
means he obtained control of the government is not
related but the fact remains
that he did so and founded a new kingdom which was
destined to survive nearly
two centuries. Ki-jun died the same year. No details
are given of the events
that transpired during the next hundred years or more
excepting that one
Chinese work states that during the reign of Emperor
Wu-ti 14088 B. C. frequent
envoys went from Ma-han to the Chinese court. We are
also told that off the
coast of Ma-han among the islands lived a tribe called
the Chu-ho, a people of
smaller stature than the people of Ma-han and speaking
a different language.
They cut the hair and wore skins for clothing but
clothed only the upper part
of the body. They came frequently to Ma-han to barter
cattle and pigs. Ki-jun’s
seventh descendant was Hun, with the title of
Wun-wang. His reign began in 57
B. C. during the reign of the Han Emperor Hsuan-ti and
in the second year the
great kingdom of Sil-la was founded in Chin-han. In
his twenty-second year the
great northern kingdom of Ko-gur-yu was founded, 35 B.
C., and nineteen years
later the kingdom of Ma-han fell before the forces of
Pak-je. It is necessary
therefore for us to investigate the origin or these
three great kingdoms of
Sil-la, Ko-gur-yu and Pak-je. Chapter
VI. The
founding of Sil-la, Ko-gur-yu and Pak-je .... Sil-la
.... legend ....growth
.... Tsushima a vassal .... credibility of accounts
.... Japanese relations
.... early vicissitudes .... Ko-gur-yu .... four
Pu-yus .... legend ....
location of Pu-yu .... Chu-mong founds Ko-gur-yu ....
growth and extent ....
products .... customs .... religious rites ....
official grades ....
punishments .... growth eastward .... Pak-je ....
relations between Sil-la and
Pak-je .... tradition of founding of Pak-je ....
opposition of wild tribes ....
the capital moved .... situation of the peninsula at
the time of Christ. [page
94] In
the year 57 B. C. the chiefs of the six great Chin-han
states, Yun-jun-yang-san,
Tol-san-go-ho, Cha-san-jin-ji, Mu-san-da-su,
Keum-san-ga-ri and
Myung-whal-san-go-ya held a great council at
Yun-chun-yang-san and agreed to
merge their separate fiefs into a kingdom. They named
the capital of the new
kingdom Su-ya-bul from which the present word Seoul is
probably derived, and it
was situated where Kyong-ju now stands in Kyung-sang
Province. At first the
name applied both to the capital and to the kingdom.
They placed upon the throne a boy
of thirteen years, named Hyuk-ku-se, with the royal
title Ku-su-gan. It is said
that his family name was Pak, but this was probably an
after-thought derived
from a Chinese source. At any rate he is generally
known as Pak Hyuk-ku-se. The
story of his advent is typically Korean. A company of
revellers beheld upon a
mountain side a ball, of light on which a horse was
seated. They approached it
and as they did so the horse rose straight in air and
disappeared leaving a
great, luminous egg. This soon opened of itself and
disclosed a handsome boy.
This wonder was accompanied by vivid light and the
noise of thunder. Not long
after this another wander was seen. Beside the
Yun-yung Spring a hen raised her
wing and from her side came forth a female child with
a mouth like a bird’s
bill, but when they washed her in the spring the bill
fell off and left her
like other children. For this reason the well was
named the Pal-ch’un which
refers to the falling of the bill. Another tradition
says that she was formed
from the rib of a dragon which inhabited the spring.
In the fifth year of his
reign the youthful king espoused this girl and they
typify to all Koreans the
perfect marriage. As
this Kingdom included only six of the Chin-han states,
it would be difficult to
give its exact boundaries. From the very first it
began to absorb the
surrounding states, until at last it was bounded on
the east and south by the
sea alone, while it extended north to the vicinity of
the Han River and
westward to the borders of Ma-han, or to Chi-ri San.
It took her over four hundred
years to complete these conquests, many of which were
bloodless while others
were effected at the point of the sword. It was not
until the twenty-second
generation that the name Sil-la was adopted as the
name of this kingdom. [page 95] It
is important to notice that the island of Tsushima,
conquered by Sil-la or not,
became a dependency of that Kingdom and on account of
the sterility of the soil
the people of that island were annually aided by the
government. It was not
until the year 500 A. D. or thereabouts that the
Japanese took charge of the
island and placed their magistrate there. From that
time on, the island was not
a dependency of any Korean state but the relations
between them were very
intimate, and there was a constant interchange of
goods, in a half commercial
and half political manner. There is nothing to show
that the daimyos of
Tsushima ever had any control over any portion of the
adjacent coast of Korea. It
gives one a strong sense of the trustworthiness of the
Korean records of these
early days to note with what care the date of every
eclipse was recorded. At
the beginning of each reign the list of the dates of
solar eclipses is given.
For instance, in the reign of Hyuk-ku-se they
occurred, so the records say, in
the fourth, twenty-fourth, thirtieth, thirty-second,
forty-third, forty-fifth,
fifty-sixth and fifty-ninth years of his reign.
According to the Gregorian
calendar this would mean the years 53, 31, 27, 25, 14,
12 B. C. and 2 A. D. If
these annals were later productions, intended to
deceive posterity, they would
scarcely contain, lists of solar eclipses. The
marvelous or incredible stories
given in these records are given only as such and
often the reader is warned
not to put faith in them. The
year 48 B. C. gives us the first definite statement of
a historical fact
regarding Japanese relations with Korea. In that year
the Japanese pirates
stopped their incursions into Korea for the time
being. From this it would seem
that even at that early date the Japanese had become
the vikings of the East
and were carrying fire and sword wherever there was
enough water to float their
boats. It would also indicate that the extreme south
of Korea was not settled
by Japanese, for it was here that the Japanese
incursions took place. In
37 B. C. the power of the little kingdom of Sil-la
began to be felt in
surrounding districts and the towns of Pyon-han joined
her standards. It was
probably a bloodless conquest, the people of Pyon-han
coming voluntarily into
Sil-la. In 37 B. C. the capital of Sil-la, which had
received the secondary [page
96] name Keum-sung, was surrounded by a wall
thirty-five li, twelve miles,
long. The city was 3,075 paces long and 3,018 paces
wide. The progress made by
Sil-la and the evident tendency toward centralisation
of all power in a
monarchy aroused the suspicion of the king of Ma-han
who, we must re- member,
had considered Chin-han as in some sense a vassal of
Ma-han. For this reason
the king of Sil-la, in 19 B. C., sent an envoy to the
court of Ma-han with rich
presents in order to allay the fears of that monarch.
The constant and heavy
influx into Sil-la of the fugitive Chinese element
also disturbed the mind of
that same king, for he foresaw that if this went
unchecked it might mean the
supremacy of Sil-la instead of that of Ma-han. This
envoy from Sil-la was Ho
gong, said to have been a native of Japan. He found
the king of Ma-han in an
unenviable frame of mind and it required all his tact
to pacify him, and even
then he succeeded so ill that had not the Ma-han
officials interfered the king
would have had his life. The following year the king
of Ma-han died and a
Sil-la embassy went to attend the obsequies. They were
anxious to find
opportunity to seize the helm of state in Ma-han and
bring her into the port of
Sil-la, but this they were strictly forbidden to do by
their royal master who
generously forebore to take revenge for the insult of
the preceding year. As
this was the year, 37 B. C., which marks the founding
of the powerful kingdom
of Ko-gur-yu, we must turn our eyes northward and
examine that important event. As
the founder of Ko-gur-yu originated in the kingdom of
Puyu, it will be
necessary for us to examine briefly the position and
status of that tribe,
whose name stands prominently forth in Korean history
and tradition. There were
four Pu-yus in all; North Pu-yu, East Pu-yu, Chul-bun
Pu-yu and South Pu-yu, We
have already, under the head of the Tan-gun, seen that
tradition gives to
Pu-ru, his son, the honor of having been the founder
of North Pu-yu, or Puk
Pu-yu as it is commonly called. This is quite
apocryphal but gives us at least
a precarious starting point. This Puk Pu-yu is said by
some to have been far to
the north in the vicinity of the Amur River or on one
of its tributaries, a
belief which is sustained to a certain extent by some
inferences to be deduced
from the following legend. THE
KOREA
REVIEW, March
1901 Xylographic
Art
in Korea. [page
97] The art of carving characters and pictures on wood
for the purposes of
printing has flourished in Korea for upwards of
fifteen hundred years. The
histories that were published in this country about
that time give evidence
that this art even at that early date had attained
considerable perfection. If
we wish to go back to an earlier date still we find
according to one historical
statement that one of the Chinese classics was
published in southern Korea
before the time of Christ, but of this we cannot be
sure. The high degree of
civilization that arose in southern Korea in the early
centuries of our era
make it quite sure that ceramic art as well as
xylographic reached a degree of
perfection that is unknown in the peninsula today. The
high degree of
civilization in Sil-la is hinted at in the fact that
the largest bell in Korea
and one of the largest in the world is at Kyong-ju in
southern Korea and has
hung there for over sixteen centuries. Korean
art in its various manifestations does not form a
consistent whole. In the
highly developed field of embroidery we find that
while the finer details are
worked out with minute care the larger and more
important elements are
neglected, especially the fundamental principle of
perspective. In ceramics the
detail or ornamentation is not the main consideration
but elegance of shape. In
the art of cutting pictures on wooden blocks we shall
find still another law
prevalent. By
giving a few illustrations it is my purpose to show
wherein lie the predominant
characteristics of Korean pictorial art. [page 98]
As
the readers of this. magazine are aware there are two
opposing schools one of
which advocates the law that only objects at rest are
proper subjects for the
painters brush while the other insists that a horse
going at full speed, for
instance, is a proper model. It is not our purpose to
advocate either one side
or the other of this question but merely to slate that
the [page 99]
Koreans
seem to have hit upon a happy combination of the two
ideas, for in the
accompanying pictures, which were drawn and cut by a
Korean artist entirely
from his own standpoint and in accord with Korean
traditions, we will see that
there is no lack of animation, but at the same time
the people and ani- [page 100]
mals are not necessarily moving at the moment the
picture is conceived. In
other words the artist has caught them at an instant’s
pause in the work they
were doing. At least such a pause is conceivable from
even a cursory glance at
the pictures. By this means the artist has avoided
both extremes. The figures
do not look as if they were sitting for their
photographs; nor do they look as
if caught by a snap shot in midair. I do not say that
this is always the case
but the rule seems to be a general one. The result is
a certain repose and
dignity of which even the crudities of development
along other lines cannot
deprive the picture. The idea is there in its entirety
and put in such a way as
to fix the attention and arouse the interest of the
one who sees it.
In the second place
these pictures have humor. The personages who are
pictured seem so unconscious
of our critical examination and they all seem to be
taking life so seriously
that we smile in spite of ourselves. At first glance
the pictures look strange
to us but a little examination will reveal, I think, a
naturalness of pose and
a certain naivete of treatment, if I may use that
term, which is altogether
delightful. Take for instance the picture of Chumong
crossing the river on the
fishes’ backs. His vengeful brother stands upon the
bank grasping his sword
with both hands thinking only of his escaping victim
and not paying any
attention to the miraculous character of the escape.
His attendant, however,
who has less at stake has struck an attitude of blank
amazement in view of the
miracle. In
the third place we notice that each, picture has a
distinct central point of
interest. The eye does not wander from point to point
to find different points
of interest. Everything in the picture points to one
single central idea and
bears a distinct relation to that idea. This is
plainly seen in the picture
showing the grave of Kim Hu-jik. The King is out
hunting, as the falcon and the
dog and the dead deer plainly show. The people in the
background are quiescent
waiting the good pleasure of the King, who bends to
listen to the sounds which
come forth from the grave of Kim Hu-sik the wise
statesman whose advice the
King has scorned, for this Kim had chidden the King
for spending so much time
in sport. Now a miraculous voice comes from his grave
bewail-
[page
101] ing
the evils
that are upon the state because of the King’s
remissness. The picture is a
complete entity with no adventitious and diverting
side issues; none of those
artistic afterthoughts which have spoilt so many a
work of art by robbing them
of simplicity. In
the fourth place these works of art are direct. They
have a single word to
speak and they speak it without rhetorical
embellishment, which may be the
height of eloquence. The lack of shading, for one
thing, in the pictures, their
entire innocence of anything like chiaroscuro, while
it excludes them from the
precincts of finished art, cannot debar them from the
outer purlieus of pure
art. The Greeks used to paint their statues to imitate
life. Without doubt the
art was more finished but, as we today believe, it was
at the expense of
purity. Art is not an imitation of life but a
rendition into tangible symbols
of ideal life. So we believe that these attempts of
the Korean people show n0
little ability to grasp the fundamentals of art. SulCh’ong, FATHER
OF KOREAN
LITERATURE. In
the list of the really great literati of Korea, as so
recognized by the
scholars of the present dynasty and enrolled in the
calendar of literary saints
known as the Yu-rim-nok (the “Forest of Scholars,”)
there are two names
selected from the ancient kingdom of Sil-la, Sul
Ch’ong and Ch’oe Ch’i-wun. And
as Sil-la is thus chronologically the first kingdom
which is acknowledged to
have possessed men worthy the name of literateurs,
these two names necessarily
head the list of the famous scholars of Korea. In
their order Sul Ch’ong comes
first and then Ch’oe Ch’i-wun. It is the purpose of
this sketch to tell
something about the first named of these worthies. Sul
Ch’ong was the first man to hand down to posterity in
Korea a lasting fame as a
scholar. That there were other literati before him
versed in scholarship we
have every evi- [page 102] dence. Sul Ch’ong himself
must have had a teacher.
Many of these men may have been the equals or even the
superiors of Sul Ch’ong,
but fate in Korea has been unkind to them and we know
very little about them,
their names having either altogether disappeared, or
else are given scant
notice in the notes to Korean histories with
fragmentary quotations from their
writings. As far as the estimate of the present day
scholarship of Korea is
concerned, as shown in the canonized worthies of
Korea’s literary past, the
father of letters with them is Sul Ch’ong. Now this of
course runs us into a
problem of the first magnitude—that of the date of the
beginning of Korean
literature, the discussion of which we reserve for the
close of our sketch. As
to the year of Sul Ch’ong’s birth we have no definite
statement, but we know
that he rose to fame in the reign of King Sin-mun of
the Sil-la dynasty, who
occupied the throne A. D. 681-092. The period in which
he flourished was
therefore about the end of the seventh century of the
Christian era. Sul Ch’ong
was born of celebrated parentage. His father was named
Won Hyo. He had early
taken orders as a Buddhist monk and had risen to the
rank of an abbot. This, in
a nation in which the established religion was
Buddhism, was a post of some
importance. That Won Hyo was a learned man is clear.
It is stated that he was
versed in the Buddhist writings which were known in
Korea both in the Chinese
character and the Pa-li. Some of Sul Ch’ong’s
originality and thirst for
learning may undoubtedly be traced to his father the
old abbot. After remaining
a monk for some time Won Hyo abandoned the Buddhist
priesthood. No reason for
this course is given, but it may be that already the
ferment of the Confucian
writings was beginning to make itself felt and the old
abbot was one of the
many who advocated the adoption of the China Sage and
his ethics. Certainly the
son became the source and fountain of the present
dominance of Confucian
Civilization among the Korean people. That the abbot
was not only a learned man
but also something of a celebrity seems clear from the
fact that having
abandoned Buddhism he further divested himself of his
vows by forming a
matrimonial alliance with the reigning house. His
wife, the mother of Sul Ch’ong
was the princess Yo-suk. Some extraordinary influence
must have [page 103] been
back of the fortunes of an unfrocked monk by which he
could disregard his vows
and marry into the family of the King. This princess
was a widow. Of
the early training of Sul Ch’ong we have no account,
but in all probability he
grew up at Court taking his studies tinder his father.
From him he may have
imbibed that love of the Chinese Classics which led
him to open a school for
the explanation of them to the common people. He was
placed in high posts at
the Court in recognition of his fearlessness of
statement and his extensive
acquirements. Four things have contributed to his
fame. The
Mun-hon-pi-go is authority for the statement that he
wrote a history of Sil-la.
If so all traces of it, with the exception of the bare
mention of the fact,
have disappeared. This is to be regretted like many
other things which have
happened in Korea, for it would have been most
interesting to be able to look
in on that famous little kingdom through the eyes of
such a man as Sul Ch’ong.
But the work is gone and we have only the tantalizing
statement of the fact
that it once existed. The
second thing on which the fame of Sul Ch’ong rests is
the “Parable of the
Peony.” This is preserved for us in the Tong-guk
T’ong-gam and as it is an
interesting piece of parabolic teaching I venture to
give it. It
is said that one day King Sin-mun of Sil-la having a
few leisure moments called
Sul Ch’ong to him and said: “Today
the rain is over and the breeze blows fresh and cool,
it is a time for high
talk and pleasurable conversation, to make glad our
hearts, You will therefore
narrate some story for me which you may have heard.”
To the royal command Sul Ch’ong
replied: “In
ancient times the Peony having become king planted a
garden of flowers and set
up a red pavilion in which he lived. Late in the
spring when his color was
brilliant and his form lordly all the flowers and the
buds came and, doing
obeisance, had audience of him. Among these came the
lovely Chang-mi whose
beautiful face blushed pink and her teeth were like
jade. Clad in garments of
beauty and walking with captivating grace before the
King she found opportunity
to secretly praise his great fame and high virtue and
[page 104] making use of
all her wiles sought to make him her captive.” “But
then came Old White Head (the chrysanthemum) a man of
lordly mien, clad in
sack-cloth, with a leathern girdle and a white cap on
his head; who, leaning on
his staff, with bent body and halting step, approached
the king and said: ‘Your
servant who lives outside the wall of the royal city
is given to musing on
things. His Majesty surrounded by his servants shares
with them excellent food
but in his napkin he carries a good medicine Therefore
I said to myself, even
though one possess silk and grass-cloth in abundance,
it is not wise to cast
away the cheap weeds but not knowing Your Majesty’s
thought about this I have
come to inquire.’ “ “The
king replied to this―’My lord’s speech is of wisdom
but it will not be easy to
obtain another beautiful Chang-mi.’ Then the old man
continued: ‘When the King
has near him old lords he prospers but when he is
intimate with beautiful women
he perishes. It is easy to be of one mind with the
beautiful women but it is
hard to be friendly with the old lords. Madame Ha-heui
destroyed the Chi
dynasty of China, and Madame So-si overthrew the O
dynasty. Mencius died
without being accepted by his generation; and the
famous General P’ung-dang
grew old and his head whitened with the snows of many
winters, but he could not
succeed in his plans. From ancient times it has ever
been so, what then shall
we do?’ “ “Then
it was that King Peony acknowledged his fault and we
have our proverb: “King
Peony confesses he has done wrong.’ “ To
this parable of Sul Ch’ong King Sin-mun listened with
intense interest. It laid
bare the foibles of Kings with such an unsparing hand
that the very boldness of
the story attracted him. Whether it had a personal
application in his case or
not, we are not told. At any rate Sul Ch’ong was
ordered to reduce the parable
to writing and present it to His Majesty that he might
have it as a constant
warning to himself. It showed great cleverness on the
part of Sul Ch’ong to
make the story hinge about the peony, for the flower
was new in Korea at that
time. Of its introduction into the peninsula the
following interesting story is
told. During the reign of Queen Son-duk A. D. 632-647
T’ai Tsung, second
emperor of the [page 105] Tang
dynasty, sent to the Sil-la Queen a painting of the
peony and some of its
seeds. On receiving it the Queen looked it over and
said: “This is a flower
without perfume for there -are no bees or butterflies
about it.” This statement
was received with amazement, until on planting the
seeds and obtaining a
specimen of the flower the Queen’s observation was
found to be correct. The
interest about the flower in Korea was therefore
enhanced by tins incident and
the King was the more prepared to make the application
that Sul Ch’ong
evidently intended. The parable of Sul Ch’ong has been
handed down from
generation to generation as a piece of uncommon wisdom
to guide Kings, and has
commentators and exponents even in this dynasty. It is
regarded as one of the
literary treasures of Korea. The
third thing for which the memory of Sul Ch’ong is
cherished, and which is his
greatest claim to fame from the Korean standpoint, is
the work he did in
introducing the common people to the Chinese Classics.
The times were favorable
to the Chinese Sage in Korea. The great Tang dynasty
was on the dragon throne
in China. The warlike Pak-che and Ko-gu-ryu people
were attacking Sil-la on all
sides so that the southern kingdom was driven to seek
aid from Tang. This was
granted and the Tang alliance cemented the relations
between Korea and her
great neighbor. The Tang year style was introduced,
for Korea had at that time
her own chronology. Communication between the two
became frequent and cordial
and the young men of Sil-la, even scions of the royal
house, went to Tang for
their education. The result could hardly be otherwise
than an increase in the
influence of China among the Sil-la people and the
introducing of many things
from that land. In this we may have a hint of the
motives which underlay the
action of Sul Ch’ong’s father, the old abbot, in
laying aside his vows as a
monk and taking unto himself a wife. The philosophy of
China probably became a
matter of partisanship and its advocates carried the
day for the time being in
Sil-la and the downfall of Buddhism began. Probably
no man contributed more to this than Sul Ch’ong and in
this fact we find the origin
of the peculiar sanctity in which he is held among the
Koreans. The record of
the canonized scholars of Korea above mentioned—The
For- [page 106] est of
Scholars—tells us that “Sul Ch’ong began to explain
the meaning of the Nine
Classics, or sacred writings of the Confucian Cult, in
the Sil-la colloquial.
He thus opened up their treasures to future
generations and conferred
inestimable blessings on Korea.” The explanation of
this statement appears to
be that up to that time the Sil-la people had carried
on the study of the
Classics in the language of Tang and that it was not
until the time of Sul Ch’ong
that a man arose who attempted to put them in Korean
colloquial. This is a most
interesting fact. For we here strike the period when
really began in all
probability that transformation of the Korean language
which has so enriched it
with Chinese terms and idioms. Sul Ch’ong was in his
way a sort of Korean
Wyckliffe. Lacking a native script in which to reduce
the Classics to the vernacular,
he got no further than oral instruction of the people
in their tenets, but that
that was an advance of vast importance is evidenced by
the stress laid on in it
in the eulogies of Sul Ch’ong in Korean history. Had
he had a medium for
writing he would, like Wyckliffe, have stereotyped the
Sil-la form on the
Korean vocabulary and saved many words for us which
are lost today. And
Wyckliffe had his Lollards who went about reading the
Bible to the common
people in the tongue they could understand. So Sul
Ch’ong set the vogue in
Korea of the verbal explanation of the Classics in the
language of the people.
He popularized the Sage of China in Korea and in less
than twenty-five years
the portraits of Confucius and the seventy-two
worthies were brought from Tang
to Korea and a shrine to the Sage was erected, where
one day Sul Ch’ong himself
was destined to occupy a place as a saint. Thus this
son of a Buddhist ex-abbot
became an epoch marking force in the introduction of
Chinese civilization among
the Koreans. And it seems conclusive to the writer
that it is from this time
rather than from the time of Ki-ja that we must date
the real supremacy of the
Chinese cult in Korea. That is, the civilization which
Ki-ja gave Korea must
have suffered an eclipse and gone down in the
barbarian deluge which had Wi-man
and On-jo and other worthies of Korean history for its
apostles. Without
setting up the claim that Sul Ch’ong was the actual
founder of Chinese
civilization in Korea it does seem clear that he was
something more than the [page
107] apostle of a Confucian renaissance in the
Peninsula. Certainly in Sul Ch’ong’s
own Kingdom of Sil-la the national history up to his
time bears little trace of
Confucian ethics. Up to A. D, 500 the su-jang or
burying alive of servants and
followers with the dead had continued and was only
discontinued at that late
date. It is said that at royal funerals five men and
five women were always
interred, alive to accompany the departed spirit. This
certainly points to a
barbarism not compatible with Confucianism. Buddhism
had been the established
religion for two hundred years and if any traces of
Confucian civilization had
existed it would had been buried beneath the Indian
cult. During its supremacy
it was the civilizing’ force in the country and to it
is to be attributed such
amelioration of the laws and customs of the people as
the abolishing of the
cruel custom of burying alive, a custom that would
suggest only mid-African
savagery. Finally if the Confucian cult had prevailed
in Sil-la previous to Sul
Ch’ong it would have produced scholars whose names
would have been preserved
for us by the Confucian school which has undoubtedly
dominated Korea for the
last 500 years. As no names are given to us we are led
to the conclusion that
Sul Ch’ong was, in a special sense, the one who
inaugurated the reign of
Confucian philosophy in Korea. And Confucius is the
propulsive force in Chinese
civilisation. The great conquering power of China in
Asia in the past is
traceable, not to the prowess of her arm, though under
some of the dynasties
this has been great; nor is it to be found in
manufacturing skill, though at
this point some of the people of the Chinese empire
are very industrious and
clever; but it has been the Code of Confucius. This
great Code is made up of
something more than simply the Five Cardinal Precepts
guiding human
relationships: it also contains a philosophy,
political and social, specially
adapted to the stage in the development of tribes
coming out of a segregated
state of existence, in which they demand something
that will bind them into a
national whole. Confucianism supplied this. It is well
adapted to that stage of
political existence where a people are in a transition
state from a tribal and
patriarchal form of government to pronounced
nationality, hence its
attractiveness to Asiatic peoples. Several other
features might also be
mentioned of almost equal importance but [page 108]
the one indicated will give
us a gauge to measure the value of Sul Ch’ong’s
service to his country. He set
in movement those forces which have done more to unite
the scattered and
different tribes in the peninsula into one people,
than the political sagacity
of Wang-gon, founder of the Ko-ryu dynasty, or the
military genius of Yi T’a-jo,
founder of the reigning line of monarchs. With Sul
Ch’ong begin that school of
scholars who have written all the Korean literature we
have, and have compelled
us, in a way, to accept their views on the history and
principles of the
Koreans, and to become in a sense their partisans. The
fourth and last claim of Sul Ch’ong to fame is based
on his invention of the
I-du or interlinear symbols to facilitate the reading
of Chinese despatches. As
this curious system, the first attempt of Korea to
grapple with the
difficulties which grew out her adoption of Chinese,
has been very fully
described by Mr. Hulbert in the pages of the Korean
Repository (Vol. 5, p. 47.)
I would refer the reader to that interesting article.
Suffice it to say that
Sul Ch’ong in his endeavor to popularize Chinese in
Sil-la found it necessary
to invent symbols which would stand for the
grammatical inflections of the
Sil-la language, and which, introduced into a Chinese
text, would make clear
the grammatical sense. The system contained in all, as
far as we can ascertain
today, 233 symbols. These symbols were divided into
the following groups. Two
of them represented one syllable grammatical endings,
ninety-eight of them
stood for two syllable endings, fifty-two of them for
three syllable endings,
forty-six of them for four syllable endings,
twenty-six of them for five
syllable endings, five of them for six syllable
endings, and four of them for
seven syllable endings. One stipulation in connection
with the system was that
it was obligatory on all lower class men in speaking,
or rather writing, to a
superior. Whether as invented by Sul Ch’ong it
contained more than 233 symbols
and some of them have been lost, or whether it
contained less than 233 but has
been added to in the coarse of time, we cannot now
say. But it is a matter for
congratulation that so many of the symbols with their
equivalents have been
presented to us, for they will prove of much value in
a historical study of the
grammatical development of the Korean [page 109]
language. It remained in force
until the time of the invention of the Korean alphabet
in the 13th century and
even later. We
now come to a crucial question in connection with the
whole history of Sul Ch’ong:
Is he entitled to be called the Father of Korean
Literature? If not why then is
he the first scholar deemed worthy of remembrance and
all before him consigned
to oblivion? It seems clear to the writer that there
have been two schools of
scholarship in Korea, which for lack of a better
classification may for the
present be known as the Buddhist School and the
Confucian School. The writer
would adduce the following reasons for this
classification. (1)
No one acquainted with the facts can take the position
that the writing of
books in Korea began with Sul Ch’ong in Sil-la. In
that country itself previous
to Sul Ch’ong we have every reason to believe that
there were learned men who
must have produced works on history, religion, poetry
and romance. Some of
their names have come down to us. Kim Ch’un-ch’u who
afterward reigned in
Sil-la as King Mu-yol, and his son Kim In-mun were
both of them mentioned for
their skill, in making verses in the Chinese. Earlier
in the dynasty a special
school was established under the auspices of Buddhism
where the youths of
Sil-la listened to lectures on filial piety, respect,
loyalty, and
faithfulness, by monkish professors. Out of their
number must have come the men
we hear mentioned as writing up the archives of the
nation and producing works
on various subjects. (2)
Turning from Sil-la to the other two kingdoms which
shared the peninsula with
Sil-la, viz. Pak-che, and Ko-gu-ryu, we find traces of
literature among them
which are not mentioned in the canonical records of
scholarship. In Ko-gu-ryu
we know of one work which reached the large size of
100 volumes. Under the
influence of Buddhism Pak-che had many scholars, some
of whom won lasting fame
by giving Buddhism and letters to Japan. Why is it
that worthies of Ko-gu-ryu
who could produce the “Yu-geui,”(above mentioned) and
those of Pak-che who
became the tutors of a foreign nation, nowhere find
mention in the annals of
the present school of literateurs in Korea, while Sul
Ch’ong and Ch’oe Ch’i-wun
are the only ones of all that long period accorded
recognition? Surely the
reason must be that they are regard- [page 110] ed as
belonging to a different
school from the one which now dominates Korea. (3). It is to
be noticed that the
discrimination in the canonical records is altogether
in favor of writers who
belong to the Confucian School of philosophy. Buddhism
had a long reign in
Korea. And its character as far as learning is
concerned has been the same in
Korea as elsewhere. Supported by the gifts of the
government and the people,
the monks had little else to do but study, and that
they did so is clear from
the character of Sul Ch’ong’s father. Did these men
produce nothing worth
handing down to posterity? Did no scholars exist among
them? It seems only
reasonable to suppose that they did exist and that
they wrote on history,
religion, biography, philosophy and ethics and these
with their successors down
to A. D. 1392 would constitute the Buddhist School.
But where are their works?
This is not such a difficult question to In the first
place, at the very best
the works produced need not to have been numerous. It
is not the intention of
the writer to give that impression. The writers of the
Buddhist School may have
been the authors of much that is strange and
inexplicable in Korean history of
today. Then the slow painful process by which books
were reduplicated by hand
would not be favorable to the multiplication of copies
of their works. This
would make it easy for these works, during the period
of neglect ushered in by
the supremacy of the Confucian School, to disappear or
be utterly lost. If we
should recognise this classification and acknowledge
the existence of these two
schools in Korean literature and thought the Buddhist
School would, to a great
extent, ante-date the Confucian School, though there
was a time when they were
co-existent, and a time when during the reign of the
Ko-ryu dynasty (Xth. to
the XlVth. centuries) that Buddhism again became
uppermost and the Confucian
School suffered a partial eclipse. The
Confucian School which is dominant in Korea today
began with Sul Ch’ong. He was
the one who set in motion the forces from which has
evolved the present school
of thought in Korea. Now we note that the Confucian
School has produced nearly
all the literature which we possess worthy the name in
Korea today. In history,
philosophy, ethics, law, [page 111] astronomy,
biography they are the workmen
upon whom we are forced to rely. It has not been a
continuous school. Only two
Scholars in Sil-la are specially noted, and thirteen
in the Koryu dynasty, a
period of four hundred years until we reach the
present dynasty, A. D. 1392.
But they kept the lamp of their school burning and
laid the foundations of the
present complete conquest of the Korean mind by the
Chinese Sage. At the head of
this school unquestionably
stands Sul Chong, the son of the ex-Buddhist abbot.
And to the extent to which
literature and learning has emanated from that school
is he the Father of
Korean Letters. This enables us to fix the beginnings
of Korean literature in
the seventh century of the Christian era, for while
the personal contributions
of Sul Ch’ong to the literature of today are
insignificant still he was the one
who put in operation the forces from which the
literature has been evolved. And
the School which he founded has not been ungrateful to
his memory. His final
reward came when he was canonized as a Confucian Saint
and enshrined with the
tablets of Confucius to share with the Sage the
worship of Korean literati.
This occurred during the reign of the Ko-ryu king
Hyon-jong, in the year 1023
and the title of Marquis of Hong- nu was conferred on
him. GEO. HEBER
JONES. A
Leaf from my Journal. I
was stopping at a little country town, when the
evening conversation turned
upon the position of woman in the home. A young man
from a neighboring village
had remarked that some of the Christian women there
had forgotten their
baptismal names. Another suggested then when their
names were called in Heaven
and they did not recognize them it would be rather
embarrassing. Thereupon the
subject of women’s names, or rather their lack of
them, came up. Someone asked
if girls in America had names given them just the same
as the boys and whether
they retained their girlhood names, after marriage.
When this had been
explained the question was broached: [page 112] What
term should a Korean husband use in addressing his
wife or in speaking of her
to others? One man answered that if there was a child
in the family the wife
would he called “―’smother” as we would say “Charlie’s
mother” but if there
were no children at all it would be decidedly
embarrassing. On
the
other hand a Korean woman cannot call her husband by
his given name, as it
would be considered disrespectful; indeed such a thing
is unheard of. Neither
can she say “Tell my husband to come,” as this would
also be disrespectful. For
the same reason she cannot say “Tell Mr. ―to come” but
would have to say “Tell
the gentleman of this house to come,” or she may say
“Tell —’s father to come,
or in case she has no son she may mention a nephew and
say “Tell―’s uncle to
come.” According to country custom she may mention the
name of the village
where he married her and say “Tell the ― ville
gentleman to come.” The
husband in speaking to others of his wife commonly
refers to her as “The person
at our house.” The wife and the husband are in the
same predicament, for just
as she cannot address him by his surname nor his given
name nor even call him “husband”
even so to the husband the wife has no name and even
if she had one in girlhood
it would be out of the question to use it after her
marriage. It
was remarked that foreign gentlemen in addressing
their wives often made use of
the term “My Dear,” but the Koreans agreed unanimously
that this would not do
here for if a mail should use such a term to his wife
all his relatives would
think he was crazy. Mr.
Chun said that after adopting Christianity be came to
dislike his former habit
of using “half talk,” to his wife (addressing her as
an inferior) while she had
to use high language to him as to a superior. He
mentioned the matter to his
mother and said he had determined to use the forms of
equality to his wife but
his mother objected so strongly that he was obliged to
refrain from following
what he felt to be a good impulse, which he believed
come from a new life
within him and not from specific instruction from the
foreigner oil the
subject. He said that after moving to his present home
where he lived alone
with his wife he had been using the forms of equality
to [page 113] her and
that she was delighted, and her treatment of him had
undergone a marked
improvement. And he finished by remarking pointedly: “The
rest of you fellows had better try it.” Young
Mr. Sin said he would try it but was much afraid his
father would make trouble.
I asked why, and he replied that it would seem to the
parent that a part of the
honor due him was being taken away and given to the
wife. The neighbors would
also say that the son was weak-minded and on this
account the father would
object to such a change. Mr.
Chun said that he had heard that the foreigner kissed
his wife when going away
but that any young man in Korea would be ridiculed for
such a thing. If a man
were living with his parents, as is usually the case,
he would not say good-bye
to his wife at all, but only to his parents. If he
were living alone with his
wife he might say good bye but kissing her would never
do ― at least it would
never do to be caught at it. Young
married people are not supposed to talk to each other
in the hearing of their
parents. In a Korean House it is easy to hear what is
said in the adjoining
room and even at night, after retiring, if the young
couple should talk the
father would call out: “Be still
there! What are you young things making
such a noise about?” When
told that in America or Europe it is customary for a
lady to sit while the
gentleman being introduced to her must rise and bow
they all agreed that it was
strange the foreigners should have customs turned
upside down like this, and
treat woman is if she were man’s superior. In
Korea, to use Mr. Chun’s words, “The young woman must
honor her husband as if
he were a king and must obey her father-in-law and
mother-in-law as her own
parents.
S.
F. MOORE. Odds
and
Ends. Prophecy Prophecy
has
played no small part in the his-tory of Korea. Almost
every event of great
significance has been preceded by omens and signs or
else by [page 114] direct
verbal prophecy. It is quite natural for us to imagine
that these traditions
originated after the events to which they referred and
we are pretty safe in so
believing, but we must bear in mind that for hundreds
of years there has been a
prophecy extant to the effect that at some future time
the capital of Korea
will be at Kye-ryong San in Ch’ung-ch’ung Do. When the
founder of this dynasty
sent out a commission to select a place for his new
capital it is said they
went to Kye-ryong San and began to build but were
mysteriously warned that that
was a site reserved for the capital of a future
dynasty. The plain beneath that
mountain is scattered with cut stones which are said
to be remains of that
mistaken attempt. This site is well described by the
late Rev. D. L. Gifford in
The Korean Repository. Here then at least we have one
prophecy which we know to
be prior to the event. The Koreans seem to accept it
as worthy of belief though
they, as well as we, hope the time is still far off.
In connection with this
prophecy it is said that in 1394 the founder of the
dynasty had a dream in
which he saw a hen snap off the head of a silk-worm.
No one could explain it
till a courtier with unaccountable temerity suggested
that the hen was the Kye
of Kye-ryong and the silkworm’s head was Chamdu (silk
worm’s head) which is
applied to the bold western spur of Nam San in this
city. In other words the
dynasty whose seat was to be at Kye-ryong San would
destroy this dynasty. Of
course there was nothing to do but pronounce the death
penalty. Mathematics
vs.
Chinese.
Even
in
Korea we sometimes run across an instance where the
study of Chinese is not
the all in all of a successful life. In the reign of
Hon-jong Ta-wang
(1835-1850) a man named Sin had a grandson who at
eight years old refused to
study, but spent all his time in play. After
exhausting every argument both
mental and corporal the grandfather placed a measure
of wheat before the boy
and told him that if he did not count them all before
night he would receive a
severe whipping. The boy listened in silence and when
his grandfather had gone
resumed his play as if nothing had happened. All day
he played until the sun
was within half an hour of the western horizon. Then
he called for a pair of
scales and weighing out a couple of ounces he
proceeded to count them. Then he
weighed the [page 115] whole measure of wheat and by a
simple arithmetical
process estimated the whole number. When the
grandfather entered, after
learning from the boy’s tutor that he had been playing
all day, he asked
severely how many grains of wheat the measure
contained. The boy glanced contemptuously
at it and said “Thirty-seven thousand six hundred and
eighty-four.” The old
gentleman of course thought the boy was merely
guessing at it and said as much,
but the youngster said if he did not believe it he
might count them himself and
see. The grandfather wanted to be just, so he called
in a dozen men and by
working all night they found that the boy was exactly
right. The lad grew up to
be the celebrated General Sin Gwang-hu. The
Story
did it.
Yung-jong
Ta-wang cherished a great affection for his mother to
whom he gave a separate
palace just to the north-west of the Kyong-bok Palace.
Her servants knew the
King could not deny her anything and they knew she
would shield them from
punishment whatever they might do. One day they fell
to beating a wine merchant
because he insisted upon their paying for the wine
they had imbibed. They were
consequently arrested and thrown into jail by command
of the Minister of Law.
When the Queen’s mother heard of it she hastened to
ask the King to depose and
execute the Minister of Law. He was immediately seized
and the death penalty
pronounced, but being given leave to speak he said: “Once
on a time an aged couple lived in Seoul with their
only son who was a
hunch-back. They had sought everywhere for means to
cure him but of course
without avail. One day as they sat in their little
room they heard someone
going along the street calling out “Hunch-backs
straightened! Hunch-ba-a-a-acks
straightened!” They rushed to the door and called him
in. He said he could
straighten their son’s back quite easily and after
pocketing a modest fee he
called for a block and a mallet. He bound the cripple
to the block and then by
one tremendous blow of the mallet straightened the
poor fellow’s back—but of
course it killed him. Whereupon the parents fell upon
the mender and were like
to tear him to pieces. But he shook them off and
remarked calmly ‘I simply
engaged to straighten his back and I have done it.’ So
when Your Majesty
appointed me to execute the laws I did it faith- [page
116] fully and if it
became necessary to punish the servants of Your
Majesty’s august mother I could
not shrink from the responsibility. It should have
been stipulated in advance
that they were not amenable to the laws of the land.”
The King cried “Strike
off his bands. He is a better man than I.” Cinderella.
There
was to be a great gala day and the wicked step-mother
said to Cinderella: “You
cannot go until you have husked a bag of rice and
filled this broken crock with
water” And off she went with her favorite daughter to
enjoy the festival. Poor
Cinderella sat down in despair but a rush of wings and
a clamorous twittering
made her look up. And there she saw a flock of birds
fluttering about the rice,
and in a trice they had it all husked for her. And
then an imp crawled out of
the fire-hole and mended the crack in the water jar so
that she filled it in a
moment. Then off she went to the picnic and had the
best time of them all in
spite of her step-mother’s ugly looks. The
next time, the step-mother said “You must hoe out all
the weeds in this field
before you can go,” and left her weeping, but a great
black cow came out of the
woods and ate up all the weeds in ten mouthfuls. She
followed the cow into the
woods and there found some most delicious fruit which
she gathered and took to
the festival. Her jealous sister asked about it and
when told about the cow
determined to get some fruit like that herself. So the
next gala day she stayed
at home and let Cinderella go. The cow came out of the
woods as before but when
the girl followed it led her through tangled thorn
bushes where her face was
scratched until her shallow beauty was all gone. An
Engineering feat.
Let
no one say hereafter that the Koreans are not
ingenious. They say that when the
present East Gate was built they found that it was not
plumb, but leaned toward
the East. So they made long ropes of hemp and tied
them to the top of the gate
while the other ends were fastened to the Water Gauge
Bridge [수표다리] a mile and a
half away! When it rained
[page 117] of
course
the ropes shrank and drew the gate into place. This
was irrespective of
the fact that the bridge is perhaps a tenth as heavy
as the gate. Brains vs.
Muscle. When
the tiger and the rabbit met the former smiled grimly
and licked his jaws in
pleasant anticipation but the rabbit summoned all his
wits to his aid and said; “Look
here, I would hardly make a good mouthful for such a
big chap as you. I will
show you how to get a square meal.” The
tiger looked interested. “Come
and lie down here on this ice in this clear spot and
keep perfectly still and I
will go around and drive the game right down to you.
But you must keep your eyes
tightly closed until I give you the signal. Even when
you hear a crackling
noise do not open your eyes; that is only the game
approaching and if you open
your eyes the animals will see you and flee.” So
the tiger lay down on the ice and closed his eyes and
waited patiently. At last
he heard a rustling sound but did not open his eyes
until he heard the rabbit
call; when behold, all about him was piled a heap of
brushwood that the rabbit
had gathered and set on fire. He attempted to spring
over it but found that his
shaggy hair was frozen to the ice and he could net
move. And so he burned to
death. Editorial
Comment. In
the January number we began our review of the status
of Korea at the beginning
of the century by affirming that the civilized nations
of the earth are joined
in a federation of amity and concord. Some exceptions
have been taken to this
statement. Our purpose is not to make excuse for the
statement but’ to reaffirm
it, for there has been no serious talk of declaring
war with China. Our treaties
with her have not been abrogated, our ministers have
not been recalled.
Relations have been, strained by the-fact that parties
[page 118] who had no
intrinsic right to interfere in the management of
Chinese affairs overawed and
for the time held in their power the government at
Peking but no one has ever
doubted that if the Emperor of China, the sole source
of authority, could be
once gotten out of rebellious hands the former
friendly relations would be
resumed. So much for China. As for the South African
war that is an affair
within the confines of the British Empire and, though
perhaps inter-racial, it
is not international. It is true that every power
capable of signing a treaty
has done so and is at peace with every other power.
Korea was the last to come
into line; whether she did SO willingly or unwillingly
makes no difference so
long as she today accepts her position. Again
we find that every industrial change disorganizes the
ranks of labor until the
transition period is past and that very
disorganization may be called a sign of
better times to come, just as the introduction of
power looms into England
caused widespread suffering for a time but was
followed by marked improvement
in the condition of the laboring classes. Our purpose
was to leave this
impression in regard to the transition stage in which
Korean labor now finds
itself but we did not deem it necessary to go into all
the details, supposing
of course that much might be left to the penetration
of the reader. As we said,
the cost of living has increased faster than the wages
of labor but the result
must be in Korea is in every other land that wages
will catch up in the long
run and be even more satisfactory than before. Wages
have already gone up in a
remarkable manner. All artisans, such as carpenters,
masons etc, receive today
from fifty to sixty percent more than they did ten
years ago but as yet this is
not enough, for rice has gone up eighty or a hundred
percent. That an
equilibrium, at least, will be attained no one can
doubt. News
Calendar. About
the beginning of March a Japanese resident of Chemulpo
named Yoshigawa demanded
that the Koreans on [page 119] Roze Island in Chemulpo
harbor be removed as the
island had been purchased by himself. The matter was
referred by the Kamni of
Chemulpo to the government at Seoul. The
investigation which followed has caused considerable
disturbance in high
places. In the course of the investigation Kim
Yung-jun was accused of having
instigated the anonymous letters which were received
by the foreign representatives,
which were mentioned in the January number of the
Review, Charges and
counter-charges were made in a rather promiscuous
manner and the result is that
the finding of the Supreme Court reads as follows: In
the tenth moon of last
year when Kim Yung-jun was consulted in regard to the
matter of Roze Island he
said that there was one way out of the difficulty,
namely to send letters to
the Legations threatening them with destruction and in
the confusion consequent
upon this to kill four leading men (whose names need
not appear here) and
reconstruct the government. In this case the matter of
Roze Island would become
insignificant. The
Supreme Court condemned Kim Yung-jun to be strangled,
Chu Suk-myon to be
banished for life for having withheld important
information, Min Gyung-sik to
be banished for fifteen years for not having given
information immediately
about the anonymous letters and Kim Gye-p’il to be
banished for three years for
having been implicated in sending the anonymous
letters. The
sentence of death was executed upon Kim Yung-jun
during the night of the 18th
inst. Min Yung-jun, Min Yung-sun, Yi Cha-sun and Yi
Chi-yong who were important
witnesses in the case have been exonerated and
released. The
annual stone fights seem to have begun rather sharply,
as three men have
already been killed in them. When the police
interfered with this “amusement,”
as the people call it, a large number of soldiers
sided with the people and the
mimic war went on in spite of the constabulary. As
Hamlet said of Danish
wassail drinking, this custom of stonefighting is more
honored in the breach
than the observance. It has little to commend it. The
native papers state that His Majesty, the Emperor took
3,000 shares in the
projected Seoul-Fusan Railroad and the Crown Prince,
took 400. [page 120] It
appears that opium smoking has been indulged in by a
considerable number of the
Korean soldiers and active measures are being taken to
put a stop to the
pernicious habit. On
the 5th inst the Foreign Office telegraphed to the
Korean Minister in Tokyo to
return to this country. The
Korean Government has been invited to make an exhibit
at the international
exhibition which is to be held this year in Scotland.
It is not likely that the
Government will see its way to accept the invitation. A
report comes from P’yung-an province that there is a
recrudescence of the
Tong-hak trouble there but that the local authorities
are putting it down with
a strong hand. On
the 8th inst the Government suffered a serious loss in
the burning of the new
mint at Yong-san. It is said to have contained several
hundred thousands of
dollars’ worth of bullion. We wait with impatience to
learn how much of the
melted bullion is recovered from the ruins. The loss
in buildings and machinery
alone runs up into the hundreds of thousands, none of
which is covered by
insurance. The
people of South Ch’ung-ch’ung Province are agitated
over the work of what they
call a female propagandist of the Greek Church, who is
seemingly meeting with a
favorable reception on the part of some few of the
people, in that vicinity. An
order for the arrest of this person was given at the
Police headquarters but it
was countermanded soon afterwards. The
new time-table of the Seoul-Chemulpo R. R. is an
improvement upon the previous
one. Five trains a day each way should be enough to
satisfy even the most
impetuous of us. The time table of this road will
always be accessible in the
advertising columns of the Review. The
French Minister M. Colin de Plancy arrived in Seoul on
the eleventh inst. Cho
Min-heui has been appointed Minister to United States,
Kim Man-su Minister to
France, Min Yung-don Minister to England and Italy, Yi
Pom-jin Minister to
Russia, and Min Ch’ul-hun Minister to Germany. Dr.
and Mrs. H. Baldock returned to Seoul on the 28th ult.
[page 121] Mr.
and Mrs. Bostwick arrived from America on the 6th
inst. The
Korean Ministers to America, England, Italy, France
and Germany will start for
their posts on the 26th inst. Dr.
C. C. Vinton and family returned to Seoul from their
furlough in America on the
12th inst. The
government has purchased all the property belonging to
the Presbyterian Mission
in Chong-dong, Seoul, and we understand that the
missionaries occupying this
property will remove to a site outside the West Gate. E.
V. Morgan Esq., Secretary of the U. S. Legation, has
been appointed Second
Secretary to the U. S. Embassy to Russia and will
leave for his new post this
week. The congratulations and best wishes of a large
circle of friends will go
with him. The Seoul Union and the Korea Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society as
well as the legation are deprived, by his departure,
of a valuable officer. We
do not believe that even the gaiety of a European
Capital will make him forget
the “Land of Morning Freshness.” By
the courtesy of the English Church Mission the
valuable collection of books 011
Korea and the Far East, called the Landis Library, has
been placed in the hands
of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. A
large number of other
similar works have been loaned by Mr. Kenmure, the
Agent of the British and
Foreign Bible society and by others. They are kept for
the present in the
office of the British and Foreign Bible Society and
may be loaned to members of
the Society upon application. The Korea Branch is to
be congratulated on having
this nucleus of a library at this early period in its
career. These books are
merely loaned to the Society but they will be of equal
value to the members as
if they were the property of the Society. On
the 17th inst. a leopard came down into the grounds of
the Kyong-bok Palace and
killed a tame deer. Over a hundred soldiers were sent
to capture the animal,
which they did after an exciting chase. The
budget for the year 1901 has been completed at last
and we give herewith a
summary of its contents: [page 123] The
War
Department. Main
office
41,522 The
army
3,553,389 Total
3,594,911 The
Law
Department. Main
Office
expenses
31,803 The
Supreme
Court
14,895 The
City Court
10,076 Total
56,774 The
Police
Department. The
Main office
284,918 The
Prisons
19,298 Provincial
Courts
51,462 Police
at Open
Ports
69,386 Travelling
expenses
975 Total
426,039 The
Educational
Department. The
Main Office
$24,774 Observatory
24,774 Schools
105,179 Subsidies
25,140 Private
school
7,960 Students
abroad
15,920 Total
203,747 The
Agricultural
Department The
Main office
32,990 Public
improvements
37,127 Total
70,117 The
Privy
Council. Main
office
17,152 Cavalry
reserves
(?)
56,032 Surveying
bureau. The
Main office
$29,664 Surveys
etc.
100,000 Total
129,664 Bureau
of
decorations. Total
$22,345 Bureau
of
Communications. The
Main office
20,730 Post
office
160,350 Telegraph
office
217,ooo Total
398,080
[page 124] Emergency
fund. Law
revision
............$1,903 Road
and ditch
repairs
40,000 Constabulary
1,000 Petty
repairs.
9,000 Aid
to mariners
who are wrecked etc.
4,000 Pauper
burial
300 Total
56,203 Entertainment
of
Japanese guard Total
$ 480 Audit
of Mines
Total
1,848 Reserve
fund
1,00,000 The
treaty between the Empire of Ta Han and the Kingdom of
Belgium was ratified on
the 23rd inst at the Foreign Office in Seoul. It was
signed by M. Leon Vincart
on the part of Belgium and by Pak Che-sun, Minister of
Foreign Affairs on the
part of Korea.
By a translator’s
mistake we gave in the January number what purported
to be the customs receipts
of Fusan for the past twenty-three years. It should of
course have read “for
the past year.” [page 125] KOREAN
HISTORY. It
must have been about fifty years before the beginning
of our era that King
Ha-bu-ru sat upon the throne of North Pu-yu. His great
sorrow was that
Providence had not given him a son. Riding one day in
the forest he reached the
bank of a swift rushing stream and there dismounting
he besought the Great
Spirit to grant him a soil. Turning to remount he
found the horse standing with
bowed head before a great boulder while tears were
rolling down its face. He
turned the boulder over and found beneath it a child
of the color of gold but
with a form resembling a toad. He gave it the name
Keum-wa or ‘‘Golden Toad.” Arriving
at the age of manhood, Keum-wa looked about for a
wife. As he was walking along
the shore of U-bal-su (whether river or sea we do not
know) he found a maiden
crying. Her name was Yu-wha, “Willow Catkin.” To his
inquiries she replied that
she was daughter of the Sea King, Ha-bak, but that she
had been driven from
home because she had been enticed away and ravished by
a spirit called
Ha-mo-su. Keum-wa took her home as his wife but shut
her in a room to which the
sun-light had access only by a single minute aperture.
Marvelous to relate a
ray of light entered and followed her to whatever part
of the room she went. By
it she conceived and in due time gave birth to an egg,
as large as five “measures.”
Keum-wa in anger threw it to the pigs and dogs but
they would not touch it.
Cattle and horses breathed upon it to give it warmth.
A stork from heaven
settled down upon it and warmed it beneath her
feathers. Keum-wa relented and
allowed Yu-wha to bring it to the palace, where she
wrapped it in silk and
cotton. At last it burst and disclosed a fine boy.
This precocious youth at
seven years of age was so expert with the bow that he
won the name of Chu-mong,
“Skillful Archer.” He was not a favorite with the
people and they tried to
compass his death but the king protected him and made
him keeper of the royal
stables. Like Jacob of Holy Writ he brought his wits
to bear upon the
situation. By fattening the poorer horses and making
the good ones lean he
succeeded in reserving for his own use the [page 126]
fleetest steeds. Thus in
the hunt he always led the rout and secured the lion’s
share of the game. For
this his seven brothers hated him and determined upon
his death. By night his
mother sought his bed-side and whispered the word of
warning. Chu-mong arose
and with three trusty councillors, O-i, Ma-ri and
Hyup-pu, fled southward until
he found his path blocked by the Eum-ho River. There
was neither boat, bridge
nor ford. Striking the surface of the water with his
bow he called upon the
spirit of the river to aid him, for behind him the
plain smoked with the
pursuing hoof-beats of his brothers’ horses. Instantly
there came up from the
depths of the river a shoal of fish and tortoises who
lay their backs together
and thus bridged the stream. Fantastic
as this story seems, it may have an important bearing
upon the question of the
location of Pu-yu. Can we not see in this great shoal
of fish a reference to
the salmon which, at certain seasons, run up the Amur
and its tributaries in
such numbers that the water is literally crowded with
them? If there is any
weight to this argument the kingdom of Pu-yu, from
which Chu-mong came, must
have been, as some believe, along the Sungari or some
other tributary of the
Amur. Leaving
his brothers baffled on the northern bank, Chu-mong
fared southward till he
reached Mo-tun-gok by the Po-sul River where he met
three men, Cha-sa, clothed
in grass cloth, Mu-gol in priestly garb and Muk-hu, in
seaweed. They joined his
retinue and proceeded with him to Chul-bon, the
present town of Song-ch’un,
where he founded a kingdom. He gave it the name of
Ko-gu-ryu from Ko, his
family name and Ku-ryu, a mountain in his native
Pu-yu, Some say the Ko is from
the Chinese Kao, “high,” referring to his origin. This
kingdom is also known by
the name Chul-bon Pu-yu. It is said that Pu-ryu River
flowed by the capital.
These events occurred, if at all, in the year 37 B. C.
This was all Chinese
land, for it was a part of the great province of
Tong-bu which had been erected
by the Emperor So-je (Chao-ti) in 81 B. C. Only one
authority mentions Chu-mong’s
relations with Tong-bu. This says that when he erected
his capital at Chul-bon
he seized Tong-bu. China had probably held these
provinces with a very light
hand and the founding of a [page 127] vigorous native
monarchy would be likely
to attract the semi- barbarous people of northern
Korea. Besides, the young Ko
gu-ryu did not seize the whole territory at once but
gradually absorbed it. It
is not unlikely that China looked with complacency
upon a native ruler who,
while recognising her suzerainty, could at the same
time hold in check the
fierce denizens of the peninsula. We
are told that the soil of Kogu-ryu was fertile and
that the cereals grew
abundantly. The land was famous for its fine horses
and its red jade, its blue
squirrel skins and its pearls. Chu-mong inclosed his
capital in a heavy
stockade and built store-houses and a prison. At its
best the country stretched
a thousand li beyond the Yalu River and southward to
the banks of the Han. It
comprised the Nang-nang tribe from which Emperor Mu-je
named the whole
north-western portion of Korea when he divided
northern Korea into four
provinces. On the east was Ok-ju and on its north was
Pu-yu. It contained two
races of people, one living among the mountains and
the ether in the plains. It
is said they had a five-fold origin. There were the
So-ro-bu, Chul-lo-bu.
Sun-no bu, Kwan-no-bu and Kye-ro-bu. The kings at
first came from the So-ro-bu
line but afterwards from the Kye-ro-bu. This probable
refers to certain family
clans or parties which existed at the time of
Chu-mong’s arrival and which were
not discontinued. Chu-mong is said to have married the
daughter of the king of
Chul-bon and so he came into the control of affairs in
a peaceful way and the
institutions of society were not particularly
disturbed. Agriculture
was not extensively followed. In the matter of food
they were very frugal.
Their manners and customs were somewhat like those of
Pu-yu but were not
derived from that kingdom. Though licentious they were
fond of clean clothes.
At night both sexes gathered in a single apartment and
immorality abounded.
Adultery, however, if discovered was severely
punished. In bowing it was
customary for these people to throw out one leg
behind. While travelling, men
more often ran than walked. The worship of spirits was
universal. In the autumn
there was a great religious festival. In the eastern
part of the peninsula
there was a famous cave called Su-sin where a great
religious gathering occurred
each [page 128] autumn. Their religious rites included
singing and drinking. At
the same time captives were set free. They worshipped
likewise on the eve of
battle, slaughtering a bullock and examining the body
for omens. Swords,
arrows and spears were their common weapons. A widow
usually became the wife of
her dead husband’s brother. When a great man died it
was common to bury one or
more men alive with his body. The statement that
sometimes as many as a hundred
were killed is probably an exaggeration. These
characteristics were those of
the Nang-nang people as well as of the rest of
Ko-gu-ryu. The highest official
grades were called Sang-ga-da, No-p’a, Ko-ju-da. Some
say their official grades
were called by the names of animals, as the “horse
grade” the “dog grade” the “cow
grade.” There were special court garments of silk
embroidered with gold and
silver. The court hat was something like the present
kwan or skull-cap. There
were few prisoners. If a man committed a crime he was
summarily tried and executed,
and his wife and children became slaves. Thieves
restored twelve-fold. Marriage
always took place at the bride’s house. The dead were
wrapped in silks and
interred, and commonly the entire fortune of the
deceased was exhausted in the
funeral ceremony. The bodies of criminals were left
unburied. The people were
fierce and violent and thieving was common. They
rapidly corrupted the simpler
and cleaner people of the Ye-mak and Ok-ju tribes. No
sooner had Chu-mong become firmly established in his
new capital than he began
to extend the limits of his kingdom. In 35 B. C. he
began a series of conquests
which resulted in the establishment of a kingdom
destined to defy the power of
China for three quarters of a millennium. His first
operations were against the
wild people to the east of him. The first year he took
Pu-ryu on the Ya-lu,
then in 29 B. C. he tock Hang-in, a district near the
present Myo-hyang San. In
27 B. C. he took Ok-ju, thus extending his kingdom to
the shore of eastern
Korea. In 23 B. C. he learned that his mother had died
in far off Pu-yu and he
sent an embassy thither to do honor to her. The
year 18 B. C beheld the founding of the third of the
great kingdoms which held
the triple sceptre of Korea, and [page 129] we must
therefore turn southward
and examine the events which led up to the founding of
the kingdom of Pak-je. When
Chu-mong fled southward from Pu-yu he left be- hind
him a wife and son. The
latter was named Yu-ri. Tradition says that one day
while playing with pebbles
in the street he accidentally broke a woman’s water
jar. In anger she exclaimed
“You are a child without a father.” The boy went sadly
home and asked his
mother if it was true. She answered yes, in order to
see what the boy would do.
He went out and found a knife and was on the point of
plunging it into his body
when she threw herself upon him saying “Your father is
living and is a great
king in the south. Before he left he hid a token under
a tree, which you are to
find and take to him.” The boy searched everywhere but
could not find the tree.
At last, wearied out, he sat down behind the house in
despair, when suddenly he
heard a sound as of picking, and noticing that it came
from one of the posts of
the house he said “This is the tree and I shall now
find the token.” Digging
beneath the post he unearthed the broken blade of a
sword. With this he started
south and when he reached his father’s palace he
showed the token. His father
produced the other half of the broken blade and as the
two matched he received
the boy and proclaimed him heir to the throne. But
he had two other sons by a wife whom he had taken more
recently. They were
Pi-ryu and On-jo. When Yu-ri appeared on the scene
these two brothers, knowing
how proverbially unsafe the head of a king’s relative
is, feared for their
lives and so fled southward. Ascending Sam-gak San,
the mountain immediately
behind the present Seoul, they surveyed the country
southward. Pi-ryu the elder
chose the country to the westward along the sea. On-jo
chose to go directly
south. So they separated, Pi-ryu going to Mi-ch’u-hol,
now In-ch’un near
Chemulpo, where he made a settlement. On-jo struck
southward into what is now
Ch’ung-ch’ung Province and settled at a place called
Eui-rye-sung, now the
district of Chik-san. There he was given a generous
tract of land by the king
of Ma-han; and he forthwith set up a little kingdom
which he named South Pu-yu.
The origin of the name Pak-je is not definitely known.
Some say it was because
a hundred men constituted the whole of On-jo’s party.
Others say [page 130] that
it was at first called Sip-je and then changed to
Pak-je when their numbers
were swelled by the arrival of Pi-ryu and his party.
The latter had found the
land sterile and the climate unhealthy at Mi-ch’u-hol
and so was constrained to
join his brother again. On the other hand we find the
name Pak-je in the list
of original districts of Ma-han and it is probable
that this new kingdom sprang
up in the district called Pak-je and this name became
so connected with it that
it has come down in history as Pak-je, while in truth
it was not called so by
its own people. It the same way Cho-sun is known today
by the medieval name
Korea. Not long after Pi-ryu rejoined his brother he
died of chagrin at his own
failure. It
must not be imagined that these three kingdoms of
Sil-la, Ko-gu-ryu and Pak-je,
which represented so strongly the centripetal idea in
government, were allowed
to proceed without vigorous protests from the less
civilized tribes about them.
The Mal-gal tribes in the north, the Suk-sin and North
Ok-ju tribe in the
north-east and Ye-mak in the east made fierce attacks
upon them as opportunity
presented. The Mal-gal tribes in particular seem to
have penetrated southward
even to the borders of Pak-je, probably after skirting
the eastern borders of
Ko-gu-ryu. Nominally Ko-gu-ryu held sway even to the
Japan Sea but practically
the wild tribes roamed as yet at will all through the
eastern part of the
peninsula. In the eighth year of On-jo’s reign, 10 B.
C., the Mal-gal forces
besieged his capital and it was only after a most
desperate fight that they
were driven back. On-jo found it necessary to build
the fortresses of
Ma-su-sung and Ch’il-chung-sung to guard against such
inroads. At the same time
the Sun-bi were threatening Ko-gu-ryu on the north,
but Gen. Pu Bun-no lured
them into an ambush and routed them completely. The
king rewarded him with
land, horses and thirty pounds of gold, but the last
he refused. The
next year the wild men pulled down the fortresses
lately erected by King On-jo
and the latter decided that he must find a better site
for his capital. So he
moved it to the present site of Nam-han, about twenty
miles from the present
Seoul. At the same time he sent and informed the king
of Ma-han that he had
found it necessary to move. The following year he
enclosed the town in a wall
and set to work teach- [page 131] ing agriculture to
the people throughout the
valley of the Han River which flowed nearby. In
the year which saw the birth of Christ the situation
of affairs in Korea was as
follows. In the north, Ko-gu-ryu, a vigorous, warlike
kingdom, was making
herself thoroughly feared by her neighbors; in the
central western portion was
the little kingdom of Pak-je, as yet without any
claims to independence but
waiting patiently for the power of Ma-han so to
decline as to make it possible
to play the serpent in the bosom as Wi-man had done to
Ki-ja’s kingdom. In the
south was Sil-la, known as a peaceful power, not
needing the sword because her
rule was so mild and just that people from far and
near flocked to her borders
and craved to become her citizens. It is one of the
compensations of history
that Sil-la, the least martial of them all, in an age
when force seemed the
only arbiter, should have finally overcome them all
and imposed upon them her
laws and her language. Chapter
VII. Change of Ko-gu-ryu
capital .... Sil-la raided .... Legend
of Suk-ta’l-ha .... fall of Ma-han .... beginning of
Chinese enmity against
Ko-gu- ryu .... the three kingdoms differentiated King
Yu-ri degraded .... extension of Ko-gu-ryu ....
Japanese
corsairs .... remnant of Ma- han revolts .... fall of
Pu-yu .... origin of
in-gum .... siege of Ko-gu-ryu capital raised ....
Sil-la’s peaceful policy
.... patronymics .... official grades .... unoccupied
territory .... kingdom of
Ka-rak .... legends .... position .... dependencies. We
read that in 2 A. D. the king of Ko-gu-ryu was about
to sacrifice a pig to his
gods, when the pig escaped and taking to its heels was
chased by the courtier
Sul-chi into the district of Kung-na. He caught the
animal near Wi-na Cliff,
north of the Ch’o-san of today. When he returned he
described the place to the
king as being rough and consequently suitable for the
site of a capital. Deer,
fish and turtles also abounded. He gave such a glowing
account that the king
was fain to move his capital to that place, where it
remained for two hundred
and six years. In
4 A. D. Hyuk-ku-se, the wise king of Sil-la died and
seven days later his queen
followed him. It is said that they [page 132] were so
completely one that
neither could live without the other. Nam-ha his son,
with the title of Ch’a-ch’a-ung,
reigned in his stead. A remnant of the Nang-nang
tribe, hearing of the death of
King Hyuk-ku-se, thought it a fitting time to make a
raid into Sil-la
territory, but they were beaten back. In
the third year of his reign, Nam-ha built a shrine to
his father and then put
the management of the government into the hands of a
man named Suk-t’al-ha who
had become his son-in-law. This man is one of the
noted men of Sil-la and his
origin and rise are among the cherished traditions of
the people. Somewhere
in north-eastern Japan there was a kingdom known as
Ta-p’a-ra and there a
woman, pregnant for seven years, brought forth an egg.
The neighbors thought it
a bad omen and were minded to destroy it but the
mother, aware of their
intentions, wrapped the egg in silk and cotton and
placing it in a strong chest
committed it to the waters of the Japan Sea. In time
it drifted to A-jin Harbor
on the coast of Sil-la where an old fisherwoman drew
it ashore and found upon
opening it that it contained a beautiful child. She
adopted him and reared him
in her humble home. It was noticed that wherever the
child went the magpies
followed him in flocks, so they gave him the name of
Suk, the first part of the
Chinese word for magpie. The second part of his name
was T’al. “to put off”
referring to his having broken forth from the egg, and
the final syllable of
his name was Ha meaning “to open” for the fishwife
opened the chest. This boy
developed into a giant both physically and mentally.
His foster-mother saw in
him the making of a great man, and so gave him what
educational advantages she
could afford. When he had exhausted these she sent him
to enter the service of
the great statesman Pyo-gong the same that had acted
as envoy to Pak-je.
Pyo-gong recognised his merit and introduced him at
court where his rise was so
rapid that ere long he married the king’s daughter and
became vicegerent of the
realm, the king resigning into his hands the greater
part of the business of
state. The
year 9 A. D. beheld the fall of the kingdom of Ma-han.
We remember that Ki-jun
became king of Ma-han in 193 B. C. He died the same
year and was succeeded by
his son Ki-t’ak with the title Kang-wang, who ruled
four years. [page 133] It
was in 58 B. C. that Ki-jun’s descendant Ki-hun (Wun-
wang) ascended the
throne. It was in the second year of his reign that
Sil-la was founded and in
his twenty-second year that Ko-gu-ryu was founded.
After twenty-six years of rule
he died and left his . son, Ki-jung, to hold the
scepter. It was this king who
in his sixteenth year gave On-jo the plot of land
which became the seat of the
kingdom of Pak-je. Twenty-six years had now passed
since that act of
generosity. Pak-je had steadily been growing stronger
and Ma-han had as
steadily dwindled, holding now only the two important
towns of Wun-san and
Kom-hyun. In fact some authorities say that Ma-han
actually came to an end in
16 B. C. at the age of 177 years but that a remnant
still held the towns of
Wun-san and Kom-hyun. The balance of proof is however
with the statement that
Ma-han kept up at least a semblance of a state until 9
A. D. The
first sign of hostile intent on the part of Pak-je
against her host, Ma-han,
had appeared some years before, when Pak-je had thrown
up a line of
breast-works between herself and the capital of
Ma-han. The latter had no
intention of taking the offensive but Pak-je
apparently feared that Ma-han
would divine her hostile intent, Ma-han hastened to
send a message saying “Did
I not give you a hundred li of land? Why do you then
suspect me of hostile
designs?” In answer, Pak-je partly from shame and
partly because she saw that
Ma-han was wholly unsuspicious of her ulterior designs
tore down the barriers and
things went on as before. But now that Ma-han was
utterly weak, the king of
Pak-je decided to settle the matter by one bold
stroke. He organised a great
hunting expedition and under cover of this approached
the Ma-han capital and
took it almost without resistance. Thus, as Wi-man had
paid back the kindness
of Ki-jun by treachery so now again On-jo paid back,
this last descendant of
Ki-jun in the same way. Up
to this time China had looked on with complacency at
the growth of Ko-gu-ryu
but now Wang-mang the usurper had seized the throne of
the Han dynasty. His
title was Hsin Whang-ti. One of his first acts seems
to have been directed
against the powerful little kingdom that had
supplanted the two provinces of
Tong-bu and P’yung-ju into which China had [page 134]
divided northern Korea.
He was probably suspicious of a rapidly growing and
thoroughly warlike power
which might at any time gather to its standards the
wild hordes of the north
and sweep down into China. Here
was the beginning of a long struggle which lasted with
occasional intermissions
until Ko-gu-ryu was finally destroyed some eight
centuries later. Ko-gu-ryu was
uniformly China’s foe and Sil-la was as uniformly her
friend and ally Pak-je
was now one and now the other. It may be in place to
say here that the three
powers that divided the peninsula between them were
strongly differentiated.
Ko-gu-ryu in the north was a strong, energetic,
fierce, unscrupulous military
power, the natural product of her constituent
elements. Sil-la was the very
opposite; always inclined toward peace and willing
oftentimes to make very
large concessions in order to secure it. Her policy
was always to conciliate,
and it was for this mainly that at the last China
chose her as the one to
assume control of the whole peninsula. Pak-je differed
from both the others.
She was as warlike as Ko-gu-ryu but as weak in
military resources as Sil-la.
She therefore found her life one scene of turmoil and
strife and she was the
first of the three to succumb. It
was in 12 A. D. that Wang-mane sent an envoy to Yuri,
king of Ko-gu-ryu,
demanding aid in the work of subduing the wild tribes
of the north. This was
refused by the headstrong Yu-ri, but the Emperor
compelled him. to send certain
troops to accompany the Chinese army. They however
took advantage of every
opportunity to desert, and large numbers of them
formed a marauding band that
penetrated the Liao-tung territory and plundered and
killed on every hand. For
this cause the Emperor sent against Ko-gu-ryu a strong
force under Gen. Om-u,
who speedily brought the recalcitrant Yu-ri to terms,
took away his title of
royalty and left him only the lesser title of Hu or
“Marquis.” From that day
began the policy of reprisals on Chinese territory
which Ko-gu-ryu steadily
pursued until it cost her life. These
were stirring days in all three of the kingdoms of the
peninsula. In 14 A. D.
Ko-gu-ryu extended her territory northward by the
conquest of the Yang-mak
tribe and at the same time she seized a strip of land
beyond the Liao River [page
137] The
marked difference between Ko-gu-ryu and Sil-la was
well illustrated by the
events of this year. While Ko-gu-ryu was reaching out
covetous hands in every
direction and carrying fire and sword into the hamlets
of inoffensive
neighbors, Sil-la was pursuing a course of such good
will to all both without
and within her borders that natives of the wild tribes
to the north of her came
in large numbers and settled on her soil, glad to
become citizens of so kind
and generous a land. The king himself made frequent
tours of the country
alleviating the distress of widows, orphans and
cripples. It was in 32 B. C.
that he changed the name of the six original families
which united in founding
The men of Yang-san, Ko-hu, Ta-su,
Ul-jin, Ka-ri, and of Myung-whal were named
respectively Yi, Ch’oe, Son, Chong,
Pa and Sul. These names will be recognised at once as
among the most common
patronymics in Korea at the present day, which adds
confirmatory evidence that
Korea of today is essentially the Korea of the south.
When we add to this the
fact that the names Pak, Kim, An. Ko, Suk, Yang, So,
Su, Kwun, Pa, Im, Na,
Hyun, Kwak, Ho, Whang, Chang, Sim and Yu originated in
southern Korea the
argument becomes well-nigh conclusive. The only names
of importance that did
not originate in southern Korea are Min, Song, Om,
Cho, and Han; and many of
these originated in what must have been Ma-han
territory. At the same time the
king established seventeen official grades and called
them respectively
I-bul-son, I-ch’uk-son, I-son, P’a-jin-son, Ta-a-son,
A-son, Kil-son, Sa-son,
etc. It
must be remembered, that as yet neither of the “Three
Kingdoms” had begun to
occupy all the territory that nominally belonged to it
or that lay within its “sphere
of influence.” Between them lay large tracts of land
as yet unoccupied except
by wild tribes. It is more than probable that at no
point did any of these
kingdoms actually touch each other. Ko-gu-ryu was
broadening out northwards,
Pak-je was at a standstill and Sil-la was growing
rather by immigration than by
occupation of new territory. As yet Sil-la had taken
but four districts outside
of the original six, and so we see that a large part
of the south was still in
the hands of the original inhabitants as given in the
list of the settlements
of the three Hans. In 41 A. D. the nine districts
whose names ended in [page 138]
kan, namely A-do-gan, Yo-do-gan, P’i-do-gan, O-do-gan.
Yu-su-gan, Yu-ch’un-gan,
Sin-ch’un-gan, Sin-gwi-gan and O-ch’un-gan, formed a
confederacy and called it
the “Kingdom of Ka-rak”. They placed their capital at
Ka-rak, the present town
of Kim-ha, and made Keum Su-ro their king. Tradition
says that he obtained his
Queen in the following way. A boat approached the
shore bearing a beautiful
woman, Queen Ho, whose ornamental name was Whang-ok or
“Yellow Jade”. She came
from the far southern kingdom of A-yu-t’a, otherwise
known as Ch’un-ch’uk. It
is said that she lived a hundred and fifty-seven years
and that the king
survived her one year. All that is told us of the
history of this rival of
Sil-la is the list of her kings which will be found in
the chronological
tables. After an existence of 491 years it came to an
end in the reign of the
Sil-la king Pup-heung. It is also affirmed that when
Sil-la fell in 935, some
worthless wretches who defiled the grave of Keum Su-ro
were mysteriously
killed, one by the falling of a beam, one by an
invisible archer and nine
others by a serpent eighteen feet long. The records
say that when the Japanese,
at the time of the great invasion three centuries ago,
dug open this king’s
grave they found great store of gold and jade. The
skull of the monarch was of
prodigious size, and beside his body lay two women
whose features were well
preserved but which dissolved and melted away when
exposed to the air. It is
barely possible that we here have an indication that
embalming was practiced,
but if so we have no other intimation of it. Ka-rak
extended eastward as far as Wang-san River, six miles
to the west of the
present Yang-san; to the north-east as far as Ka-ya
San, the present Ko-ryung;
to the south and south-west as far as the coast and on
the west to Chi-ri San.
From this we see that it was little inferior to Sil-la
in size. Ka-rak
had five dependencies, namely the districts known
under the common name of
Ka-ya. They were So-ga-ya, Ko-ryung-ga-ya,
Song-san-ga-ya, Ta-ga-ya and
A-ra-ga-ya. They correspond respectively to the
present towns of Ko-sung,
Ham-ch’ang Sung-ju, Ko-ryung and Ham-an. Tradition
says that one day when the
chiefs of the nine tribes of Ka-rak were banqueting
they saw upon the slope of
Sung-bong, called also Ku-yu-bong, a singular cloud.
From the sky [page 139] above
it came a voice. They hastened up the mountain and
there found a golden box
containing six golden eggs. These opened and disclosed
six boys. One of the was
Keum-Su-ro who became king 0f Ka-rak and the other
five were made chiefs of the
five Ka-ya, subject to Ka-rak. Of these Ka-ya states
we know the founder of
only one. He was descended from Kyon-mo-ju, the female
divinity of Ka-ya
Mountain who wedded a celestial being, Yi-ja-ga. Their
off-spring was
Yi-i-a-si, who founded one of the Ka-ya states. The
Ka-ya states fell before
Sil-la some five hundred years later in the reign of
King Chin-heung. Chapter
VIII. Vicissitudes
of Ko-gu-ryu .... last Ma-han chief joins Sil-la ....
Pak-je and Sil-la become
sworn enemies .... legend of Kye-rim .... Pak-je
worsted .... Ko-gu-ryu’s
strength on the increase .... Sil-la’s rapid growth
.... Ka-ya attacks Sil-la
.... Ko-gu-ryu make compact with Ye-mak .... Su-sung’s
evil reign
roads in Sil-la .... Japanese raid ....
legend .... an epicurean .... Pak-je’s victory ....
origin of government loans
.... Yun-u’s trickery .... capital of Ko-gu-ryu moved
... wild tribes attack
Sil-la .... democratic ideas in Sil-la .... Ko-gu-ryu
breaks with China ....
and attacks Sil-la .... China invades Ko-gu-ryu ....
the king retreats ....
relieved through treachery .... capital of Ko-gu-ryu
moved to P’yung-yang…. beginning
of feud betweenKorea and Japan .... reforms in Pak-je
.... third century closes
.... progress of Sil-la how Eul-bul became king of
Ko-gu-yu .... a noble lady
of Sil-la is sent to Japan. Mu-hyul,
the third king of Ko-gu-ryu died in 45, leaving the
kingdom to the tender
mercies of his son a worthless debauchee. Four years
later He in turn made way
for Ha-u, a member of a collateral branch of the
family. Following the
traditions of of Ko-gu-ryu this ruler professed
loyalty to China 011 the one
hand and seized all the Chinese territory he could lay
hands on, on the other.
In 54 he was assassinated by one Tu-no and the seven
year old grandson of king
Yu-ri was placed on the throne, a regent being
appointed to carry 0n the
government until the boy reached his majority. The
good work continued. Ten
forts were built in western Liao-tung to guard against
Chinese advances, which
shows that she had regained nearly all the territory
she had lost at the hands
0f [page 140] the parvenu Wang-mang. The following
year she took formal
possession of the territory of Ok-ju on the eastern
coast. In
the year 58 Yu-ri, the third king of Sil-la died. He
must not be confounded
with Yu-ri the second king of Ko-gu-ryu. The sound is
the same but the
character is different. It was he who had the
difference of opinion with Suk-t’al-ha
in regard to the succession. As he died without issue
the reins of government
naturally passed into the hands of the aged statesman
Suk-t’al-ha, He was
sixty-two years old when he assumed the cares of
royalty. In his fifth year the
one remaining Ma-han chief, Mang-so, who had escaped
the appetite of Pak-je,
went over to Sil-la, as he concluded it was no longer
possible to prolong a
hopeless struggle against Pak-je. Pok-am fortress thus
passed into the hands of
Sil-la. Strange to say Pak-je not only did not resent
this but even made
overtures to Sil-la for a friendly meeting of their
respective kings in the
following year. Sil-la refused to sanction this, and
the rebuff was too much
for the equanimity of Pak-je. From that day the
attitude of Pak-je toward
Sil-la was one of studied hostility, broken only by an
occasional spasmodic
attempt at reconciliation. Among the three kingdoms,
Sil-la was the only one
that preserved her dignity intact and kept herself
untainted by the charge
either of avarice or pusillanimity. The
year 66 brought forth another of those wonders that
embellish the legendary
lore of Korea. The king of Sil-la was wakened one
night by the loud cackling of
a hen, which seemed to come from a forest to the
south. A messenger was sent to
see what was the cause of the disturbance and he found
a box hanging from the
branch of a tree, while 0n the ground beneath it there
cluttered a white hen.
When the box was placed before the king and he had
opened it a handsome child
was found. It received the name Keum Yun-ji. Some say
this Yun-ji was merely a
part of the name while others affirm that it is a pure
Sil-la word meaning “baby”.
Up to this time the kingdom had been called Su-ra-bul
but now the King changed
it to Kye-rim, Kye meaning “hen” and rim meaning
‘‘woods.” So the kingdom was
called “Hen in the Woods”, not a very dignified name
but one, perhaps, that
fitted well the military prowess of the kingdom. In
68 Pak-je deemed herself strong enough to undertake
[page 141] operations
against Sil-la. She began by seizing the fortress of
Wa-san. She enjoyed
possession of it for nine years but in the end she
paid dear, for it was
retaken by Sil-la and the Pak-je garrison was put to
the sword. This year also
saw a continuation of Ko-gu-ryu’s forward policy and
the little settlement of
Kal-sa which had been made by Pu-yu fugitives was
absorbed. She followed this
up by the conquest of Chu-ra farther north. Her
military strength seems to have
been on the rapid increase. In
So the great Suk-t’al-ha died and was succeeded by the
son of King Nam-ha. He
must have been of advanced age and yet not so old as
to prevent his becoming
the greatest conqueror that Sil-la ever produced.
During the thirty-two years
of his reign he added to the Sil-la crown the
districts of Eum-jip-pul, Ap-to,
Pi-ji, Ta-bul, Ch’o-p’al, and Sil-jik. These together
with U-si and Ku-ch’il,
which and been added the year before his accession,
formed a considerable
increase in the
territory of the kingdom and added not a little to
Sil-la’s reputation as a
military power. This king, P’a-sa, was one of those
men who seem to take hold
of affairs by the right end and wring success from
seeming failure. He was as
great an administrator as he was mild a conqueror. He
attended so carefully to
the needs of the people that it is said that during
most of his reign food was
so plentiful that the wayfarer needed no money to pay
for food or lodgings
along the road. The
kingdom of Ka-ya, whose origin we noted in the
previous chapter, now assumed
the offensive against Sil-la. The first intimation we
have of this is the fact
that Sil-la in 88 built two forts named Ka-so and
Ma-du, the first of which was
to guard against the encroachments of Pak-je and the
second to guard against
those of Ka-ya. It was not till three years later that
Ka-ya actually opened
hostilities by inaugurating an expedition against
Sil-la. As the event is not
disclosed by the annalists we may conclude that it was
unsuccessful. Ko-gu-ryu
now extended the field of her military operations. She
made friends with the people
of Ye-mak, to the east, and together with them began a
series of raids into
Chinese territory beyond the northern borders. The
sixth king of Ko-gu-ryu, T’a-jo
Wang, had now reached the sixty-ninth year of his
reign so he turned over to
his brother, Su-sung, [page 142] the administration of
affairs. This brother
was as ambitions as the king and continued the league
with Ye-mak and the
encroachments upon China. But he was disloyal to his
brother and tried to form
a combination against him. In this he was not
successful. The reign of this T’a-jo
Wang was the longest one on record in Korean annals.
He held the scepter
ninety-four years, thereby sorely trying the patience
of his heir apparent.
That gentleman came to the throne at the green old age
of seventy-six, in the
year 147 A. D. He showed however that his memory had
not yet failed him for one
of his first acts was to a arrest and put to death all
the wise men who had
chidden him for attempting to unseat his brother. Ko
Pok-chang a celebrated
scholar of that day was so overwhelmed in view of this
barbarous act that he
asked to be destroyed with the rest of the wise men, a
wish that was probably
granted. One day this singular monarch having seen a
white fox cross his path,
an evil omen, asked a soothsayer what it might
portend. That individual
suggested that if the king should reform even the
worst of omens would turn out
happily. The soothsayer lost his head as a result of
his candor; but from that
day on, whenever the King wanted to consult a
soothsayer he found that they
were all engaged in important work at some distant
point. King
Il-seung of Sil-la whose reign began 134 was the first
to pay attention to the
building of good roads throughout the country. In his
fifth year he built a
road from his capital to Chuk-yun, now Pung-geui, and
another one over Kye-ip
Pass. These became very important thoroughfares. We
also find that his
successor continued this good work by opening roads
thro to the north of the
kingdom. These kings were not many years behind the
Romans in recognising the
vast importance of good roads both for administrative
and military purposes. The
relations between Sil-la and Japan are graphically
described in the single
statement that when someone circulated in the capital
the rumor that a company
of Japanese were coming the people fled precipitately
from the city until it
was half depopulated. When the mistake was discovered
they gradually came back. The
interesting legend of Yung-o and Se-o belongs to the
year 158, though it
scarcely merits the “once upon a time” of [page 143] a
nursery tale. Yung-o a
poor fisherman lived with his wife Se-o beside the
waters of the Japan Sea on
the eastern shore of Sil-la. One day as Yung-o was
seated on a great boulder
beside the water, fishing, he felt the rock tremble
and then rise straight in
air. He was carried, to his great consternation,
eastward across the sea and
deposited in a Japanese village. The Japanese folk
took him for a god and made
him their king at once. When his wife found that he
did not return from fishing
she went in search of him. Ascending the same rock
that had carried him to
Japan she experienced the same novel extradition that
had so surprised her
spouse. She found him metamorphosed into a king and
was nothing loath to become
queen. But their departure brought disaster to Sil-la
for the sun and moon were
darkened and the land was shrouded in gloom. The
sooth-sayers said it was
because someone had gone to Japan, An envoy was sent
post haste to those
islands in search of the fugitives, but found to his
dismay that they had
become king and queen of one of the kingdoms there. He
told his story and
besought them to return, but they seemed well
satisfied with the change. Se-o
however brought out a roll of silk and gave it to the
envoy saying that if the
king of Sil-la would spread it out and sacrifice upon
it the light would
return. The event Droved the truth or her statement
and when the king uttered
the words of invocation the sunlight burst forth again
and all was well. It is
an interesting but melancholy fact that most of the
arguments used to show a
Korean origin of things Japanese are based upon
evidence nearly if not quite as
credible as this story. The Japanese work entitled the
Kojiki bears the same
relation to the carefully detailed history of Sil-la
that the Niebelungenlied
bears to the works of
Tacitus. When
the time came for Su-sung, the sanguinary king of
Ko-gu-ryu to die a young
scapegrace by the name of Ch’a-da came to the throne.
His idea of royalty was
that it consisted in one long orgie. He attempted to
carry out his ideal but
was cut short within a year by the assassin’s knife.
His motto, in his own
words, was “Who does not wish to enjoy life?”
Epicureanism may have existed in
Korea before but it had never had so frank a disciple.
Pak-ko a relative of the
murdered king was called from a mountain fastness
whither [page 144] he had led
for safety. They had to ask him three times before
they could convince him that
it was not a mere decoy. By
the year 168 either Pak-je had grown so strong or
Sil-la so weak that the
former deemed it a fit time to make a grand
demonstration all along Sil-la’s
western border. It is said she carried back a thousand
captives to grace her
triumph. Sil-la, though filled with rage, was not in
condition to return the
compliment in kind. She however sent an urgent letter
pointing out the
advantages of peace and asking that the captives be
returned. We may imagine
how this was received by the proud army flushed as it
must have been by an
unwonted victory. About
this time was begun one of the ancient customs of
Korea that has ever since
exerted an important influence upon the life of the
people. While hunting the
met a man weeping bitterly and upon being asked what
was the matter replied
that he had not a grain of food to give his parents.
Thereupon the king gave
him an order on the government granary with the
understanding that when autumn
came he should pay it back. Thus originated the
whan-sang or custom of making
government loans in the spring to be paid back with
interest in the autumn.
When this king died he was succeeded by the grandson
of old Suk-t’al-ha. He
took in hand the work of instilling new life into the
well-nigh dead bones of
Sil-la. His first action was to establish two military
stations at the capital
so that it might not be at the mercy of the first
adventurer that might pass
that way. He also ordered the people to pay less
attention to the construction
of fine government buildings and more to agriculture,
the back bone of the
state. Nam-mu
the tenth king of Ko-gu-ryu died at night and the
queen, desiring to gain an
extension of her power, slipped out of the palace and
hastened to the house of
the king’s oldest brother Pal-gi. She stated the case
and urged him to hasten
to the palace and assume the royal prerogative. He
refused to believe that the
king was dead and accused her of immodesty. She then
hurried to the house of
the younger brother Yun-u and repeated the story. The
young man accompanied her
and when morning broke it was found that he was
established in the palace and
ready to meet all comers. Pal-gi raged and cursed. He
stormed the palace with
his retainers, but being unsuccessful, was fain to
beat a retreat to Liao-tung.
THE
KOREA
REVIEW, April 1901 [page
145] A Vagary
of Fortune. A
Korean Romance. “Your
son will die on his eighteenth birthday precisely at
noon.” Three
men were standing on a ledge of rock high up on a
mountain side in central
Korea. Behind them, built into the side of the cliff,
half cave and half hut,
was the home of a holy recluse. Before them the sun
was sinking to rest behind
a serrated line of mountain peaks that formed the.
western horizon: but the
thoughts of these three men were neither on the hut
behind nor on the scene
before them. The most striking figure of the three was
that of the hermit whose
long scanty beard exaggerated the thinness of his face
and whose eye, lit by the
true ascetic fire, showed the power of mind to
out-live matter. The
second figure was that of a high-born Korean, somewhat
past middle age, dressed
in the flowing robes that make the Korean gentleman
the most dignified of all
the dwellers in the Far East. The imperiousness of his
mien and of his eye
showed a man born to command. He was, in sooth, the
Prime Minister of Korea. Beside
him stood his only son, Sun-chang-i, a boy of fifteen
years. “Your
son will die on his eighteenth birthday precisely at
noon.” The
Prime Minister had not been able to withstand the
temptation to look into the
future and assure himself of the boy’s success in life
and this doom had been
pronounced not by an ordinary fortune-teller, or
mudang, but by the saintliest
hermit in the land. [page 146] The
father’s face bore a look of defiance against fate
itself as he seized the boy’s
hand and led him rapidly down the steep path to the
valley below where his
escort awaited him. But the hermit remained standings
on the mountain crag
looking away into the distance with prophetic eye,
careless alike of life or
death. As
an embassy was about to be dispatched to the court at
Peking; the Prime
Minister secured an appointment in it for the boy and
when he set out bade him
consult the best diviner in that capital and see if
the prophecy would be
confirmed. When
Sun-chang-i came before that venerable man and told
his story the old man shook
his head and said: “It
is true. You must die on your eighteenth birthday” but
after looking intently
at the boy for some time he seized a pen and wrote a
single sentence. Handing
it to the boy he said: “If
there is anything that can save you it is that.”
Sun-chan-i took it with
trembling hands and read the peculiar words. “It
is a great wrong for a nobleman to kill a slave
without good cause but how much
worse is it for a wife to kill her husband!” Pondering this
in his mind he turned his
foot-steps toward his distant home but the harder he
thought the more
bewildered he became. What possible relation could
there he between him and
nobleman’s killing a slave or a wife’s killing her
husband? Yet he was willing
to use every possible means to avert his fate and so
he put the piece of paper
in his chumoni or pouch and kept it safe. While
he was absent from home on this journey an event
occurred in Korea that had an
important bearing upon his career and so we must leave
him for the time, and go
back to his father’s house. As
the Prime Minister sat in his official reception room
attending to the business
of the office an attendant entered and announced that
there was a criminal case
to be considered. A slave had attacked his master and
beaten him almost to
death. The case was clear. The prisoner himself did
not deny the charge. The
Minister in his indignation ordered the prisoner to be
treated as a capital
criminal, to have his [page 147] head struck off, to
have his wife strangled
and to have his son tortured and finally killed It was
done and the whole
family was destroyed, as the minister thought; but one
member of it had been
overlooked. A young girl, named Yi Wha, stood by while
her father and mother
were executed. As
she witnessed the awful spectacle her very soul seemed
to be on fire. All purer
and better emotions were dried up within her, the
spirit of revenge flooded her
whole being and took possession of every part. Life
lay before her not full of
promise and hope but of black despair, valuable only
as it offered an
opportunity to avenge the unmerited suffering of her
mother and brother. This
one ambition took possession of her and her first step
showed the depth of its
hold upon her. She would not seek a hasty revenue. It
should be maturely
planned and carried out in such a manner that there
should be no possibility of
failure. She gathered together her few wretched
garments and throwing the
bundle over her shoulder started for the country
begging her way as she went.
She entered the mountainous country to the east and
pushed on until she was in
the midst of a wild and uninhabited district where she
left the road and made
her way up the side of a thickly wooded mountain. She
searched until she found
a comparatively level spot and there she made herself
a hut of branches and
turf. The next day saw her gathering wood and carrying
it to the neighboring
village and selling it for a pittance. She also made a
little garden beside her
hut and planted it, but her main work was the
gathering and selling of wood. A
year passed by at the end of which she made a journey
to the capital and
returned with a beautiful sword hidden beneath her
skirt. It represented the
earnings of a whole year. From this time on she
gathered and sold only enough
wood to procure the food that was necessary to keep
body and soul together. But
she spent a greater part of her time in another and
more mysterious manner. She
had cleared a round open space in front of her hut and
made it smooth and hard
and there hour after hour and day after day she girded
up her skirt with a rope
belt and with the flashing weapon in hand practiced
the sword dance. During the
intervals of rest she seated her sell before a smooth
hard stone and sharpened
the sword until its edge was as keen as that of a
razor. Her in- [page 148] tention
was to perfect herself in the great sword dance until
she should be able to
surpass the best dancers at the capital and then when
she should be called to
dance before the high dignitaries of the land her good
sword would aid her to
avenge on the son of the Prime Minister the deep
injury that her family had
received of his father’s hands. Ah! that would be
better than killing the Prime
Minister himself for he had but one son and his death
would end the line as her
brother’s death had ended their’s. But
we must leave the girl Yi Wha as she sits grinding the
edge of her avenging
sword or throwing her limbs about in the wild ecstasy
of the sword dance, and
follow the fortunes of her intended victim. When
the boy San-chang-i reached his home after his journey
to China he told his
father what the soothsayer had predicted but said
nothing about the mysterious
sentence which he had received. On hearing this report
the old gentleman gave
up all hope that the prophecy might be false and
surrendered to the inevitable,
but he could not bear the constant presence of his
son. It was a perpetual
source of pain. So he decided to send the boy away
from him and never set him
again. Under pretense of attending to the boy’s
education he sent him to study
at a school in a distant part of the country and as he
bade him good bye he
said: “Stay
at the school until I tell you to return. Do not come
back until you receive a
specific order from me.” So
Sun-chang-i left his father’s house. He was a diligent
and careful student and
made rapid progress but the thought of his coming fate
constantly arose before
his mind. “Of what use is my studying if I am to die
on my eighteenth birthday?
It would be better for me to spend the few years that
remain in travelling and
enjoying this good world which I must leave so soon.”
As he had no money with
which to carry out this resolve he decided to break
through the injunction of
his father and go up to Seoul and ask for some money
with which to travel. What
was his father’s surprise therefore to see his son
before him. “Pardon me,
father, for breaking your commands but consider my
position. Doomed to die in
two years and a half, of what use are the Chinese
classics to me? It would be
far better for me to enjoy what little of life is left
me in travel and
observation. I have therefore come up to Seoul [page
149] to ask you as a last
request to give me the means to carry out my plan. I
will promise never again
to appear before you.” The father immediately fell in
with this idea and gave
his son a considerable sum of money and sent him off. The
boy immediately set out upon his travels. Southward he
wandered to the confines
of the land and beyond to the island of Che-ju where
under the shadow of old
Hal-la San he looked into the fathomless hole from
which four thousand years
ago the fabled founders of Tam-na rose. Then he
visited the ancient site of
Sil-la’s capital, and fingered the jade flute that
emits no sound if taken
beyond the confines of its resting place. He visited
the monastery where the
rice kettle is so large that the cook has to go out in
a boat to stir the rice
in the middle. He beheld the eight wonders of the
eastern coast, witnessed the
battle of wild cats and rats on the island of
Ul-leung, dreamed away a month
among the monasteries of Diamond Mountain, saw the
reflection of his face in
Ki-ja’s well a jar of whose waters is a pound heavier
than that of any other
water in the land. But the boy was restless and
dissatisfied ever wishing that
the terrible secret of his fate had not been made
known, to him, ever pondering
the enigmatical words upon the piece of paper which he
still preserved. Finally
his wanderings led him among the rugged mountains of
the province of Kang Wun
celebrated in Korean story for their grandeur and
beauty. Here in the
contemplation of nature he found more peace than he
had known for many a month.
It seemed to reconcile him to his fate. One
afternoon he lingered longer than was his wont among
the mountains and when he
turned back toward the little hamlet where he lodged,
night was already coming
on. Before he had accomplished half the distance
darkness had settled down upon
him. The path grew indistinct and presently he became
aware that he had
wandered from it. On each side towered high wooded
slopes dimly visible against
the half clouded heavens. Sun-chang-i sat down on the
root of a great pine and
tried to decide what it would be best to do in this
predicament, but before he
reached a conclusion his eye caught the glimmer of a
fire far up the opposite
height. “Ah!
there is the hut of some hunter or wood gatherer and I
must seek its shelter
for the night.” [page 150] Suiting
the action to the word he forced his way through
underbrush and over fallen
trees straight up the side of the mountain until he
found himself in a small
cleared spot beside the house. But a curious sight
arrested his attention and
made him stop before announcing himself. At one side
of a circular spot of hard
trodden earth in front of the house burned the bright
fire of pine knots which
had attracted his attention from below. But in the
center of the open spot and
facing the fire stood a young girl, her hair flying
loosely over her shoulders,
her arms bare and her skirt girded up so as to give
free action to the limbs. Poised
in her nana she held a glittering sword whose polished
surface reflected the
blaze of the fire. Slowly
she raised it until it pointed toward the zenith than
her other hand rose
slowly, to a horizontal position. Slowly her lithe
form swayed from side to
side. Slowly her body turned to right and left
trembling with suppressed
emotion. Then her motions became more animated. She
turned completely around
with a light quick step then sprang to the right and
left and presented the
sword as if in a contest. Quicker and quicker she
turned, faster and faster she
struck and parried while the glittering sword seemed
in the flashing rays of
the fire to make a halo of diamond light about her
head. Faster and faster she
sped, fast and faster fell the blows, when, at the
very climax of her frenzy,
she gave a bound like a wounded tigress to the edge of
the ring and buried half
the blade in a rotten log which lay beside the fire.
Leaving the weapon
quivering in the log she covered her face with her
hands and fell to the ground
crying: “I
am avenged! avenged!” Long
she lay there as in a swoon and long the boy stood
gazing in wonder not unmixed
with fear at the startling spectacle. He had seen the
sword dance before but
never danced like this, never with such a thrilling
ending. The fury of that
last thrust and the flash of her eye as the weapon
sank-into the wood made his
flesh creep with horror for just so might a man pierce
his deadliest foe. But
at last he felt the necessity of making his presence
known. Approaching into
the ring he gave a low cough to attract the girl’s
attention and he succeeded
better than he had expected. She [page 151] sprang to
her feet with a scream of
terror, snatched the sword from its unnatural sheath
and faced the intruder
like a tigress at bay. “Who
and what are you?” she panted. “I
am only a belated traveller who has lost his way. I
saw the light of your fire
from the valley below and I made my way here to beg
your hospitality for the
night. I meant no harm.” Yi Wha stood a moment gazing
at him incredulously but
finally let fall the point of her sword and answered: “But
I am a woman and alone; how can I offer you the
hospitality of this miserable
hut?” “True,
but when I saw your fire from below how was I to know?
However, I will not
enter you hut. Let me only lie here by the fire until
the morning. I ask
nothing more.” “No”
replied the girl “You must occupy the hut and I will
stay here by the fire. I
am accustomed to such a life while I see that you have
lived in better
circumstances and the exposure would be more difficult
for to bear.” So she
prevailed upon him to occupy the hut while she seated
herself beside the fire
and watched out the long hours of the night. But
neither of them could sleep.
He could not banish from his mind that flashing eye,
that splendid from, proud
as a queen’s though, clad in rustic garb. She was the
first being that had been
able to stir him from the deep despondency into which
the knowledge of his
overhanging fate had plunged him. “Ah!
if I could only rest here forever! If I could only
pursuade this wild creature
to be my wife how willingly would I share the
hardships of her mountain life!” The
girl likewise pondered upon the singular encounter,
the young man’s delicacy
and his evident nobility of character. Softer feelings
for the time drove out
the hateful thoughts which she had cherished so long.
“Alas, if I had not been
chained to the awful destiny in store for me; if it
had been my lot to be the
happy wife of some honest, generous man like this, how
my worthless life might
have blossomed into hope.” And so the long hours
passed until the morning
broke, which brought Sun-chang-i one day nearer to his
doom and Yi Wha one day
nearer her revenge.
_ When
he emerged from the hut he found her busily pre- [page
152] paring the morning
meal. They saluted each other with evident
embarrassment, the result of their
mutual thoughts about each other, but as Sun-chang-i
busied himself in helping
his hostess their restraint wore off and soon they
were conversing as freely
and affably as if they had been old acquaintances.
They shared the frugal
repast, Sun-chang-i drawing it out as long as
possible; but when it was done he
had no possible excuse for staying longer so he
reluctantly said good-bye,
after thanking the girl for her kindness, and wended
his way down the mountain
to the nearest village where he determined to spend a
few days in hopes of
meeting again his mountain hostess. Every day his eye
scanned the road along
which she must come, but she did not appear. He felt
an inexplicable longing to
see her again and when a week had passed it had grown
to such proportions that
he decided that he would invent some means by which he
could communicate with
her. He know that in his present guise she would look
upon him with great
suspicion for his dress and language both betrayed his
noble birth. He did not
care to conceal his identity but only to allay her
suspicion as to his
intentions. So
he purchased a common woodman’s dress and swinging an
axe over his shoulder
struck into the forest and made his way toward Yi
Wham’s cabin. But before he
reached it the sound of an axe greeted his ears and
presently he caught sight
of his interesting friend striking lusty blows at the
body of a thick pine. On
her face there was the same stern look as when she
drove the sword point into
the rotten log, as if each blow of the axe severed the
head of a deadly enemy,
and when the great tree came crashing to the ground
there was the same fierce
look of unholy triumph. When
she caught sight of him she started violently and the
tell-tale blood came
surging up to her face, while the only words that she
could frame were: “You
here!” “Yes,
I am here” he answered “but come, sit down with me on
this tree that you have
just felled and let me tell you why I am here and in
these garments.” Her
eyes fell before his glance and she seemed inclined to
turn and fly but by a
strong effort she controlled herself and quietly sat
down on the mossy trunk. [page
153] “Now
listen,” he said “You and I are two honest people,
however strange our present
position may be when compared with the usual
conventionalities; but there is
something in each of our lives that sets us apart from
ordinary men, something
that frees us from conventional standards, I am born
of a noble family, but for
no fault of my own I am cast out, ostracized,
disowned, I am a wanderer without
house or home. What avails my nobility? I should be
driven from my father’s
door were I to return. I have no means with which to
live as becomes my birth
and so it happens that I have cast off my nobleman’s
clothes and am dressed as
becomes my worldly position but I retain my high blood
and my intrinsic
nobility. These are not incompatible with a life of
manual labor. But why do I
say this to you? Because I have seen that your real
nobility of mind is as much
higher than your birth as my birth is higher than my
present position, so you
are every bit my equal and I ask you to be my wife, to
let me share the toil of
this rugged life with you, to lean upon you, if need
be, until these hands
unused to toil shall become hardened to the plow and
axe, hoping for the time
when you shall lean on me. Answer me. Will you be my
wife?” Who shall
describe the conflict that was
raging in her heart. Love beating at the portal where
revenge held sway. On the
one hand her lover’s ardent gaze and on the other
those accusing eyes of her
murdered father! Love and duty! One or the other she
must choose; both she
could not. She scorned herself that this new feeling,
this strange warm feeling
whose life was just begun and might be counted in
hours should dispute the
empire of her heart with that despot, Revenge, which
had been her only hope and
aim for years, No! she could not give it up. She
turned to her lover. “You
do not know what you ask. Let me tell you once for all
that mine is a devoted
life; devoted to one terrible object that before many
years have passed must be
accomplished and once accomplished must sweep my life
with it to a doom I dread
to contemplate. I cannot tell you all. Let it suffice
that ere two years are
passed I shall have surrendered up my life to a noble
cause. Yet do not mistake
me or deem me insensible of the love you offer me.
Were it not for another
over- [page 154] mastering passion that holds me in
its power I feel that I could
love you as few men have ever been loved. Oh that I
had never met you.” She
covered her face with her hands and wept aloud while
her whale frame shook with
the intensity of her emotion. While Sun-chang-i waited
for this paroxysm to
pass he was busily revolving in his mind what he
should say. When she could
listen he said: “I
have not told you all. I, too, am doomed to die before
two years have passed.
Here is still another evidence that Heaven has
destined us for each other.
There are two years of life before us. Let us live
them together. Even the
knowledge of our impending fate cannot rob us of the
happiness of that short
interval, for we are not of those who fear death. I
promise you that when the
time corals for the fulfillment of your mission
whatever it may be I will not
detain you an instant. Together we will cast off these
human bonds and who can
tell but we shall meet hereafter, our several missions
accomplished, to renew
this sweetest of all relationships that I ask you to
form. Come. Will you not
live the remaining fragment of your life with me?” Then
love renewed the battle against vengeance and won. “Why
should I not yield?” she said to herself, “He absolves
me from all obligation
after two years are expired. Why should I not in the
meantime take just one
taste of the happiness of life? If only I perform my
dreadful task at last all
will be well; besides he too is destined to an early
death and so I shall not
leave him to mourn my loss.” She turned and put her
hand in his while her
glorious eyes thrilled him through and through with a
nameless delight as she
softy answered. “Yes,
I will be your wife to honor and love you. Only this,
when my time has come I
must go and do my work. If you will let me put that
duty first, the duty to a
dead father, I will be yours in all else. I would not
dare to do it were it not
that you will not survive me long to mourn my loss.” So,
beneath the forest trees, these lovers plighted their
troth. How little did the
maiden think when she made that one condition that the
man she was to kill was
the very one to whom she had pledged her love and from
whom she had exacted the
promise that in nothing would he hinder her in the
[page 155] performance of
her dreadful task whatever it might be. A quiet
unpretentious wedding at the
house of one of her acquaintances sealed their mutual
compact and together they
took up their abode in the mountain hut.
NARRO. (Concluded
in the next number.) The
Introduction
of Chinese into Korea, TRANSLATED
FROM
THE INTRODUCTION TO COURANT’S BIBLIOGRAPHIE COREENNE. Documents
relating to the introduction and the use of Chinese
characters in Korea are few
in number. The Sam-guk
Sa-geui, a
work written in Chinese in the eleventh century does
however mention several
interesting facts which show that the history of
Chinese writing differs for
the various states then occupying the Peninsula.
Ko-gu-ryu, situated to the
north-west, appears to have extended at certain
periods over a considerable
part of what is to-day Manchuria; by its very position
it had relationships in
the way of commerce and war with the Kingdoms of North
China, and so it is in
the territory of Ko-gu-ryu that legend and history fix
the site of the
governments of Tan-gun*, Keui-ja† and Wi-man‡. The
last two of these were
Chinese refugees, and so with them should we find the
first appearance of
civilization, at least the Chinese form of it. The
Sam-guk Sa-geui
mentions that in 600
A. D., it being the eleventh year of King Yung-yang§,
the Prince commanded Yi
Mun-jin, a doctor of the College of Literati, to
epitomize the ancient
histories of the country. Yi Mun-jin wrote a work of
five volumes on the
subject. The Sam-guk Sa-geui adds the following words:
“Since the origin, of
the Kingdom, characters have been in use, for at that
time there existed one
hundred volumes of memoirs, written by different
persons, called Yu-geui. At
this time the text was revised T.G.T’.G.―Tong-guk T’ong-gam,
東國通鑑 S.G.S.G.―Sam-guk Sa-geui, 三國史記
*檀君 †箕子 ‡衛滿
§嬰陽 [page
156] and
fixed.” The
antiquity of at least a limited use of Chinese
characters in the country is
further supported by the fact that from the time of
T’a-ja*, who ascended the
throne in 53 A. D., the names of kings are all
explainable in Chinese; till
toward the end of the fourth century the Chinese
expression made use or is at
the same time the name of the sovereign and that of
the locality where his tomb
is situated; the designations or special names of the
kings are, on the other
hand, Buddhistic. It was in 372 A. D, the second year
of King So Su-rim† that
the new religion was introduced into Ko-gu-ryu and it
led to a revival of
Chinese study. Buddhistic books were introduced and
the King established a
school called Ta-hak for the teaching of young people
(T.G.T’.G.IV, 4; S.G.S.
G. XVIII 3) For
the Kingdom of Pak-che, situated at the South of
Ko-gu-ryu, on the west side of
Korea, the Sam-guk Sa-geui limits itself to noting
from some more ancient
documents that in the reign of Keum So-jo (346-375 A.
D.) they began to use
writing to note down events (S.G.S.G.XXIV.) Is this
only a question concerning
the origin of written annals? Would it not seem
unlikely that a Kingdom
possessing the art of writing had existed more than
three centuries and a half
without its even having occurred to anyone to note
down important events? I
should be inclined to think, for my part, that writing
was known nothing of
till this time, and that it was brought by Buddhist
missionaries who then went
everywhere throughout the Peninsula. (T.G.T’.G.IV.7.)
It is only a hundred
years later that the names of the kings of Pak-che
cease to be simple
transcriptions without sense in Chinese, and take the
form of temple names;
particular names in Pak-che as in Ko-gu-ryu remain
about all, till the
absorption of these states by Sil-la, pure and simple
transcriptions. It
is true that ancient Japanese, works on history date
the arrival of the scholar
Wa-ni (Wang-in) at 285 A, D. He was a native of
Pak-che and brought with him
the Analects and the Thousand Character Classic. This
statement has been
accepted by the greater number of European scholars,
but Mr. Aston has proven
that many of the ancient Japanese an- *太祖 †小獸林 [page
157] nals
are not
worthy of confidence; in particular he has shown that
all the period of
relationship between Pak-che and Japan has been
interpolated by ancient
Japanese authors, in such a way as to fill up the gaps
in the half fabulous chronology
which they find in the traditions. On this point he is
of the same mind as the
Japanese scholar Motoori. Mr. Aston brings down the
events of this period two
cycles or one hundred and twenty years. The
introduction of Chinese characters
into Japan would then have taken place at the end of
the fifth century and
this, date coincides very nearly with that of the use
of writing in Pak-che, As
to the name of the Thousand Character Classic
mentioned at this time, there
need be no difficulty, since the work seems to have
been a first edition,
before that of the sixth century which has come down
to us. Sil-la,
occupying the south-east of the Peninsula, was more
distant from China than its
neighbors and extended along eastern regions still
barbarian. It is strange
indeed to read in the Sam-guk Sa-geui (1. 6) that King
Yu-ri, in the ninth year
of his reign (32 A. D.,) gave to the inhabitants of
the six cantons of his
Kingdom, Chinese family names, Yi, Ch’oe, Son, Chong,
Pa and Sul, the three
royal families being called Pak, Suk and Kim. If the
correctness of these
assertions is proven, we would conclude from it that
there was a knowledge of
Chinese characters on the part of the people of Sil-la
at this remote period.
We must not fail to mention as proof in support of
this the history of those
Chinese who came to the country of Chin-han, in order
to escape the tyranny of
the Emperor Chi of Tshin and who gave to the country,
on landing, the very name
of the dynasty that chased them from their native
land. Chinese authorities
have in fact made the two names Chin and Tshin to
agree. We might also mention
the refugees from north Korea, the state of Keui-ja
which was Chinese in origin
as referred to in the opening lines of the Sam-guk
Sa-geui. But all this is the
shifting region of legend; in fact as one runs through
the Sam-guk Sa-geui, it
is not before the end of the sixth century that we
commence to find Chinese,
names for people. Till that time all the names made
use of have the
unmistakable appearance of words transcribed from a
foreign language. The three
royal names of Pak, Suk and Kim are to be found, it is
true, dating from the [page
158] sixth century, but the explanation in the Sam-guk
on the subject of these
names shows clearly that Chinese characters were used
to represent the native
word which they resembled in sound. This is true, at
any rate, in two cases out
of the three. Moreover what is the documentary value
of the Sam-guk
Sa-geui for this remote period?
This is a question which I shall examine later. Even
though the family names in question had been in use
since the founding of the
Kingdom, it does not prove that Chinese characters had
been employed since that
time in the country. If we admit as a fact the
statement of an ancient Chinese
immigration, it would not be astonishing that the
descendants of these
fugitives, in forgetting almost all the culture of
their mother country and
with it the art of writing, had preserved the simplest
customs of their
civilization and before everything else the family
names, and even a tradition
of the mysterious signs representing them. But that is
only a supposition, and
the fact drawn from the reading of the Sam-guk is that
up to the second half of
the sixth century the names were not in use. On
examination of the proper names of the kings of Sil-la
it appears that before
the reign of Sil-sung* who ascended the throne in 402
A. D. they were
transcribed from a foreign language; the very name
Sil-sung has a Chinese
appearance. That of his successor has two forms of
spelling and seems indeed to
be a transcription of Korean. Cha-pi† who reigned from
458 to 479 might have
taken his name from Buddhistic books; but the two
designations of the King
following (479-500), the one at last Pi-cho‡, has
nothing of Chinese about it.
Apart from these the names employed to designate the
kings are easily
explainable and resemble the names of Chinese temples. It
was King Chi-cheung, in 503, who abandoned for the
first time his Korean little
Ma-rip-gan for the Chinese title Wang. At the same
time the chief officials
asked of him that he fix definitely the name of the
Kingdom. Till then they had
called it Sa-ra§, Sa-ro|| and Sil-la¶, but now they
were of the opinion that
the last appellation should he held to, for Sin *實聖
†慈悲 ‡毗處
§斯羅 ||斯盧
¶新羅 [page 160] Kingdom of
Sil-la does not seem to have profited by
the progress of civilization until later, after Japan,
in the course of the
sixth century. Now to what
extent are the statements that I have
made on the authority of the Sam-guk Sa-geui to be
depended on? That is to say,
what is the documentary value of this work? It was
written by a nigh officer of
the court of the Kings of Ko-ryu, Kim Pu-sik*, who
lived at the end of the
eleventh century and at the beginning of the twelfth,
two centuries and a half
after the disappearance of the three kingdoms whose
history he wrote, at a time
when the monarchy of Ko-ryu had borrowed much from the
Songs of China. The
ancient language and institutions were forgotten or no
longer understood, more
because of the contempt felt by the literati of the
Chinese school for their
barbarian ancestors than in consequence of opposition
between Ko-ryu, the
northern and military monarchy，and Sil-la the
Kingdom of
the south which was the last survival of the Hans. The
tribes of Ka-ya†, and
the Kingdoms of Pak-che and Ko-gu-ryu absorbed by
Sil-la in the sixth and
seventh centuries were still more than ever forgotten
These diverse
circumstances were somewhat unfavorable to the
compilation of an exact and
impartial history; however, we must not lose sight of
the fact that the Sam-guk
Sa-geui is the most ancient Korean work existing on
the history of the country.
The authenticity has never been questioned, the style
is simple and bears marks
of antiquity and good faith, the plan of the work is
very clear and throughout
imitative of the historical memoirs of Ta Ma-ch’un. Besides this
work having been prepared by royal
order Kim Pu-sik must have had at his disposal all
documents then existing
which have today disappeared. He mentions some of them
without giving anywhere
a complete list, and as he has not included in his
work any chapters on
literary history, deviating in this respect from
Chinese models, we have on
ancient literature only fragmentary notes few in
number. We know at least that
Kim Pu-sik consulted them as well as the archives and
other documents and we
stats that his work is in accord throughout with
Chinese histories and with
some *金富軾 †伽倻 [page 161] ancient
Korean works of a later period yet sufficiently remote
to be drawn
from the same source. What then was the degree of
correctness of the documents
that Kim Pu-sik had? Among books and archives of
whatever kind, if those which
relate to Ko-gu-ryu seem to date indirectly from the
very origin of the
Kingdom, they do not go further back than the end of
the fourth century for
Pak-che and the commencement of the sixth for Sil-la,
for it is at this double
epoch that Chinese writing was. introduced and
developed in South Korea, as I
have shown above and as Ma Toan-lin states, and
nowhere does there exist any
trace or mention of writing used before this time.
Then all the most ancient
history rests on simple oral tradition, most
uncertain. This will explain the
doubtful points, the miraculous doings, the lack of
definite information for
the first four or five centuries of Korean history.
The cyclical characters of
the years which are found at the beginning of the
Sam-guk could very easily be
added after it was done, as has taken place for the
early history of China and
Japan; the astronomical phenomena noted might furnish
a verification. Mr. Aston
has made an attempt at this process but without any
result. But the fact
that engages my attention at this
moment, namely the introduction of writing, marks
precisely the limit between oral
tradition and written history. Little time passed by
till the art unknown till
then to Koreans was applied to the recording of
events: the annals of Pak-che
date from the very introduction of Buddhism into the
peninsula, those of Sil-la
commence seventeen years after the first definite
preaching of the Hindoo
religion in the Kingdom. These facts stated of the
Sam-guk on the subject of
the. first transplanting of characters are worthy of
confidence on the same
score as all later events and without being subject to
the doubt that I have
mentioned with regard to the ancient history of Korea. What was first
brought by the Buddhist monks were
the books of their religion: then followed the Chinese
Classics, various
historical works, works 0n astronomy, astrology,
medicine and some Taoist
books. The indications that I have found from Ma
Toan-lin and among Korean
authors on the subject of books brought from China are
to be found in the
Bibliographie in the places assigned by the nature of
the [page
162]
works to which they relate. These are the works
that have been studied by Koreans especially in the
College of Literati
established by the different Kings of the peninsula.
They were also in the
hands of the Wha-rang, young people chosen by the
Kings of Sil-la for their
grace and intelligence, taught physical exercise and
all intellectual elegance
and called then to the highest offices. These works
were made the object of
examination, begun in Sil-la at the end of the eighth
century. Sons of
influential families devoted themselves with
earnestness to Chinese study; from
640 Koreans went to study in China. The most
celebrated statesmen of Sil-la
such as Kim Heum-un, Kim Yu-sin and Kim In-mun, the
last a son of the King,
were celebrated for the extent of their literary
knowledge. Not content with
studying foreign books Koreans
endeavored to write in the language of their
instructors. The Mun-hun Pi-go
quotes a phrase written in Chinese taken from the
annals of the Kingdom of
Ka-rak, without stating whether the quotation is drawn
directly from the
annals, which would seem little likely, or whether it
was mentioned in another
work. However that may be, this Kingdom having
submitted to Sil-la in 532 A. D.
it follows that before this date there were Koreans of
the south able to write
in Chinese. The passages that the Sam-guk draws from
the annals of the three
Kingdoms and from other ancient memoirs, the texts of
decrees and petitions
that it repeats are in the same language; a little
later it is in Chinese that
the King of Sil-la corresponds with the governor sent
by the Tangs. There is no
noticeable difference between the style employed by
the Koreans and that of the
Chinese of the same period: perhaps originally Chinese
were employed as
official secretaries in the peninsula as seems to have
been frequently the case
with the Tartar people of the north of China; perhaps
the Korean writer limited
himself to copying phrases from Chinese books and
inserting them from end of
end. The Japanese of antiquity were very expert in
this sort of mosaic. Mr.
Satow says that they came to treating subjects purely
native without using a
phrase that had not been taken from Chinese works. It
might not be impossible
that it was from facts of this kind that the tradition
was handed down which makes
Ch’oe Ch’i-wun the [page 163] first
Korean who wrote Chinese and that until him they had
confined themselves to
phrases taken entire from authors. JAS. S. GALE. (To be
continued.) Odds
and Ends. Exorcising
Spirits.
The Korean
practice of driving out evil spirits is
well illustrated at the American gold mines at Un-san
in the north, whenever a
Korean miner is killed in the mine. The Koreans
suppose that his death is
caused by some spirit of the earth who feels himself
aggrieved in some way or
for some cause. No sooner does the accident occur than
all the miners come
flocking from the shaft, and work is at a complete
standstill until the matter
is adjusted. It ordinarily takes an hour and a half or
two hours to get things
back to a working basis. The wife of the dead man or
his nearest female
relative is summoned to the mouth of the mine. Live
chickens and pigs are
brought in goodly numbers. The miners provide
themselves with rude drums or
kettle-pans or anything else that will produce a loud
sound, while some arm
themselves with brooms. When these preparations are
complete the chickens are
tied fast and thrown one by one down the empty shaft,
and the pigs are treated
the same way. At the same time the woman kneels at the
edge of the shaft and
holds her hand as far down in it as she can reach,
with the thumb and
fore-finger pinched tightly together. It is supposed
that she has gotten hold
of the evil spirit. Meanwhile they all listen to the
sounds that come up the
shaft from the immolated animals and when they hear
the right sound they all
give a loud shout and the woman draws out her hand as
if she were drawing out
the spirit. The thumb and fore-finger are still
tightly held together. At this
point the miners begin to beat the woman severely and
the tom-toms and drums
beat and the sweepers sweep the floor and the air as
if sweeping out the evil
influence. The woman is beaten till so exhausted that
she can no longer hold
thumb and finger together and her hand opens. This
means that the spirit has
been exorcised and soon the miners go back quietly to
their work. [page
164] The
Shogun.
The
Shogun of Japan is known among Koreans as the
Kwan-bak. The story of the origin of this term
Kwan-bak may not be known to
many of of our readers and so we venture to give it
here. In the reign of
Emperor So-je of the Former Han dynasty in China that
august ruler was aided in
the administration of the government by a celebrated
Prime Minister named Kwak
Kwang who; singularly enough, was unacquainted with
the Chinese characters.
This man attained to such an eminence that no business
could be brought to the
notice of the Emperor without first passing through
his hands. This became
stereotyped into the phrase Sun kwan bak kwang which
means “First make the
matter known to Kwang.” The two middle words of this
formula, Kwan-bak, were
applied to the Shogun, for while the Mikado was the
nominal Supreme Ruler of
Japan practically the government of that country
rested in the Shogun. Small
Pox.
The Koreans call
the Small-pox fiend Ho-gu Pyul-sang
and this means the Fierce Fickle Fiend. He is wont to
come and stay thirteen
days. Note the unfortunate number. To get rid of him
the Koreans make the “counterfeit
presentment” of a horse of sali wood and beside it
they place a tempting array
of bread and other food whereby they try to induce the
fiend to eat and then
mount the horse and ride away. Out of this custom has
arisen the saying
Sali-mal-t’a, “give him a sali-wood horse to ride.”
This is used of any one
whose visits are frequent and inconveniently long―in
other words a bore. Question
and Answer. (9) Question. Is
there such a thing as a genuine
hereditary nobility in Korea? Answer.
Theoretically the line of demarcation
between the Yang-ban and the Sang-nom classes is very
distinct but practically
there has been so much intermixture that the line is a
very broad one. This
intermixture however has taken place very largely
during the last hundred
years. It was not so long ago that every Korean of the
lower class was a serf [page
165]
owing service to some neighborhood gentleman and
for whose good conduct that gentleman was, within
certain bounds, responsible.
But within the ranks of veritable Yang-bans there are
widely different degrees
of nobility. There are doubtless many who can trace
their descent straight back
a thousand or fifteen hundred years and who have
always been specially eligible
for office but so far as we know there is no such
thing as a patent of nobility
in Korea and the Yang-ban class as a whole forms far
too great a proportion of
the entire population to be called “the nobility” in
any such sense as the
titled class hi England, for instance, are so called. (10) Question.
What is the origin and nature of the
custom called Po-sam. Answer. There
are two answers to this question
neither of which are highly complimentary to the
Korean. The less objectionable
one is this:―Several hundred years ago this custom
“broke out” in Korea for it
was a sort of epidemic like witch burnings and Jew
baitings in lands far to the
west. It was customary to consult soothsayers to find
out whether the life of a
prospective bride would be a happy one, especially in
cases where the young woman
came from, a noble and wealthy family. If the
fortune-teller announced that she
would become a widow an attempt would be made to
thwart the fates by having
recourse to the Po-sam. The day before the real
wedding was to take place a
young boy would be inveigled into entering the bride’s
house and there he would
be seized and compelled to go through a mock marriage
ceremony with the
prospective bride. After this was done he would be
immediately strangled and
the body would be smuggled out of the house under
cover of the night. The young
woman having thus become a widow has supposably
fulfilled the prediction of the
soothsayer and on the morrow can proceed to her real
marriage without fear. It happened that
about the time this grewsome fad
was in vogue the Government pierced the wall of Seoul
with a gate on the slopes
of Nam-san between what is now called the Su-gu-mun
and the top of the
mountain. It was called the Little South Gate or
Nam-so-mun. Someone happened
to notice the juxtaposition of the two events and the
geomancers after solemn
examination of the spot declared that the making of [page 166] this gate had
liberated evil spirits from the
ground and it was through their influence that this
evil custom had arisen. The
gate was forthwith closed and “consequently,”
according to native belief, the
custom soon died out. The word Po-sam is derived from
two native words meaning
respectively a blanket and to wrap, referring
obviously to the manner in which
the unfortunate boy was destroyed. An examination of
the wall of Seoul in the
vicinity indicated will show the place where the gate
was walled up. Editorial
Comment. WM. E. GRIFFTS,
D. D., the well-known author of “The
Hermit Nation,” in a letter to the Review makes some
suggestions of great value
which are so concisely worded that we cannot do better
than quote them
verbatim. He asks if information cannot be given
about:— (1)Any relics or
remembrances of Hendrik Hamel or
his companions. (2)A historical
notice of the Korean Repository. (3)How
P’yung-yang looks today, etc., etc. (4)The American
Expedition of 1871 from the Korean standpoint. (5)Song-do, its
present aspect and its past
history. (6)The railroad
route between Seoul and Fusan. (7)The route
between Seoul and Eui-ju. (8)The Miryuk or
stone images. (9)Fauna and
marine life. (10)Old battle
flags, mural pictures, nature
worship, etc. (11)A special
article devoted to each of the eight
original provinces. (12)Folklore, etc.
(13)Translation of
Korean
novels. (14)Street
Songs. (15)Foreign
Legations. (16)Material
progress. It will be
noticed that we have given attention
already to one or two of these subjects but we have
here a valuable list of
questions all of which are of the greatest interest. [page
167] The new imperial
palace has been steadily growing
in size by the purchase and inclusion of surrounding
properties. The
government, which means practically the Household
Department, desired to
include the Customs premises in the palace grounds
but, without apparently
estimating the difficulties involved in the removal
and proper bestowal of the
accumulated archives of such an institution as the
Imperial Customs, and the
housing of those in charge of them, it asked Dr. J.
McLeavy Brown to vacate the
premises on the shortest possible notice. As this was
manifestly impossible, he
made the very reasonable and necessary request that
time be given for the
arrangements to be made but without refusing to accede
to the demands of the
government when kept within the limits of the
possible. Thereupon Dr.
Brown was informed that the
government had decided to dispense with his services.
As everyone knows, the
matter assumed an international significance as well
it might in view of the
very high standing of the parties involved and in view
of that which could be
read between the lines of the whole transaction. The
arguments were conclusive
and the government was induced to withdraw its demand. It hardly needs
be said that the Imperial Customs
has always been a financial sheet anchor to windward
for the Korean ship of
state. It has been a great and valuable conservative
element among the
fluctuations of what we might call experimental
finance in the peninsula. By
wise forethought and frequently misunderstood economy
Dr. Brown was able to pay
off several millions of government debt to Japan and
thus extricate Korea from
a serious situation. It his conservatism has seemed
draconic it must be
remembered that such conservatism was needed to
counterbalance an equal extreme
in the opposite direction and effect a healthful
equilibrium. The Customs of
Korea have had a steady and healthy
growth and very few mistakes have been made. Now that
the government has
obtained a loan of five million dollars from France
the value of the Customs
comes to the fore for it forms the only security that
is satisfactory to the
creditors. At such a time it is necessary that the
customs should be
administered as they have been and in such a way that
the receipts [page
168]
can be applied without fail to the liquidation of
those debts, whose liquidation forms the basis and
proof of Korea’s solvency. The government
claims that much of the blame for
the misunderstanding lies with Kim Kyu-heui who acted
as interpreter between
Dr. Brown and the Palace and in consequence he has
been banished for ten years
to Ch’ul-do, an island off Whang-ha Province. The Korean
government is to be congratulated on its
wise determination to retain in the highest post
within its gift a man like J.
McLeavy Brown whose nationality and whose known
sentiments proclaim him to be
unalterably in favor of Korean autonomy. We may be
pardoned for trespassing thus far into
the field of politics, for this is a matter that
touches Korea’s welfare so
nearly that not to mention it would lay us open, to
the charge of remissness. News
Calendar. W. H. Emberley
has secured a foreign house in close
proximity to the terminal station of the Seoul-Fusan
Railroad and is opening it
as a foreign hotel. It will meet a long felt want and
we wish him all success
in the venture. Rev. Arthur
Brown D. D., Secretary of the
Presbyterian Mission Board arrived in Seoul on the
23rd. He intends to travel
in the interior and inspect the work of the mission in
Whang-ha and P’yung-an
Provinces. The Japanese
Minister, Mr. Hyashi, has approached
the Government in regard to permission to establish a
system of wireless
telegraphy on the coast and also to lay submarine
cables between several of the
ports. On the 12th
inst, the Military School, at whose
head is the energetic Gen. Yi Hak-kyun, enjoyed a very
successful field day at
the Hong-je-wun in the valley beyond the Peking Pass.
A goodly number of
foreigners were present and enjoyed the sham-fight
which took place in the
morning. In the afternoon there was rifle practice in
which the foreign guests
were invited to participate and from which resulted a
good deal of fun in spite
of an occasional sore shoulder. [page 169] March 27th was
the birthday of His Imperial
Highness the Crown Prince. The Diplomatic and Consular
body and the foreign
employees of the government were received in audience
in the morning and had
the pleasure of wishing the Prince long life and
happiness. We note with
satisfaction that the Korean Religious
Tract Society has decided to issue an occasional
Bulletin to serve as an
advertising medium and a means of communication
be-tween the officers and the
members of the Society. This ought to increase the
interest of the general
membership in the important work of this Society.
Several amendments to the
constitution have been proposed which will put the
Society on a better working
basis. The first of a
series of Chinese Readers for use in
native Schools has just been published. It is from the
pen of Rev. Jas. S.
Gale. It is well adapted to the end in view and will
much facilitate the study
of Chinese. There can be no doubt that the enormous
number of Chinese
derivatives in Korean renders necessary a study of
Chinese words but we hold
the opinion as heretofore, that this can be done
without the use of the Chinese
Character just as an English speaking person can know
what a gymnast, a
physician, a policy, a machine, a plutocrat or an
architect is without knowing
the Greek alphabet or the Greek language, from which
they are derived. The
roots on which these borrowed words are based can be
studied as well in English;
so the Chinese words can be learned as well, if not
better, without the
time-wasting toil of learning the ideograms. The
Korean language and literature
would deserve a written medium of their own even if
there were as yet no
alphabet; how much more then do they deserve it when
Korea possesses an almost
perfect alphabet which only hide-bound prejudice and
caste feeling have spurned
as common. As if the best things in the world were not
common! We have nothing
but words of praise for the book to which we refer
when once we admit the
wisdom of the policy of which it is the outcome but
here we hesitate. In preparing the
new tomb for the late Queen it was
found that the rock came near to the surface at the
point where the grave was
to have been. This, according to the laws of Korean
geomancy, was an
unpropitious sign and render- [page 170] ed the place
quite unsuitable. A very large sum of money had been
expended
on it, which of course is lost. It was reported that
two of the geomancers who
recommended the site committed suicide but this
appears to have been an
exaggeration. At any rate sixteen geomancers have been
arrested in connection
with the affair and they are being examined under
torture to find out who is
responsible. It is reported that another site will be
selected not far from the
same place. It is with
profound regret that we are obliged to
record the death, at Mok-po on the twelfth instant, of
Mrs. Eugene Bell after
an illness of only three days. Rev. and Mrs. Bell have
been for the past seven
years members of the American Presbyterian Mission,
South, and they both came
from Kentucky. Mrs. Bell was the daughter of Rev Dr.
Witherspoon, a name well
known throughout the Middle West. The body was brought
to the foreign cemetery
and interred on the afternoon of the 19th inst. She
left two little children,
one five years old and the other two. Mr. and Mrs.
Bell resided for some years
in Seoul and have a wide circle of acquaintances and
friends who will always
remember them with the deepest interest. Mr. Bell is
leaving for America
immediately but we trust that his absence will be only
temporary. On the 16th
inst. the Korean Ministers to England,
Italy, Germany and France started for their posts. Kim
Man-su was accredited to
France, Min Yung-don to England and Italy and Min
Ch’ul-hun to Germany. Before
their departure arrangements for their support had
been provided for only the
space of one month after their arrival at their
respective posts, just how it
is going to be done does not yet appear but we trust
the success of the
enterprise will not be jeopardized by lack of funds.
Cho Min-heui the newly
appointed minister to the United States left Seoul on
the 19th inst. Hon. Wm. H.
Stevens of New York has been appointed
Korean Consul-General in America in place of Everett
Frazar Esq. deceased. A party of
mounted Chinese brigands raided the town
of Mu-san on the northern border during the latter
part of March. The Korean
garrison gave them a very lively time of it, for the
raiders were driven back
with a loss of thirty killed and [page 171] wounded. The
Korean loss was twenty in killed and wounded. It
appears that
the Korean soldier can stand up successfully against
an enemy when the two
sides are fairly matched. The three years
concession for lumbering on the
north-eastern border, which was granted to a Russian
firm three years ago has
been extended twenty years. Song Ki-un the
Korean Minister to Japan who
returned to Seoul on April 3rd was immediately
reappointed to the same post. It is an
interesting fact that the newly appointed
ministers to Europe and America were obliged to cut
off their hair and dress in
European style. When this condition was made known to
Kim Man-su he averred
that he would rather throw up the position than cut
off his top-knot. For this
he was subjected to a deal of good natured badinage
and finally succumbed to
the argument that as a great many men had been willing
to give their lives for
their country he surely ought not to let a mere
top-knot stand in the way of
such ail important public service. The Prime
Minister, Yun Yong-sun resigned and Sim
Sun-t’ak was appointed in his place. Ten thousand
rifles and a million rounds of
ammunition were landed at Chemulpo on March 20th for
use in the Korean Army. All the money
needed for the Seoul Fusan R. R. has
been subscribed twice over and so this important work
is removed from the field
of possibilities and takes its place among the
certainties of the near future.
May the time soon come when we shall no longer be at
the mercy of the tides,
the fogs and the other dangers and inconveniences of
the western coast of
Korea. An attempt has
been made to rehabilitate the Imperial
Mint which burned last month. Sufficient machinery was
saved to carry on the
minting of nickels at the rate of $6o0o, worth a day.
Some of the damaged
machinery was sent to Japan to be repaired. On the ninth
inst. the British Minister, J. H.
Gubbins, C.M.G. presented to His Imperial Majesty the
Order of the [page
172] Grand Commander of the Indian Empire. It
is said
that the document accompanying this decoration was one
of the very last of this
kind which the late Queen Victoria signed with her own
hand. Prof Martel of
the French School and Prof Bolljahn
of the German School have arranged to teach French and
German in the Imperial
Military School. This is an important departure and
one that should be of great
value to the School and to the Korean army. English is
also taught in the
school under the supervision of the principal, Gen. Yi
Hak-kyun. A complaint was
lodged with the Minister of Law by
the people of Nam-p’o in Ch’ung Ch’ung Province
alleging that Yang Kyu-t’a, An
Chong-hak, An Pyong-t’a and Chung Kil-dang (a woman)
have been claiming to be
Russian citizens and to be propagandists of the Greek
Church and under cover of
this extorting money from the people and committing
other excesses in that
district. The Law Department referred the matter to
the Foreign Office. It was
discovered that the four persons referred to are
Russian citizens. The woman’s
father resided for a time at Petersburg some forty
years ago and was a
land-owner in Russia. Six years ago she came to Korea
with a Russian passport,
which she lost. The Russian authorities offer to
investigate the matter and
punish the woman according to law for traveling in the
interior without a
passport. We feel sure that the Russian Government
will not countenance any
abuses on the part of those who claim to be her
citizens and to be the heralds
of Christianity. Min Sang-ho and
Min Yung-ch’an have been the
recipients of handsome gifts from Prince Henry of
Prussia through the German
Consulate. Su Pyong-kyu, a
graduate of Roanoke College Va. U.
S. A. has been appointed professor in the Imperial
Middle School, Prof. Su is
well known to many foreigners in Korea under his
anglicized name of K. B. Surh.
There are few Koreans who have so good a command of
English as Prof, Su. Seven
years, residence in America afforded him an experience
that should become of
great value to Korea. The press of the
east has been giving very great
prominence to the movement of Russian war vessels on
the coasts [page
173]
of Korea, mostly in connection with the Port of
Masam-po and adjacent waters. Various kinds of
comments have been made upon
these movements but we have nothing to record in the
way of actual news as to
what these things means. We do not share the
uneasiness which so many seem to
feel, for as yet these manoeuvres are nothing more
than we might expect in view
of the fact that Russia has a coaling station at this
point. It is only natural
that she should be anxious to survey the neighboring
waters. If Japanese,
English and United States vessels have frequently
surveyed other parts of the
Korean coast there seems n0 reason why Russia should
not do so in the vicinity
of a port where she possesses such obvious interests.
But we may say, without
entering upon the field of politics, that it seems
singular that this work should
be done at a time when the public feeling in Japan is
so sensitive over the
Manchurian question and when, in consequence, a wrong
interpretation is almost
sure to be placed upon it. We regret to say
that on the night of the 20th
inst. the entire plant and buildings of the Han-Sung
Sin-po were consumed by
fire. This is especially to be regretted because Korea
has so few newspapers
that this one could not well be spared. We trust that
the proprietors will be
able to resume the publication of that paper at no
distant date. On the 18th
inst. the Korean Government secured a
loan of $5,000,000 from France. The final papers were
signed at a Cabinet
Council on that day. The loan is to be in the shape of
gold and silver bullion.
The Imperial Customs returns are mortgaged for the
payment of interest which is
set at 5 1/2 per cent. The debt is to be paid up in
full within twenty-five
years. Since the above
was written further particulars
have transpired showing that the loan was floated at
90, or in other words that
instead of giving $5,000,000 the French syndicate will
give $4,500,000，on the
understanding that $5,000,000 be paid back within
twenty-five years
at per cent, annually. It is stipulated that one third
of the amount be in
silver bullion and two thirds in gold bullion and that
if the quality should be
found to be inferior the Government would be allowed
to return it. As to the
uses to which this money is to [page 174] be put, rumor
says it is partly for the establishment of a bank and
partly
for public improvements, such as broadening the sewers
and building roads. From the fact
that the loan is to be in bullion one
might reasonably infer that the Government purposes to
mint it into money. Now
the shrinkage in the value of the nickel money has
shown that in the long run
there is no actual profit to be made by minting money.
The metal used and the
labor involved will almost inevitably cover all the
value of the finished coin
if the purity of the metal is preserved. We are
anxious so see a thoroughly
good and trustworthy Korean currency, one that will
not need to be discounted.
If this new departure means the beginning of such a
currency and the
heightening of the financial credit of this Government
and if the money is to
be used in such a way as to inure to the benefit of
the Korean public at large
nothing could be more praiseworthy. Bishop D. H.
Moore, the Resident Bishop in the Far
East of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America,
arrived in Chemulpo on the
23rd inst. and left the next day, in company with Rev.
W. B. Scranton the
Superintendent of the Korea Mission, to inspect the
work in Pyeng-yang. The
Annual Meeting of the mission is announced to begin on
the ninth of May, in
Seoul. We are sure that
many of our readers will be highly
pleased to see a translation of the Introduction to
Courant’s Biblographie
Coreenne, by Rev. J. S.
Gale, the first part of which appears in this number
of the Review. It fairly
bristles with points of interest and offers many
suggestions that will well
repay further study on the part of any who are
historically inclined. Few of us are
aware how serious the outlook had
become for the Koreans on account of the lack of rain.
It meant not only
scarcity of food but prevalence of disease, for the
rain is the only scavenger
in this country and the extreme dryness of the weather
invites cholera with all
is attendant horrors. For this reason we deem it
worthy of record that the
welcome rain began to fall on the 25th inst. In the
wheat districts of the
United States they speak of a “million dollar rain,”
and without exaggeration,
but to these people rain means not only money but life
itself. [page
175] On the evening
of the 26th inst. a reception was
tendered Rev. Arthur Brown, D. D., and Mrs. Brown at
the residence of Dr. O. R.
Avison. Mr. and Mrs.
Blaylock, who were driven out of China
by the Boxer movement and who have been spending some
mouths in Seoul, returned
to Chefoo about the middle of April intending to
return to their mission
station in central Shantung as soon as conditions
permit, which we trust will
be soon. The regular
semi-weekly afternoon teas at the Seoul
Union, under the auspices of the Ladies’ Lawn Tennis
club, began with great
eclat on Tuesday the 15th of April. The membership of
the Seoul Union has been
largely increased during the past year and a large
number of new periodicals
have been put on the tables of the Reading Room. In
fact there are few Reading
Rooms in the Far East that are better equipped than
this. A scheme has
been evolved whereby the foreigners in
Seoul can have an opportunity to read the best fiction
that comes from American
and English publishers in the shortest possible time
after its publication. A
competent agent in America will make a selection of
the very best novels at the
rate of three or four a month and mail them to Seoul.
Foreigners by the payment
of three yen a year can have the opportunity of
reading these books in rotation
and at the end of the year the books will be disposed
of at auction or in any
other way that may be desired by the subscribers. More
particular information
can be obtained by applying to Dr. C. C. Vinton who at
considerable
inconvenience has consented to attend to the
correspondence and to the proper
circulation of the books. Two of the
Geomancers who have been found “guilty”
in connection with the matter of the Queen’s tomb have
been sentenced to
decapitation and two others to imprisonment for life.
According to the claims
of their profession they should know where rocks lie
beneath the surface of the
soil. Later advices
state that the death sentence on the
two geomancers who were held responsible for the
mistake in selecting the new
site for the Queen’s tomb has been transmuted to
imprisonment for life. Something of a
sensation has been caused by the
work of a mad dog at the Russian Legation, in
consequence of which [page
176] His Excellency A. Pavloff, the Russian
Minister,
Prof. N. Birnkoff of the Imperial Russian School, a
Cossack and a child have
gone to Japan on a Russian man-of-war to be treated at
the Pasteur Institute in
Tokyo. We join with the whole community in hoping that
no evil effects will
result from this painful incident. IMPERIAL KOREAN
TELEGRAPH RECEIPTS FOR 1900. Seoul
$19,709.07 Chemulpo.....................................................................................8,011.07 Pyeng-yang
..................................................................................6,463.39 Sam-wha
2,722.74 An-ju
..................................................................................
1,304.06 Un-san
.......................................................................................1,455.46 Eui-ju
.........................................................................................
3,754.66 Ka-sung
1,239.21 Ha-ju
1,128.32 Kong-ju
729.94 Chun-ju
............................................................................. 1,807.20 Ok-ka
...........................................................................................1,632.67 Mun-an
3,417.19 Ta-gu
3,105.56 Chang-wun
2,901.92 Fu-san
5,735.23 Keum-sung
77.37 Wun-san
......................................................................................
4,384.66 Ham-heung
1,065.76 Eun-san*
....................................................................................1,531.30 Puk-ch’ung†
..............................................................................152.64 Sung-jin†
............................................................................
81.74 Kyong-sung‡
32.10 $72,443.26 We would call
special attention to this excellent showing
which is the result of faithful and energetic work in
one of the best regulated
departments of the Korean public service. Mr. J. H.
Muhlensteth the Director of
Telegraphs is one of the oldest foreign residents of
Korea and very properly
takes a leading place in those material improvements
which are slowly but
surely lifting Korea in spite of herself. *Six
months only. †Two months only. ‡One month only. [page 177] KOREAN
HISTORY. The first
twenty-five years of the century
witnessed unusual activity on the part of the
surrounding savages who in view
of the constantly increasing power of the three states
beheld their territories
diminishing. The wild people of Kol-p’o, Chil-p’o and
Ko-p’o ravaged the
borders of Sil-la but were driven back. On the south
she attacked and burned a
settlement of Japanese corsairs who had apparently
gained a foothold on the
mainland. Pak-je was also attacked on the east by the
savages and was obliged
to build a wall at Sa-do to keep them back. This
period saw over a thousand
Chinese refugees cross the Yalu and find asylum in
Ko-gu-ryu. It also saw
U-wi-gu, the fruit of a liaison between the eleventh
king of Ko-gu-ryu and a
farmer girl whom he met while hunting, ascend the
throne of Ko-gu-ryu. It
witnessed a remarkable exhibition of democratic
feeling in Sil-la when the
people rejected Prince Sa-ba-ni and in his place set
up Ko-i-ru to be king. The year 240 was
an important one in the history of
Ko-gu-ryu. King U-wi-gu was a man of boundless
ambition and his temerity was as
great as his ambition. Ko-gu-ryu had been at peace
with China for eight years
when, without warning, this U-wi-gu saw fit to cross
the border and invade the
territory of his powerful neighbor. The town of
An-p’yung-hyun in western
Liao-tung fell before the unexpected assault. This
unprovoked insult aroused
the slumbering giant of the Middle Kingdom and the
hereditary feud that had
existed for many years between Ko-gu-ryu and China was
intensified. At the same
time U-wi-gu turned his eyes southward and
contemplated the subjugation of
Sil-la. To this end he sent an expedition against her
in the following year. It
was met on the Sil-la border by a defensive force
under Gen. Suk U-ro who
withstood the invaders bravely but was driven back as
far as the “Palisades of
Ma-du” [page
178]
where he took a firm stand. As he could not be
dislodged the invading army found, itself checked.
Meanwhile a dark cloud was
rapidly overspreading Ko-gu-ryu’s western horizon. The
great Chinese general,
Mo Gu-genm, with a force of 10,000 men advanced upon
the Ko-gu-ryu outposts and
penetrated the country as far as the present
Sung-ch’un where he met the
Ko-gu-ryu army under the direct command of king
U-wi-gu. The result was an
overwhelming victory for Ko-gu-ryu whose soldiers
chased the flying columns of
the enemy to Yang-bak-kok where dreadful carnage
ensued. “Whom the gods would
destroy they first make mad” proved true in this case.
U-wi-gu was so elated
over the victory that he declared that a handful of
Ko-gu-ryu troops could
chase an army of Chinese. Taking five hundred picked
cavalry he continued the
pursuit; but he had boasted too soon. Gen. Mo
Gu-geum’s reputation was at
stake. Rallying a handful of his braves the latter
turned upon his pursuers and
handled them so severely that they turned and fled.
The Chinese followed up the
timely victory and threw themselves upon the army of
Ko-gu-ryu so fiercely that
the tables were completely turned. It is said that in
the engagement that
followed Ko-gu-ryu lost 18,000 men. King U-wi-gu,
seeing that all was lost,
fled back to his capital and awaited developments. But
Gen. Wang-geui, Mo
Gu-geum’s associate, pursued the king across the Yalu
and gave him no rest
until he had fled eastward to the territory of Ok-ju
on the eastern coast. On
his way thither he crossed Chuk-nyung Pass where all
his remaining guard
forsook him and fled. One of his officials, Mil-u,
said “I will go back and
hold the enemy at bay while you make good your
escape”. So with three or four
soldiers he held the narrow pass while the king found
a retreat in a deep
valley, where be succeeded in getting together a
little band of soldiers. He
offered a reward to anyone who should go and bring
Mil-u safely to him. U Ok-ku
volunteered to go. Finding Mil-u wounded and lying on
the ground he took, him
in his arms and carried him to the king. The latter
was so delighted to recover
his faithful follower that he nursed him back to life
by his own hand. A few
days later the pursuit continued and the king was
again hard pressed. A
counter, Yu-ryu, offered to go to the enemy’s [page 149] camp and in
some way stop the pursuit. Taking some
food he went and boldly announced that the king
desired to surrender and had
sent this gift ahead to announce his coming. His words
were believed and the
general received the gift. But Yu-ryu had concealed a
short sword beneath the
dishes and when he approached the general he whipped
out the weapon and plunged
it into the enemy’s breast. The next moment he himself
was cut down by the
attendants. When the king learned that the pursuers
had lost their general he
rallied his little force, threw himself upon them and
put them to flight. The
following year U-wi-gu, recognising that his capital
was too near the border,
decided to remove the court to P’yung-yang, which had
been the capital for so
many centuries. Two years later be made a treaty with
Sil-la which remained
unbroken for a century. He had been cured of some of
his over-ambitiousness.
Yun-bul was his successor. It the third
year of King Ch’um-ha of Sil-la, 249
A.D., the first envoy ever received from Japan arrived
at the shore of Sil-la.
He was met by Gen. Suk U-ro who addressed him in the
following unaccountable
manner. “It would be well if your king and queen
should come and be slaves in
the kitchen of the king of Sil-la”. Without a word the
envoy turned about and
posted back to Japan, An invasion of Korea was
determined upon and soon a
powerful force landed on the coast of that country.
Gen. Suk U-ro was filled
with dismay and remorse. He confessed to the king that
he was the cause of this
hostile display and begged to be allowed to go alone
and propitiate the
advancing enemy. It was granted and he walked straight
into the Japanese camp
and confessed his crime and asked that he alone be
punished. The Japanese took
him at his word, burned him alive in their camp and
returned to their own land
without striking a blow. The following year the same
envoy came again and was
well received by the king, but the widow of Gen. Suk
U-ro desiring to avenge
the blood of her husband, obtained permission to work
in the kitchen of the
envoy’s place of entertainment. There she found
opportunity to poison his food
and thus accomplish her purpose. This of course put an
end to all hope of amity
between the two countries and that event marks [page 180] the beginning
of the feud which in spite of
occasional periods of apparent friendship, existed
between the people or Japan
and Korea until the year 1868. Hostilities did not
however begin at once. The latter half
of the third century beheld few
events of special interest in the peninsula. During
this period Pak-je seems to
have made a spasmodic effort at reform, for we read
that she reorganised her
official system and set a heavy penalty for bribery,
namely imprisonment for
life. She also patched up a shallow peace with Sil-la.
In Ko-gu-ryu a concubine
of King Pong-sang tried to incense him against the
queen by showing him a
leather bag which she claimed the queen had made to
drown her in. The king saw
through the trick and to punish the crafty concubine
had her killed in the very
way she had described. A chief of the Sun-bi tribe
invaded Ko-gu-ryu and
desecrated the grave of the king’s father. The wild
men of Suk-sin attempted to
overthrow Sil-la but the king’s brother drove them
back and succeeded in
attaching their territory to the crown of Sil-la. It
is said that when Sil-la
was hard pressed by a band of savages strange warriors
suddenly appeared and
after putting the savages to flight, as suddenly
disappeared. Each of these
strange warriors had ears like the leaves of the
bamboo and when it was
discovered next day that the ground around the king’s
father’s grave was
covered with bamboo leaves it was believed that he had
come forth from his
grave with spirit warriors to aid his son. With the opening
of the fourth century the
fifteenth king of Sil-la, Ki-rim, made an extensive
tour of his realm, He
passed northward as far as U-du-ju near the present
Ch’un-ch’un. He also visited
a little independent “kingdom” called Pi-ryul, now
An-byun, and made many
presents, encouraged agriculture and made himself
generally agreeable. Not so
with the king of Ko-gu-ryu, He was made of sterner
stuff. He issued a
proclamation that every man woman and child above
fifteen years old should lend
their aid in building a palace. Ko-gu-ryu had of late
years passed through
troublous times and the people were in no mood to
undertake such a work. An
influential courtier, Ch’ang Cho-ri, attempted to
dissuade the king but as he
was not successful he settled the question by
assassinating the king. Eul-bul,
who suc- [page
181]
ceeded him, had a chequered career before coming
to the throne. Being the king’s cousin he had to flee
for his life. He first
became a common coolie in the house of one Eun-mo in
the town of Sil-la. By day
he cut wood on the hill sides and by night he made
tiles or kept the frogs from
croaking while his master slept. Tiring of this he
attached himself to a salt
merchant but being wrongfully accused he was dragged
before the magistrate and
beaten almost to death. The official Ch’ang Cho-ri and
a few others knew his
whereabouts and, hunting him up, they brought him to
the “Pul-yu water” a
hundred and ten li from P’yung-yang, and hid him in
the house of one O Mak-nam.
When all was ripe for the final move, Ch’ang Cho-ri
inaugurated a great hunting
party. Those who were willing to aid in dethroning the
king were to wear a
bunch of grass in the hat as a sign. The king was
seized and imprisoned, and
there hanged himself. His sons also killed themselves
and Eul-bul was then
elevated to the perilous pinnacle of royalty. It was about the
beginning of this century also
that the Japanese, during one of those spasmodic
periods of seeming friendship
asked the king of Sil-la to send a noble maiden of
Sil-la to be their queen.
The king complied and sent the daughter of one of his
highest officials,
A-son-geup-ri. Chapter
IX. Rise of Yun ....
rebellion against China .... siege
of Keuk Fortress raised .... Ko-gu-ryu surrenders to
Yun .... Ko-gu-ryu
disarmed .... Japanese attack Sil-la .... Pak-je’s
victory over Ko-gu-ryu ....
moves her capital across the Han .... Pak-je people in
Sil-la .... Yun is
punished .... Buddhism introduced into Ko-gu-ryu ....
and into Pak-je ....
amnesty between Ko-gu-ryu and Pak-je .... but
Ko-gu-ryu continues the war ....
Pak-je in danger .... envoy to Japan .... Ch’um-nye
usurps the throne of Pak-je
.... and is killed .... Sil-la princes rescued ....
Ko-gu-ryu and Pak-je receive
investiture from China .... China’s policy ....
Nul-ji’s reign .... Ko-gu-ryu
and Pak-je transfer their allegiance .... Yun extinct
.... beginning of
triangular war .... diplomatic relations ....
Ko-gu-ryu falls from grace ....
first war vessel .... diplomatic complications ....
Pak-je humiliated .... her
capital moved. [page
182] We have now come
to the events which marked the
rise of the great Yun power in Liao-tung, They are so
intimately connected with
the history of Ko-gu-ryu that we must give them in
detail. For many years there
had been a Yun tribe in the north but up to the year
320 it had not come into
prominence. It was a dependency of the Tsin dynasty of
China. Its chiefs were
known by the general name Mo Yong. In 320 Mo Yong-we
was the acting chief of
the tribe. He conceived the ambitious design of
overcoming China and founding a
new dynasty. The Emperor immediately despatched an
army under Gen. Ch’oe-bi to
put down the incipient rebellion. Ko-gu-ryu and the
U-mun and Tan tribes were
called upon to render assistance against the rebels.
All complied and soon the
recalcitrant chieftain found himself besieged in Keuk
Fortress and was on the
point of surrendering at discretion when an event
occurred which, fortunately
for him, broke up the combination and raised the
siege. It was customary before
surrendering to send a present of food to the one who
receives the overtures of
surrender. Mo Yong-we, in pursuance of this custom,
sent out the present, but
for some reason it found its way only into the camp at
the U-man forces while
the others received none. When this became known the
forces of Ko-gu-ryu,
believing that Mo Yong-we had won over the U-mun
people to his side, retired in
disgust and the Chinese forces, fearing perhaps a
hostile combination, likewise
withdrew. The U-mun chiefs resented this suspicion of
treachery and vowed they
would take Mo Yong-we single-handed. But this they
could not do, for the latter
poured out upon them with all his force and scattered
them right and left. From
this point dates the rise of Yun. Gen. Ch’oe-bi
fearing the wrath of the
Emperor fled to Ko-gu-ryu where he found asylum. Here
the affair rested for a
time. The kingdom of Yun forebore to attack Ko-gu-ryu
and she in turn was busy
strengthening her own position in view of future
contingencies. Ten years
passed during which no events of importance
transpired. In 331 Eul-bul the king
of Ko-gu-ryu died and his son Soe began his reign by
adopting an active policy
of defense. He heightened the walls of P’yung-yang and
built a strong fortress
in the north, called Sin-sung. He followed this up by
strengthen- [page
183]
ing his friendly relations with the court of
China. These facts did not escape the notice of the
rising Yun power. Mo
Yong-whang, who had succeeded Mo Wong-we, hurled an
expedition against the new
Sin-sung Fortress and wrested it from Ko-gu-ryu. The
king was compelled, much
against his will, to go to Liao-tung and swear fealty
to the Yun power. Two
years later the capital was moved northward to Wan-do,
in the vicinity of the
Eui-ju of today. This was done probably at the command
of Yun who desired to
have the capital of Ko-gu-ryu within easy reach in
case any complications might
arise. Mo Yong-whang
desired to invade China without delay
but one of his relatives, Mo Yong-han, advised him to
disarm Ko-gu-ryu and the
U-mun tribes so that no possible enemy should be left
in his rear when he
marched into China. It was decided to attack Ko-gu-ryu
from the north and west,
but the latter route was to be the main one, for
Ko-gu-ryu would be expecting
the attack from the north. The stratagem worked like a
charm. Mo Yong-han and
Mo Yong-p’a led a powerful army by way of the sea road
while General Wang-u led
a decoy force by the northern route. The flower of the
Ko-gu-ryu’s army, 5,000
strong, marched northward under the king’s brother Mu
to meet an imaginary foe,
while the king with a few undisciplined troops held
the other approach. As may
be supposed, the capital fell speedily into the
enemy’s hands but the king
escaped. The Ko-gu-ryu forces had been successful in
the north and might return
any day, so the Yun forces were forbidden to go in
pursuit of the king. To
insure the good behavior of the king, however, they
burned the palace, looted
the treasure, exhumed the body of the king’s father
and took it, together with
the queen and her mother, back to the capital of Yun.
With such hostages as
these Yun was safe from that quarter. The next year
the king offered his humble
apologies and made a complete surrender, in view of
which his father’s body and
his queen were returned to him but his mother-in-law
was still held. The same
year Ko-gu-ryu moved her capital back to P’yung-yang.
A few years later, by
sending his son as substitute he got his mother-in-law
out of pawn. In 344 new
complications grew up between Sil-la and
[page
184]
Japan. The Japanese having already obtained one
Sil-la maiden for a queen made bold to ask for a royal
princess to be sent to
wed their king. This was peremptorily refused and of
course war was the result.
A Japanese force attacked the Sil-la coastguard but
being driven back they
harried the island of P’ung-do and finally worked
around until they were able
to approach the capital. Finding the gates fast shut
they laid siege to the
city. But their provisions were soon exhausted and
they were compelled to
retire. Then the Sil-la forces swarmed out and
attacked them in the rear and
put them to an ignominious flight. Some years later
the Japanese made a similar
attempt but were outwitted by the Sil-la soldiers who
made manikins of grass to
represent soldiers, and the Japanese, seeing these,
supposed that Sil-la had
been reinforced and so retired from the contest. Ko-gu-ryu had
been so severely handled by her
northern neighbor that she gave up for the time being
her plans of conquest in
that direction. Instead of this she turned her
attention toward her southern
neighbor Pak-je whose territory was a morsel not to be
despised. About the year
300 she erected a fort at Ch’i-yang not far from the
Pak-je capital which was
than at Nam-han. Into this she threw a large force
consisting of 20,000
infantry and cavalry. They began a systematic
plundering of Pak-je. The army of
the latter, under the leadership of the Crown Prince,
fell suddenly upon this
fort and gained a victory, for, when the Ko-gu-ryu
forces retired, they left
5,000 dead upon the field. Pak-je followed up this
victory by throwing up a
line of breastworks along the southern bank of the Han
river to insure against
a future surprise on the part of her unscrupulous
northern neighbor. But Pak-
je’s victories had shown her the weakness of Ko-gu-ryu
and reprisals were
therefore in order. She equipped an army of 30,000 men
and penetrated the
country of the enemy. She met no resistance until her
army stood beneath the
walls of P’yung-yang. An attempt was made to storm the
town, during which the
king of Ko-gu-ryu was mortally wounded by an arrow,
but the assault failed and
the Pak-je army withdrew in good order. The king of
Pak-je, elated over so many
evidences of his growing power, promptly moved his
capital across the Han River
into Ko-gu-ryu territory. Some say he settled [page 185] at Puk-han the
great mountain fortress back of
Seoul while others say he settled at Nam P’yung-yang
or “South P’yung- yang,”
by which is meant the present city of Seoul. Others
still say it was at a point
a short distance outside the east gate of Seoul. But
in spite of the apparent
successes of Pak-je it appears that the people were
not satisfied. It may be
that military exactions had alienated their goodwill,
or it may be that they
saw in these ambitious advances the sure presage of
speedy punishment at the
hands of Ko-gu-ryu but whatever the cause may have
been over a thousand people
fled from Pak-je and found asylum in Sil-la. The king
set aside six villages as
their place of residence, and when Pak-je demanded to
have them sent back
answer was returned that Sil-la could not drive from
her borders those who had
sought asylum from the ill-treatment of Pak-je. Three years
before this, in 372, the Chinese had
gained a signal victory over the Yun kingdom and its
king, Mo Yong p’ung, had
fled for safety to Ko-gu-ryu. It must have been his
last resource, for he was
likely to find little sympathy there. And so it proved
for the king immediately
seized him and sent him a captive to China. The year 372
beheld air event of prime-importance
in the history of Ko-gu-ryu and of the whole
peninsula. It was the introduction
of Buddhism. It is probable that before this time some
knowledge of Buddhism
was current in Korea, but as it is eminently a
sacerdotal institution but
little more than indefinite reports could have been
circulated previous to the
corning of the monks. We are not told whether this was
done at the request of
Ko-gu-ryu or whether it was at the advice of Pu-gyun,
one of the petty kings
who then divided between them the north of China. Be
that as it may, in 372
A.D. images of Buddha were brought by a monk, Sun-do,
and also a Buddhist book
called Pul-gyung. For this the king of Ko-gu-ryu
returned hearty thanks and
forthwith set his son and heir to learning the new
doctrine. At the same time
he gave an impetus to the study of the Confucian code.
It is quite probable
that to this new departure is due the fact that the
next year the laws of the country
were overhauled and put in proper shape for use. In
375 two great monasteries
were built in the capital of Ko-gu-ryu. They were
called Cho-mun [page
186]
and I-bul-lan. It should be noticed that the
introduction of Buddhism into Korea was a government
affair. There had been no
propagation of the tenets of this cult through
emissaries sent for the purpose,
there was no call for it from the people. In all
probability the king and his
court were pleased at the idea of introducing the
stately ceremonial of the new
faith. In fact it was a social event rather than a
religious one and from that
date to this there has not been a time when the people
of Korea have entered
heartily into the spirit of Buddhism, nor have her
most distinguished
representatives understood more than the mere forms
and trappings of that
religion which among all pagan cults is the most
mystical. Pak-je was not
long in following the example of her
powerful neighbor. In the year 384 a new king ascended
the throne of Pak-je.
His name was Ch’im-yu. One of his first acts was to
send an envoy to China
asking that a noted monk named Mararanta be sent to
Pak-je to introduce the
Buddhist ritual. We notice that this request was sent
to the Emperor Hyo-mu
(Hsja-wu), the proper head of the Eastern Tsui
dynasty, while Ko-gu-ryu had
received hers at the hands of
one
of those petty kings who hung upon the skirts of the
weakening dynasty and
waited patiently for its dissolution. Each of these
petty states, as well as
the central government of the Tsui, was on the lookout
for promising allies and
such a request as this of Pak-je could scarcely be
refused. Mararanta, whose
name smacks of the south and who certainly cannot have
been a Chinaman, was
sent to the Pak-je capital. He was received with open
arms. His apartments were
in the palace where he soon erected a Buddhist shrine.
Ten more monks followed
him and Buddhism was firmly established in this second
of the three Korean
states. The greatest deference was paid to these monks
and they were addressed
by the honorific title To-seung. Sil-la received
Buddhism some fifty years
later. All this time
fighting was almost continuous along
the Ko-gu-ryu-Pak-je border. The latter stood on the
defensive and found it
necessary in 386 to build a line of breastworks along
the border, extending
from Ch’ung-mok-yung north-ward to P’al-gon-sung and
thence westward to the
sea. An amnesty was brought about through a happy
accident. A [page
187]
groom who had accidentally broken the leg of a
Pak-je prince’s horse had fled to Ko-gu-ryu to escape
punishment. Returning now
to Pak-je, he purchased pardon by informing the king
that if, in battle, the
Pak-je forces should direct their whole force against
that part of the enemy’s
line where they should see a red flag flying they
would surely be successful.
This turned out to be true and Pak-je was once more
successful, but followed up
her success only to the extent of securing a definite
cessation of hostilities
and the erection of a boundary stone at Su-gok-sung to
witness forever against
him who should dispute the point. But when King
Ch’im-yu of Kogu-ryu died in
392 and his son Tam-dok came into power all previous
obligations were swept
away and he proceeded to reopen the wound. He attacked
Pak-je fiercely and took
ten of her towns. Then he turned northward and
chastised the Ku-ran tribe. When
this was done he came back to the charge again and
seized Kwang-nu Fortress.
This was an almost inaccessible position on a high
rock surrounded the sea, but
the hardy soldiers of Ko-gu-ryu after twenty days of
siege found seven paths by
which the wall could be reached, and they finally took
the place by a
simultaneous assault at these various points. When the
court of Pak-je heard of
this well-nigh impossible feat, all hope of victory in
the field was taken
away, and they could only tar the gates of the capital
and await the turn of
events. This king, Tam-dok, was as enthusiastically
Buddhistic as his father.
He made a decree that all the people of Ko-gu-ryu
should adopt the Buddhistic
faith and a few years later built nine more
monasteries in P’yung-yang. A year later,
King A-sin of Pak-je sent his son,
Chun-ji, to Japan as an envoy. It is likely, but not
certain, that it was a
last resource of Pak-je to secure help against
Ko-gu-ryu. This is the more
likely from the fact that he went not only as an envoy
but also as a hostage,
or a guarantee of good faith. If this was the hope of
Pak-je it failed, for no
Japanese army was forthcoming. As another means of
self-preservation King A-sin
formed a great school of archery, but the people did
not like it; for exercise
in it was compulsory, and many of the people ran away. In 399 Ko-gu-ryu
sent an envoy to the Yun capital
to pay her respects, but the king of that country
charged Ko-gu-ryu [page
188]
with ambitious designs and sent an army of 30,000
men to seize the fortresses of Sin-sung and Nam-so,
thus delimiting the
frontier of Ko-gu-ryu to the extent of 700 They
carried back with them 5,000 “houses,”
which means approximately 25,000 people, as captives.
It is difficult to
believe this enumeration unless we conclude that it
means that the people
living within the limit of the 700 li were taken to be
citizens of Yun. The fifth
century of our era dawned upon a troubled
Korea. The tension between the three rival powers was
severe, and every nerve
was strained in the struggle for preeminence. In 402
Na-mul, the king of
Sil-la, died and Sil-sung came to the throne. He sent
out feelers in two
directions, one toward Ko-gu-ryu in the shape of a
hostage, called by euphemism
an envoy, and another of the same sort to Japan; which
would indicate that
Sil-la was still suffering from the depredations of
the Japanese corsairs. The
envoy to Ko-gu-ryu was the king’s brother, Pok-ho, and
the one to japan was
also his brother, Mi-sa-heun. We remember that Pak-je
already had an envoy in
Japan in the person of the king’s eldest son Chon-ji.
Now in 405 the king of
Pak-je died. Chon-ji was the rightful heir but as he
was in Japan the second
son should have assumed the reins of government. As a
fact the third son
Chung-nye killed his brother and seized the scepter.
Hearing of his father’s
death, Chon-ji returned from Japan with an escort of a
hundred Japanese, but
learning of his brother’s murder he feared treachery
against himself and so
landed on an island off the coast where he remained
until the people, with a
fine sense of justice, drove Ch’um-nye from the throne
and welcomed back the
rightful heir. Meanwhile
interesting events were transpiring in
Sil-la. In 403 Sil-sung, King of that land, fearing
lest harm overtake his two
brothers whom he had sent the year before to Ko-gu-ryu
and Japan, was seeking
for some means of getting them back. This might not be
an easy thing to do, for
to ask their return so soon would perhaps arouse the
suspicion of these
neighbors, and precipitate a war. Ko-gu-ryu had often
taken up arms for a less
affront than this. An official, Pak Che-san,
volunteered to undertake this
delicate mission even though it cost him his life. He
went first to Ko-gu-ryu [page
189]
and there proved so skillful a diplomat that he
soon brought Prince Pok-ho back to Sil-la. The mission
to Japan was a different
matter, but he was equal to the occasion. Before
starting out he said to the
king: “I will bring the Prince back though it cost my
life; only, before I go,
I must ask you to imprison my family; otherwise I
cannot succeed.” The king
acceded to this strange request and Pak Che-san,
starting immediately as if in
flight, without even changing his garments, fled until
he came to the Yul
Harbor. Even his wife he repulsed, exclaiming “I have
determined to die.” He
apparently feared that the sight of her might shake
his loyal purpose. He
arrived in Japan as a political fugitive, but the king
suspected him until news
came that his family had been imprisoned. This seemed
to prove his statement
and he was received graciously. He pretended that he
wished to lead a Japanese
force against Sil-la. Mi-sa-heun, the Prince whom he
had come to rescue, was in
the secret and heartily seconded the plan. The king
made them joint leaders of
an expedition. The fleet arrived at a certain island
and there Pak succeeded in
spiriting Mi-sa-heun away by night in a little, boat
while he himself remained
behind, to delay the inevitable pursuit. Mi-sa-heun
begged him with tears to
accompany him but he refused to jeopardise
Mi-sa-heun’s chances of escape by so
doing. In the morning he pretended to sleep very late
and no one suspected the
flight of the Prince until late in the day when
concealment was no longer
possible. When the Japanese found that they had been
duped they were in a
terrible rage. They bound Pak and went in pursuit of
the run-away. But a heavy
fog settled upon the sea and frustrated their plan.
Then they tortured their
remaining victim and to their inquiries he replied
that he was a loyal subject
of Kye-rim (the name of Sil-la at that time) and that
he would rather be a
Kye-rim pig than a subject of Japan; that he would
rather be whipped like a
school-boy in Kye-rim than receive office in Japan. By
these taunts he escaped
a lingering death by torture. They burned him alive
there on the island of
Mok-do. When the king of Sil-la heard of his brave end
he mourned for him and
heaped upon him posthumous honors, and Mi-sa-heun
married his preserver’s daughter.
The wife of the devoted Pak ascended the pass of
Ap-sul-yung whence [page
190]
she could obtain a distant view of the islands of
Japan. There she gave herself up to grief until death
put an end to her misery. In 413 a new
king came to the throne of Ko-gu-ryu
called Ko-ryun. As China and Ko-gu-ryu had been kept
apart by the intervening
Yun, and had acquired some power of sympathy through
mutual fear of that power,
we are not surprised that the new king of Ko-gu-ryu
condescended to receive
investiture from the Emperor, now that the latter
condescended in turn to grant
it. It was formally done, and the act of Ko-gu-ryu
proclaimed her vassalage to
China. From that time on excepting when war existed
between them, the kings of
Ko-gu-ryu were invested by the Emperor with the
insignia of royalty. Two years
later the Emperor conferred the same honor upon the
king of Pak-je. It was
always China’s policy to keep the kingdoms at peace
with each other so long as
they all wore the yoke of vassalage: but so soon as
one or the other cast it
off it was her policy to keep them at war. In 417 Nul-ji
came to the throne of Sil-la and
began a reign that was to last well on toward half a
century. He was a
regicide. He had been treated very harshly by the king
and had more than once
narrowly escaped with his lite. It is therefore the
less surprising, though
none the less reprehensible, that when the opportunity
presented of paying off
old scores he succumbed to the temptation. He ascended
the throne not with the
title of I-sa-geum, which had been the royal title for
centuries, but with the
new title of Ma-rip-kan. However doubtful may have
been his title to the crown
his reign was a strong one. Among the far-reaching
effects of his reign the
introduction of carts to be drawn by oxen was the most
important. The friendly
relations of Ko-gu-ryu with the Tsin
dynasty were cut short by the extinction of that
dynasty in 419 but in 435
Ko-gu-ryu made friendly advances toward the Northern
Wei dynasty and, finding
sufficient encouragement, she transferred her
allegience to that power.
Meantime Pak-je had transferred hers to the Sung
dynasty which arose in 420. It was in 436
that P’ung-hong, the “Emperor” of
Yun, found himself so weak that he could not withstand
the pres- [page
191] sure from the Chinese side and asked the
king of
Ko-gu-ryu to grant him asylum. Consent was given and
an escort was sent to
conduct him to the Ko-gu-ryu capital. He found that
this sort of life had its
drawbacks; for, to begin with, the king did not
address him as emperor but
simply as king. This was a great affront to his
dignity and, though he was
treated very handsomely, he assumed such a
supercillious bearing that the king
had to curtail his retinue and his income. He had been
given quarters in Puk-p’ung
and from there the mendicant emperor applied to the
Sung Emperor for asylum. It
was granted, and seven thousand soldiers came to
escort him; but ere they
arrived the king of Ko-gu-ryu sent two generals,
Son-su and Ko-gu, who killed
the imperial refugee and nine of his attendants. The
Sung troops, arriving on
the instant, discovered the crime and caught and
executed the two generals who
had perpetrated it. In 449 a
Ko-gu-ryu general was out on a hunting
expedition and the chase brought him into Sil-la
territory near the present
town of Kang-neung. The prefect of the district, in an
excess of patriotic
enthusiasm, seized him and put him to death. An envoy
came in haste to the
Sil-la capital demanding why this outrage had been
committed. War would have
been declared on the spot had not Sil-la been profuse
in apologies. She might
have spared herself this humiliation for war was sure
to break out soon in any
case. When Pa-gyung came to the throne of Pak-je in
455, Ko-gu-ryu took
advantage of the confusion, consequent upon the
change, to attack her. Sil-la,
who, though ordinarily a peaceful power, had been
perforce drawn into war-like
operations and had acquired some military skill, now
sided with Pak-je. Sending
a considerable number of troops she reinforced Pak-je
to the extent of warding
off the threatened invasion. But Pak-je, though glad
to find herself extricated
from her position of danger, would allow no feelings
of gratitude to stand in
the way of her ancient feud against Sil-la; so this
act of friendship not only
did not help toward peace but on the contrary, by
showing Sil-la the fickleness
of Pak-je, made peace all the more impossible. The
middle of the fifth century
marks the point when all friendly relations between
the three Korean states
were broken off and an actual state of war existed
between [page
192]
them from this time on, though active military
operations were not constant. This we may call the
Triangular War. The key to this
great struggle, which resulted in
the advancement of Sil-la to the control of the whole
peninsula, lay not so
much in the relative military strength of the three
rival kingdoms as in the
skill which each developed in diplomacy. Each was
trying to gain the active
support of China, knowing very well that if China
should once become thoroughly
interested in favor of any one of the three powers the
other two would be
doomed. We will remember
that Ko-ku-ryu had cultivated
friendly relations with the Sung dynasty while Pak-je
had made herself
agreeable to the Wei dynasty. In this Pak-je chose the
wiser part for the Wei
power was nearer and more powerful. In 466 Ko-gu-ryu
lost a splendid
opportunity to establish herself in the good graces of
the Wei Emperor, and so
insure her preeminence in the peninsula. The Emperor
Hsien-wen made friendly
advances and requested the daughter of the king of
Ko-gu-ryu for his wife. With
a short-sightedness that is quite inexplicable this
request was put off by the
lame excuse that his daughter was dead. This being
easily proved a falsehood,
Ko-gu-ryu fell from the good graces of the very power
whose friendship she
should have cultivated. The year 467
witnessed an important innovation in
Korea. Sil-la took the lead in the construction of war
vessels. The one made at
that time was doubtless intended for use against the
Japanese corsairs. That
Sil-la had been gaining along military lines is shown
by her successful repulse
of a Ko-gu-ryu invasion in this year, in which the
wild people of some of the
Mal-gal tribes assisted Ko-gu-ryu. After the latter
had been driven back,
Sil-la built a fortress at Po-eun on her northern
border to guard against a
repetition of this invasion. Ko-gu-ryu and
Pak-je were now exerting themselves
to the utmost to make capital out of their Chinese
alliances. Ko-gu-ryu sent
rich presents and richer words to the Sung capital and
so won the confidence of
that power. Pak-je, on the other hand, sent word to
the Wei Emperor that
Ko-gu-ryu was coquetting with the Sung court and with
the wild Mal-gal tribes,
insinuating that this was all detrimental to the
interests of Pak-je’s patron. THE
KOREA REVIEW, May 1901 [page
193] A
Vagary of Fortune. (CONCLUDED.) Ah! how swiftly
flew the months as in a dream
drawing them nearer to the brink and yet ever the
consciousness of certain doom
could not blight the happiness of those fleeting
months. By tacit consent they
never mentioned the time when this must end but the
knowledge that the end must
soon come drew them closer to each other as if they
would concentrate in months
the happiness of years. They roamed the mountains
together gathering wood, or
tilled their little field oblivious of the great
struggling, groaning world. But the end came
an apace, Summer faded into
autumn, autumn into winter and when the mountain-side
awoke to life again beneath
the touch of spring a whisper from the world
penetrated even to their retreat.
An heir had been born to the King and all the land was
rejoicing. The twentieth
day of the fourth moon was set apart as a universal
holiday and the capital was
to behold a fete the like of which had never been so
much as imagined. When Yi Wha
heard the news her heart stood still,
the current of her life was frozen at its
fountain-head for she knew that at
that fete she must avenge her father’s blood upon the
son of the Prime Minister.
No, she would not swerve. Sweet as her life had been
she would for falter. She
had counted the cost and put filial duty before all
else. But what a
struggle it cost her! Time and again she
fled alone into the forest and cast herself upon the
ground writhing as if in
physical agony and crying out in her despair “I never
thought it would be so
hard to do, so hard to do.” [page 194] Meanwhile the
time drew near for the fulfillment of
the prophesy in regard to Sun-chang-i. The nearer it
came the closer he clung
to the only being that made life worth living for him.
He saw that some strong
feeling was sway in his beloved Yi Wha but he forbore
to speak for he would
know full soon enough. Sometimes his soul rebelled
against its fate. Black,
bitter thoughts arose within him that there should be
a Power that could cut
him off from life and love. And yet not that alone; a
Power so cruel as to let
him anticipate his doom and live it over a thousand
times before it came. And still the
inevitable day drew near. The woman,
fighting against herself to the very last, put off the
day of departure as long
as she possibly could, hoping against hope that
Providence would grant her some
door of escape, but no help came. At last it became
necessary for her to start
or else she must forego the revenge of which she had
dreamed for years, and her
dead father’s spirit must go unavenged. One night as
they sat beside their log
fire overwhelmed by the approach of the great crisis
in their lives, the wife
came near to her beloved and kneeling at his side laid
her head upon his knee
and gave way to ail the pent-up forces of her love and
sorrow. When the
paroxysm of weeping had past and left her calm again
she looked up into his
face and whispered: “I must go
tomorrow.” He started and
looked from her eyes into the fire
as if half dazed and not comprehending the import of
her words. But another
thought had flashed like lightening though his brain.
It was this. “A few days
more will witness my death. Better that she should go
and leave me to meet it
alone. It will save her one pang” He looked her in the
face again. “I will not by a
word hold you back from
accomplishing your task. You had my promise when we
married. We have had our
little span of happiness. Now it must end. Would God
it might have lasted
longer but it was not to be. Even if you stayed it
could not last, for the time
draws on when the dread prophecy must be fulfilled and
I shall be taken, I have
only one more request to make before our parting
comes. Will you go with me to
the lofty ledge, where we have so often sat, and watch
the rising of that last
sun that we shall see together? There we can take our
last fare-well.” [page
195] So they sat
there by the fire through the long
watches of that night, hand clasped in hand, heart
beating to heart, until the
crowing of the cock told them they must be on their
way, Then she silently
slipped from her place beside him and entered the hut.
She soon returned
prepared as for a journey and beneath her ample skirt
hung the sword which was
to give her father’s troubled spirit rest. She found
Sun-chang-i still sitting
by the fire, his head bowed upon his breast,
insensible to all but the bitter
thoughts which filled him. She gently took his hand
and brought back his
thoughts to the realities. Before they took the path
which led to their
favorite retreat they turned a moment and let their
eyes linger on those dear
familiar objects. That humble hut which had sheltered
them from many a storm,
that little plot of ground which had brought forth
enough to satisfy their few
wants, those simple implements of their daily toil. A
mother hen came
cluttering forth with her downy brood and scratched in
the moist loam for
worms. The sparrows twittered forth from beneath the
thatch. Nothing of this
escaped that last fond look of theirs. It well-nigh
unnerved them, but the wife
was the first to recover and drawing Sun-chang-i after
her she hastened along
the mountain path. The brisk walk,
the bracing mountain air and the
cold dew that shook in diamond drops upon them from
the bushes that half hid
their path in the grey light of dawn, calmed and
soothed their fevered minds as
nothing else could have done, and when, panting from
the climb, they stepped
out upon the lip of the great precipice which faced
the rising sun it was with
a subdued and chastened exultation. The eastern
horizon unfurled its blood-red
banner in honor of the advancing sun. The morning star
melted before the orb
she heralded. The sullen eagle shook out his plumage
and with sagacious eye scanned
the mountain side for prey. Long they stood
there gazing out upon that grand
expanse of mountain and valley. At last the beautiful
woman drew him back to a
rustic seat where they had often sat and seating
herself by his side began to
speak of the happy years that they had spent together
and from that she came on
to the occasion of their sad parting. “I never have
told you yet what my mission is and
you [page
196]
never have told me about yours. Let us now before
we part clear up every secret that has been between
its. It is not right that
we should keep anything from each other in this last
hour. It was best to keep
silence until now lest the mutual knowledge should mar
the happiness of those
sweet years which we have passed, but now the time has
come to tell all. Let me
hear your sad story and then you shall hear mine.” “As for me,”
answered Sun-chang-i, “there is little
enough to tell, but what there is you shall hear.
Years ago my father consulted
a soothsayer in regard to me and the answer was ‘Your
son will die on his
eighteenth birthday exactly at noon.’ My father did
not believe it and sent me
to China to consult the most renowned soothsayers but
they all made the same
answer. When I returned, home and told my story my
father sent me away to save
himself from the constant pain of seeing me who was
doomed to die so young. I
went back to him and asked for money to travel with.
He gave it and I wandered
north and south until your kindly fire lighted me to
you side.” When he finished
Yi Wha remained a long time buried
in profound thought and then drawing a deep breath as
if to throw off some dead
weight that clung about her heart she said: “You are happy
for you have only to wait for death
while I ― but let me tell my story from the beginning
and you shall judge. My
father was a slave, but only in body. He was the son
of the daughter of a high
official who, having committed some offence against
the Government, was
executed, his wife and daughters, according to the
custom of the land, being
degraded to the position of slaves. It was my father’s
misfortune that his
parents transmitted to him all their pride. His was
not a spirit that could
brook the cruelty and contempt that are the bondman’s
daily portion. Had it not
been that his first master was far more considerate
than most, his proud spirit
would have revolted years before it did. At last a
change came. His old master
died and he fell into the hands of the heir, an
overbearing, consciousless
brute, despite his noble birth, more fit to be my
father’s slave than master.
No one can describe the conflicts which my [page 197] father had with
his own pride, for he was
determined if possible to keep himself in check if
only for the sake of his wife
and children. He was ambitious for us and he secretly
taught my brother and
myself the Chinese character hoping some day to be
able to purchase our
freedom. But the fatal day came. His boorish master in
a fit of drunken anger
wantonly smote him in the face. Every drop of my
father’s noble blood leaped to
resent the unprovoked and cowardly assault. He sprang
upon the coward and
hurled him the ground stunned and bleeding but not
dangerously hurt. Of course
there could be but one result. My father, mother and
brother were seized and
cast into prison while I, too terrified to realize my
cowardice, fled to a
friend’s house and, being overlooked in the uproar
that ensued，I unfortunately
escaped. Heavily veiled I hovered about the tribunal
where
my father was on trial. Oh! it was short enough. It
was only a slave that was
being tried for assaulting his master. Small grace
would such a man find in the
judge’s eyes. Never mind the provocation. The fact
alone condemned the
prisoner. Nor that alone, his only son was condemned
to die with him, and his
wife. Oh! how was it that I ever consented to outlive
that day? How but to
avenge upon that wicked judge the crime—yes crime that
he had committed by
cutting off our house in the person of my blameless
brother! That night I crept
out beyond the black shadow of the city wall to the
place of execution and
there beside the headless bodies of my loved ones I
knelt and lifting my hands
toward Heaven, which alone witnessed my oath, I swore
to cut off the issue of
that cruel judge even as he had cut off the hope of
our house.” The woman,
worked up to a pitch of frenzy by the
recital of her wrongs, sprang to her feet, her face
and form on fire with the
thought of her anticipated revenge. She drew the sword
from its scabbard and
flashed it toward the zenith. “And I will do
it. Yea, by that glorious sun, by
that blue sky and by the Power that rules beyond them,
I will cut off that man’s
line, Prime Minister though he be.” She paused;
Sun-chang-i moved not a muscle though
his face grew grey as the granite behind him and his
fingers clenched the oaken
bench on which he sat until they seemed to sink into
its dense fiber. The girl noticed
his extreme palor. [page 198] “Do you know
him—that fiend in human shape?” With a
mighty effort the stricken man controlled him self. He
looked off across the
forest top toward the distant capital and answered
hoarsely: “Of course, who
does not know the Prime Minister?
You forget that I have lived all my life in Seoul. Go
and fulfill the oath that
you have sworn. Leave me here; I cannot follow you.
Leave me to the fate that
has been meted out of me and which will fall before
many days have passed.” She returned the
sword to its scabbard and throwing
her-self on her husband’s breast she sobbed “Good-bye,
good-bye. This is the
end, for you promised that you would put no obstacle
in my way, and go I must.” And so she went
away upon her useless quest and
left her victim behind her on the mountain side. Sun-chang-i sank
upon the seat and covered his face
with his hands. An hour passed by. “Am I a coward?”
he groaned. “Is there not enough
manhood left in me to face my destiny, that I must let
her go back to that
hated capital and become the jest and plaything of
that lecherous court—she my
wife—and all for naught? Why did I not tell her and
let her do the deed here
with only God and the eagles to witness it? The
sacrifice would have been holy—
but now! And I promised not to hinder her. But am I
not hindering her by being
thus basely passive? He leaped to his
feet and rushed down the steep
pathway calling to her wildly, but she was now far on
her way and only the
echoes answered him. He longed now to taste the
bitterness of that sword; he
thirsted for it. A new thought
flashed above the horizon of his
mind. What was the day that was to witness the fete in
Seoul? It was the fourth
day from that. It was his eighteenth birthday. He stooped and
bathed his hot forehead in a brook
that crossed his path, and threw himself down upon its
bank to think. Ah! that
was it. He saw it all now. She should have her
revenge; and what better place
than in the presence of his father. Nay, how would it
be complete in any other
place? He rose from
that bed a sane and determined man. He
made his way back to the cottage, let loose his cattle
from [page
199]
the stall, drove them to the neighboring town and
sold them. He would have need of money. By a
round-about way he hastened up to
the capital where he arrived the day before the fete.
He did not go to his
father’s house but stopped at an obscure inn outside
the city wall. With the
money in his purse he purchased a splendid court
costume and engaged a
sedan-chair befitting his proper station. The fatal day
dawned on a city decked out in all
the barbaric trappings of the East. Beneath blood-red
banners flowed a happy,
laughing stream of color. Sky blue, willow-catkin
green, saffron yellow, iris
purple, azalea pink, flame red—nature’s colors
clothing nature’s children. The royal
procession had just swept down the broad
street, by the great slumbering bell which only wakes
at dawn and dusk, the
royal escort clad in all the mystic emblems of the
forgotten past, the sacred
person of the King borne high aloft in a silken
canopied pavilion on the
shoulders of half a hundred men. As the last ranks of
the procession pass the
multicolored crowd pours in behind, like water in the
wake of a fast driven
ship. They follow right up to the great three-arched
palace gate and stop there
agape, catching glimpses within of an acre of awning
bellying in the breeze and
straining at the strong but pliant pillars of bamboo
poles, lashed together,
which holds it high above the ground. And now the King
has taken his seat on the
tapestried dais and the weird scream of the pipes and
viols announce that the
cares of royalty are laid aside and that song and
dance are toward. The court is
arranged in a semicircle, the King
seated in the middle and on each side the courtiers
kneeling in order of their
rank each with his winged hat and with the embroidered
stork or tiger on his
breast. None dares to lift his eyes higher than the
border of the King’s
crimson robe. A band of
dancing girls move slowly into the open
space before the King. Their hair is piled high upon
then heads and held in
curious shape by jewelled and enameled pins. Their
silken robes sweep the
ground for a yard all about them. They wear a curious
air of solemnity as if
the dance were a [page 200] stately
ceremonial. They poise and wheel with slow measured
unison, their arms rising,
bending and falling like soft draperies stirred by a
summer breeze. But another
event is to follow which all await
impatiently. A new dancer has appeared in the capital
and she is to give the
martial sword dance. The space is cleared of other
dancers, the music breaks
into a shrill chant which might mean the clash of arms
or the clank of captives’
chains. At that moment
there entered at the back a young
man splendidly clad who held one sleeve across his
face and made his way even
to the side of the Prime Minister where he knelt
proudly. All were so intent
upon the coming event that this action was hardly
noticed. A moment later
the ranks opened and new dancer
with, sword in hand moved slowly to the center of the
open space before the
King. Her flowing robe of gauzy texture swept the
floor about her. The pallor
of her face was concealed beneath the meretricious
rouge. She glanced to right
and left and noted where the young man knelt beside
his father the Prime
Minister. This must be he, but he sat a little behind
his father and the lower
part of his face was concealed by his sleeve. For an
instant her practiced eye
studied the ground over which she was to dance, and
then throwing back the
draped sleeves with a graceful gesture and confining
the amplitude of skirts
beneath her jewelled girdle she took firm hold of the
sword and began the first
slow movements of the dance. A murmur of admiration
passed around the circle,
for though they had seen the dance a hundred times
before they had never seen
it in perfection. If the dance is
the poetry of motion the western
dance is lyric, the eastern epic. There is no mere
nimbleness, no pirouetting
no gymnastics about the eastern dance. It is physical
without being sensual. It
is corporeal yet not acrobatic. It is, withal, modest. The hand that
held that sword had swung the woodman’s
axe. That form had bent beneath the heavy load. Yi
Wha’s dance was no mere
gracefulness; it was trained power. And it held them
spell-bound. But there was
more than power, there was purpose in it, and
desperate purpose too. Though
they knew not what she intended they felt vaguely the
coming tragedy. [page
201] The dance went
on, the viols and the drums beat up
a quicker measure, the dancer’s feet moved faster, the
sword flashed back and
forth more purposefully. The dance swept on to its
climax. Backward and forward
she leaned, the sword making a diamond halo about her
head; to right and left
she turned; with a swift gliding motion she retreated
as if before a too
powerful adversary and anon she swept forward as if
driving him to the walk
Then as if surrounded on all sides by murderous foes
the sword seemed to
scintillate all about her body at once, until, as if
she would burst through
the thick ranks of her foes, she sprang straight
toward the spot where sat the
son of the Prime Minister. At that instant
the young man rose to his feet and
let fall the sleeve from before his face. She stood
before her husband. Another
instant and the blow would have fallen, but when she
saw that face she faltered
for an instant, with upraised swords The King had
risen. Every man bent forward
to see. Was this part of the dance? No, that face,
those horror-stricken eyes
were not those of a dancer. During that brief instant
the chatter of servants
in the outer court and the scream of vicious stallions
eyeing each other across
the shoulders of their grooms only accentuated the
deadly stillness of that
inner circle. “Strike, Yi Wha,
strike. I am the Prime Minister’s
only son.” The young man’s cry was passionate as if he
longed for death. The
sword point fell a little as she looked from side to
side as it searching for
some way of escape. “O, I cannot do
it. Father forgive me; it is my
husband.” “No, Yi Wha,
wife, strike. It is decreed. This is
my eighteenth birthday and see, the sun hangs on the
meridian to witness the
fulfillment of your oath. It must be.” She tries to
nerve herself to it. She lifts the
swords She moves a hairs breadth forward. She falters
again. No, she will do it
now. Another instant. Again her arm falls nerveless. “Oh husband,
husband, tell me, is there no other
way? Must my hand do it?” “Hold” he cries
“why had I forgotten? Here is a
single sentence the soothsayer gave me. Read it.” She reads with
trembling voice. [page
202] “It is a great
evil for a man to kill his slave
without good cause but it is a greater evil for a wife
to kill her husband.” “Ah, thank God,
that is it” and with a sweep of the
arm she sends the sword whirlings up, up until its
point slashes the silken
awning and then it falls clanging at the feet of the
King. That King
himself has risen and is pressing toward
the two who stand locked in each others embrace. Then the young
man takes her hand and leads her out
into their midst again. “This, my wife,”
he cried in ringing tones “took
oath that she would kill the Prime-Minister’s son to
avenge her brother’s
blood. The soothsayers said that I should die today at
noon. We met and married
not knowing what we did. But though she kills me not
and though I, her husband,
die not, both her oath and the fate of the Prime
Minister’s son are this day
fulfilled, for here I stand to tell to all the world
that from this day forth I
cast off my father’s name, who cast me off, and I
adopt myself into the family
of this my wife and become not her husband only but
her brother, to perpetuate
her father’s name. And here I call upon the King; my
sovereign, to confirm and
ratify by royal edict this just decree of Providence.” And it was done. NARRO. The
Tidal Wave in the Yellow Sea. Before entering
upon the subject of the tidal wave
in the Yellow Sea it will be necessary to notice the
great equatorial current
which flows northward under the name of the “Black
Stream.” This stream flows
along the east side of Formosa in the vicinity of the
Lu Chu Islands and
divides into two parts one flowing east of Japan and
the other west. It is the
western branch only that is called the “Black Stream.”
After rounding Cape Goto
it takes a northerly course and washes the
south-eastern coast of Korea.
Navigators easily distinguish it by the higher
temperature of the water. Some
navigators speak of this, stream running into the Gulf
of Pechili [page
203]
but this I shall have to dispute. The name of the
“Black
Stream” is derived from the dark blue-green color of
the water which is due
partly to the depth and partly to the bottom which is
a dark sandy loam. The tidal
current comes from the north-east and
flows in a south-west and westerly direction to the
shores of China. It will
well for us to start from some point and follow around
the shore of the Yellow
Sea. Let us begin with the northern entrance to the
Yang-tse River and the
island of Shanwishan. The figures here given are for
spring tides (phases of
the new and full moon) and the height of the tide is
from low water. The times
and the heights here given are approximate only. It must be
remembered that the tidal stream is
affected by various things such as islands, headlands
and promontories but most
of all by shoals and deep bays. Wind and weather also
affect the tidal wave but
lass at spring tide than at neap tide. Shanwishan
Island off the entrance to the
Yang-tse-River: high water at 11:45 with a rise of
fifteen feet. Going north to
the entrance of the river, high water at 1:50 with a
rise of ten feet. Kiautchau has
high water at 4:50 with a rise of
about twelve feet. Shantung, North
East Promontory, high water at 1:30
with a rise of from six to seven feet. The lateness of
the tide at Kiautchau is
due to the fact that it lies in a deep bay, but there
are other reasons also.
At the North-east promontory there is no obstruction
to the “stowage” of water
and so it has only seven feet of tide while in the bay
there are twelve feet. Wei-hai-wei,
harbor mouth; high water at 9:20 with
a rise of eight and a half feet. Chefoo; high
water at 10:30 with a rise of eight
feet. From the
Shantung Promontory the tidal stream sets
in a North-westerly direction but splits into several
divisions, the principal
one going through the Miau-tau Straits but another
considerable branch takes a
North-easterly course. We will follow the western
branch. The Pei-ho
River, Ta-ku bar; high tide at 3:30 with
a se of nine or ten feet. This is with a south or
south-east [page
204]
wind. With a northerly wind the rise is much less.
At the mouth of the Pei-ho the tide is an hour later
owing to the extensive
bar. Shan-hai-kwan:
high water at 4:50 with a rise of
twelve feet. Newchwang; off
the bar; high water at 4:00 with a
rise of twelve feet. Port Arthur:
high water at 10:30 with a rise of ten
feet. Ta-lien-wan:
high water 10:50 with a rise of twelve
feet. Mouth of the
Yalu River: high water at 3:50 with a
rise or twenty feet. We now come to
the west coast of Korea and the
first place we reach is the mouth of the Ta-dong River
with the recently opened
port of Chinnampo. Cho-do Island and Outside Island
guard the approach to the
inlet and there is a large shoal near Outside Island
and shallow spits run out
to the south-west from the Sisters, two small islands. The Sisters;
high tide at 7: 40 with a rise of
twenty-one feet. Sir James Hall
Group, Peng-yang-do Harbor: high
water at 4:00 with a rise of eighteen feet. The Han River,
northern entrance: high water at
4:30 with a rise of twenty-five feet. The height of
the tide here is due in
part at least to the deep indentation in the shore
which tends to pile the
water up. Shopaiul, the
principal island and landmark for the
approaches to Chemulpo harbor; high water at 3: 30
with a rise of twenty two
feet. Chemulpo Harbor:
high tide at 5:15 with a rise of
twenty eight feet. At this point the tidal wave is
much affected by wind and
weather, more so than at any other place on the coast.
Here also is the point
of concentration of the tidal wave. It is a sort of
cul-de-sac where the tidal
wave attains its highest range. Shoal Gulf,
called also Sumido Bay although not an
open port has always been a trading center for Chinese
junks from the Shantung
promontory. Early in the last century it was visited
by junks from the south of
China, especially from Canton. It seems that many of
these junks were chartered
[page
205]
by Parsees. I may also remark that in the 16th and
18th centuries this port was visited by Parsee
traders. In my opinion this
would have been a far better port to open to foreign
trade than Kun-san for not
only is sericulture extensively carried on in the
vicinity but many other
articles that are valuable for export. But to return
to our subject. Shoal gulf: high
water at 4:15 with a rise of
twenty-four feet. Kun-san, the
newly opened port at the mouth of the
Keum-gang: high water 3:48 with a rise of twenty-one
feet. Mokpo, at
Pinnacle Rock, the western approach to
the harbor: high water at 1:30 with a rise of twenty
feet. Mok-po harbor:
high tide at 2:40 with a rise of
eighteen feet. This harbor is also at the mouth of a
large stream which is deep
enough to float steamers of considerable draught for a
distance of twenty miles
or more from its mouth. From Mokpo to
Fusan is a long coast line guarded by
numerous islands and there are many large
indentations. But from the sea it
looks like a continuous coast line. The harbor of
Fusan is formed by several
islands the largest of which is Deer Island. Channel Rock,
Fusan harbor: high water is 7:40 with
a rise of seven feet. At this point the Yellow Sea
terminates but it may be of
interest to continue up the eastern coast. Wun-san Harbor:
high tide at 5:25 with a rise of
two or three feet. Song-jin, the
newly opened port between Wun-san and
the Tu-man River: high water at 5:50 with a rise of
two feet. This is an open
bay and is probably the poorest harbor of any of the
open ports in Korea. Tuman River,
entrance: high water about 2:45 with a
rise of three feet. PLACE TIME OF HIGH TIDE HEIGHT OKRANGE
H.
M.
Ft.
In. Shanwishan
11
40*
10
0 Yellow River
I
50
10
0 Kiautchau
4
50
12
0 Shantung
Promontory
1
30
7
0 Wei-hai-wei
9
20*
8
6 Chefoo
10
30*
8
0 [page 206] Ta-Ku Bar
3
30
9-10
0 Shan-hai-kwan
4
50
12
0 Newchwang Bar
4
00
12
0 Port Arthur
10
30*
10
0 Ta-lien-wan
10
50
12
0 Yalu River
3
50
20
0 Ta-dong River,
“Sisters” 7
40*
21
0 Sir James Hall
Group 4
00
18
0 Kuro-do Island
4
30
22
0 Shopaiul Island
3
30
22
0 Chemulpo Harbor
5
15
28
0 Shoal Gulf
4
15
28
0 Kunsan
3
48
21
0 Mokpo Approach
l
40
18
0 Mokpo Harbor
2
30
18
0 Fusan
7
40
7
0 Wun-san Harbor
5
25**
2-3
0 Sung-jin Harbor
5
50**
2
0 Tuman, River
2
45**
3
0 In the foregoing
table the single asterisk marks
the places first visited, by the tidal wave and are A.
M. Those on the eastern
coast marked with a double asterisk are also A. M. and
are the very first
affected by the tidal wave on its approach from the
East, At all other points
the time is P. M. We see that the
tidal wave moving westward first
strikes the eastern coast of Korea and then moves
westward to the China coast,
varying in time of course at those points where it is
obstructed by shoals or
belated by deep indentations or narrow channels. On the west
coast of Korea the tide is high earlier
at points which extend well to the westward. F. H. MORSEL. Odds
and Ends. Native
Gold Mining.
The
impression generally prevails that the Koreans
are unacquainted with any other method of gold-mining
than that which is called
“placer mining” which consists in washing out the sand
in the bed of streams.
It is true that a great deal of this is done, the
method being to scoop up a
portion of sand in a [page 207] wooden bowl
which has ridges cut around on its inner surface to
catch the
particles of gold; but it is also true that they mine
in other ways as well. At
certain points in the country we find shafts that have
been sunk to a depth of
three hundred feet following a vein of gold in its
original matrix. The method
of work is very primitive and reminds one of the way
in which Hannibal is said to
have broken the rocks in making across the Alps into
Italy. They simply build a
fire on the rock and when it is quite hot they draw
off the fire and throw on
water, which breaks up the rock and makes it possible
to dig out a few inches
of ore with the ordinary picks of the Korean coolie. This ore is then
hoisted from the shaft and laid on
a broad flat rock and is crushed by rolling over it a
huge rounded boulder with
handles roughly fitted to the sides. After this the
particles of gold are
secured by “panning” them out according to the
ordinary placer process. One
great difficulty that they have to contend with is the
necessity of having a
perpendicular shaft for otherwise they would be choked
by the smoke of the
fire. For this reason they are not able to follow the
vein closely if it
branches off laterally. Pearls. A perfect Korean
pearl is a jewel of fairly good
quality though it never can hold its own with the
product of the fisheries of
the Persian Gulf. It lacks the extreme delicacy of
tint which is indispensible
in a pearl of the highest grade. But the Korean pearl
would be much more
perfect in color if it were properly taken from the
shell. The Korean in his
eagerness to find the pearl opens the oyster while
still alive, fresh from the
water. The experienced pearl-fisher does nothing of
the kind. He lets the
oyster lie unopened under a hot sun until the animal
putrifies and the shell
opens of itself. He then examines the contents of the
shell, holding his nose
meanwhile perhaps. The result is that the pearl will
have a much more delicate
color than if taken immediately from the shell. Most
of the pearls which
foreigners see in Korea have been for a long time in
the hands of Koreans who
do not know that the pearl requires careful treatment
or it will be ruined. The
wonder is that we see any good pearls here, however
good they may have been
when taken from the shell. It is said that the Korean
pearl fisheries [page
208]
have fallen into the hands of the Japanese. They
probably know as little about the business as the
Koreans. If the time should
ever come when the Korean fisheries could be put under
competent management it
is probable that the product would be highly
creditable. Nemesis.
About a hundred
years ago a man named Yi Teuk-ja
was made governor of Che-ju (Quelpart) and while
there, a boat from the Lu Chu
Islands was wrecked on the coast of Quelpart. One of
the men saved from the
wreck was the Crown Prince of Lu Chu. A considerable
amount of treasure was
saved from the ship, and the Crown Prince offered all
this to the governor and
begged for his life, but the governor put him and his
companions all to death.
From that time to the present none of the descendants
of that governor have had
a son. He himself adopted a son. That son in turn was
forced to adopt a son and
so on down through four generations to the present
time and the great grandson,
by adoption, of governor Yi Teuk-ju is today a
prominent official in Seoul. He
is about fifty years old and he has no son. The
Koreans say that Heaven punished
that governor by decreeing that his descendants should
all be by adoption and
not by natural generation. A
Korean Heroine.
At the end of
the Manchu invasion of Korea in the
middle of the seventeenth century a very large number
of Koreans were carried away
captive to China. At that time a man of gigantic frame
and corresponding power
was governor of the border town of Eui-ju. He took
upon himself the duty of
going to China and leading back as many as possible of
those miserable
captives. His great power and unassailable rectitude
had secured him a large
number of bitter enemies and in some way his death was
accomplished while in
the act of bringing a band of Koreans back to their
native land. When his wife,
who was also of gigantic proportions, learned of his
death she forthwith set
out to find his body and bring it back to Korea for
burial. She arrived at the
town where the body lay and the Chinese people, in
their profound admiration of
her faithfulness, offered her roll upon roll of silk
to wrap the body in and a
suitable conveyance to take it back to Korea, but she
refused them all and said
“Bring me only three bundles of straw rope and a [page 209] rice bag from
Eui-ju.” She would not even use
Chinese rope. They sent and fetched the things which
she required. She bestowed
the body in the rice bag, tied it up with the straw
rope and, placing the load
on top of her head, trudged back to the Yalu river and
buried her lord in
Korean soil; and when all was done she took a knife
and plunged it into her
throat and followed him to the grave. Consanguineous
Marriage.
Like the
Pharaoes of Egypt, each King of the Ko-ryu
dynasty, whose capital was at Song-do, married his own
sister. It is easy to
prove the truth of this statement but it is not easy
to show any valid reason
for such a custom. The Koreans say that the Kings of
Ko-ryu were of dragon
birth and that each of them, and of their immediate
family, had a dragon’s
scale on the body near the arm-pit and that it was
necessary to marry in the
family to preserve this distinctive mark of royalty. Cure
for Leprosy. Yi Chi-ham was a
very wise man who had the power to
look into the future. He was made the magistrate of
A-san some three hundred years
ago. He had a desire to see what it was like to be a
leper. So he cut a hole
through the side of his room and sat in such a
position that the draught
through this hole struck him on his side. He sat there
many hours each day and
finally succeeded in contracting the disease. He then
went to work to cure
himself. Everyone knows, of course, that if a leper
eats a centipede’s nest it
will cure leprosy but also that immediately after
eating the centipede’s nest
he must eat a chestnut or he will die. He ate the nest
and then called for a
chestnut; but the ajun or official servant of the
magistrate had been stealing
the peoples’ money and was in danger of being found
out; so instead of giving
his master a chestnut he gave him a piece of white
willow wood cut in the shape
of a peeled chestnut. The Magistrate tried to eat it
but found out too late
that his ajun had cheated him; and he expired on the
spot. This act has given
to the district a bad name which has clung to it till
the present time and the
ajuns of A-san are considered of lower grade than any
others in the land. Snakes.
According to native belief there were no
snakes in Korea a few hundred years ago, but they were
introduced by that very
eccentric ruler called Yun-san-gun [page 210] 1495-1506. He
had heard that if one keeps snakes
under his bed he will be vigorous and strong, so he
sent a boat to India and
secured a cargo of selected ophidians and had them
brought to Korea. The cargo
was unloaded at a point near the town of A-san called
Sa-jun (snake field) in
commemoration of this very event. But it appears that
the stevedores had not
been accustomed to handle this kind of freight and so
many of the snakes got
away and escaped to the woods. From that time snakes
have existed here as
elsewhere. Oppert. Oppert’s
expedition to Korea in the spring of 1867
is interpreted by the Koreans as follows. They say he and
his party penetrated from Ku-man
Harbor inland to Tuk-san prefecture and the village of
Ka-ya-gol where the
father of the late Ta-wun-gun was buried. For three
days there was a continual
and heavy fog. The people fled in all directions and
the marauding party dug
open the grave and carried away the remains. When the
Ta-wun-gun heard of it he
ordered that no examination be made to find out
whether the body had been
actually taken away but to fill in the opening with
earth and cover the grave
entirely with cut stone leaving only a small opening
at the top. It is very
commonly believed by Koreans that these were not
foreigners at all but the
relatives of Roman Catholic converts who had been
killed in the great
persecution of 1866 and that they masqueraded in
foreign costume and stole away
the body of the Ta-wun-gun’s father in retaliation for
the injury he had
inflicted on them. As we know, however, these were
foreigners: but they did not
find the body. The expedition was entirely mercenary
and not at all
retaliatory. We can corroborate the statement in
regard to the fog from a
conversation we had in 1887 with one of the members of
that expedition, who was
living then in Japan. Some reports say that the
expedition went to Ta-bong
Mountain, but this is an error. The country
people have made up a song about this
fog which hindered the accomplishment of the
marauders’ purpose. It runs as
follows. Yang-guk-eui
Cha-jin An-ga Whe-an pong
tora-deunda. “The thick fog
of the westerners Broods over
Whe-an Peak.” [page 211] Question
and Answer. (11) Question.
Is there anything to show that the
Koreans have ever been believers in the doctrine of
transmigration of souls. Answer. We know
of no such belief, of a purely
native character, but it was brought in by Buddhism to
some extent. A
remarkable instance of this can be seen in the
Yong-dosa, a monastery a couple
of miles outside the East Gate. In the building where
the Buddhist
representation of Hell is given there are eleven
pictures, one of which shows a
great pile of skins, tiger skins, bear skins, wolf
skins, fox skins and a dozen
other kinds. The condemned criminals are being
forcibly stuffed into these
skins by the imps who do not seem to be at all careful
of the feelings or tastes
of their victims. This is evidence enough that
Buddhism taught Koreans the
doctrine of transmigration, but the question remains
whether there is a native
and indigenous belief in transmigration. Probably not,
in the sense in which it
is understood in India—namely a succession of
incarnations whereby a final
perfection can be reached. But Korean folk-lore is
full of stories of people
changing into animals and animals into people; more
often the latter than the
former. This metamorphosis, however, has not the
spiritual significance of
transmigration. (12) Question.
How are the different grades of
Korean society distinguished in the matter of dress? Answer. This
supposes the previous question as to
what the Korean grades of society are. We nave (a) the
official class (b) the
Yang-ban or gentleman class (3) the Chung-in or
middle, class (4) the common
class (5) the slave class (6) the Ch’il-ban or pariah
class. The official
class is supposed to be drawn
exclusively from the Yang-ban class, though there are
not a few exceptions. The
officials only can wear the court costume or the
button behind the ear and in
ordinary dress they alone can wear the silk waist cord
with tassels and the
colored, silk outer coat without sleeves. The Yang-ban
class and the common class
were formerly distinguished by the use of the long
sleev- [page
212]
ed coat by the former and not by the latter, but
this is now abolished. Today there is no marked
distinction in dress among the
men, but among the women those of the upper class
always fold the skirt to the
left in placing it under the girdle while those of the
lower class always fold
it to the right. The Chung-in or “half and half
class,” midway between the two
just mentioned, are generally the result of mixed
marriages or of concubinage
and they are not specially distinguished from the
upper class, although
theoretically ineligible to official position. The
slave class comes next below
the common class but they can wear the Korean hat and
head-band and leather
shoes which are denied to the lowest or Ch’il-ban
class. These latter include
convicts, gymnasts, exorcists, sorcerers, fortune
tellers and dancing-girls.
The butchers have lately been raised from this to the
common class.
Corpse-bearers are also considered as belonging to the
Chil-ban. These people
may not wear the Korean hat and head-band which are
the distinctive marks of
citizenship, nor the leather shoes. They wear a cloth
about the head and straw
shoes on their feet. [This opens up
an interesting field of study and we
should be glad to receive further light on it, Ed. K.
R.] Editorial
Comment. Now that such an
overwhelming majority of the
papers of the Far East have been prophesying war
between Japan and Russia and
guessing at what the result would be, it is
interesting to note that the matter
is definitely settled by something which has occurred
in Korea. It is curious
that the matter should have been taken out of the
hands of the two most
interested powers and decided within the limits of the
comparatively passive
peninsula; and yet how often it happens that the most
important events are
decided by apparently extraneous circumstances. It is
slightly ironical that
Korea, the country that might be supposed to deprecate
war between her two
neighbors, should be the place where such a war is
determined upon and that,
too, without the cognizance of either of the
interested powers. It is also
noteworthy that this should have
happened three [page 213] months
ago, and yet that it has remained for the Review to
bring the fact first to the
notice of the public. It is, we may even say,
something of a journalistic
triumph. We should not allow ourselves to be thus
drawn into the political
arena were it not that the newspapers have entirely
failed to acquaint the
public with an event fraught with such tremendous
consequences. The event to
which we refer is as follows. From the
tenth day of the first moon of this year until the
middle of the second moon
all the toads in the prefecture of Chun-ju were at war
with each other and
several pitched battles were fought. This is vouched
for by competent
witnesses. Of course it may be questioned by some
whether this definitely
settles the matter and makes war inevitable but we
have only to refer to the pages
of history to show that such is the case. Do we not
learn that during the reign
of Tong-man, the first female ruler of Sil-la, a
battle of toads occurred in
the capital of Sil-la and within forty-eight hours
news arrived that the
soldiers of Pak-che had invaded Sil-la? Also in the
days of old in China the
celebrated man Ku-chun, a subject of Wui Kingdom, who
had a grudge against the
O Kingdom, pointed out to his followers the fact that
the toads were wrestling,
to show that the fight was inevitable. With such
precedents from history, he
would be a hardy man who would deny that we have
stirring times before us! We
would not be pessimistic, nor would we play the role
the alarmist, but we
insist that it is the part of wisdom to look facts
squarely in the face. News
Calendar. The road between
Seoul and Wun-san must be in good
shape, for Dr. W. B. McGill has added to his already
good reputation for Yankee
pluck by accomplishing the journey in a ricksha drawn
by a horse, in the short
space of four days. The distance is approximately a
hundred and fifty miles.
With the good roads that we now have is it not about
time for some of our
enterprising citizens to think of bringing in
carriages? Seoul has beaten the
Far East in the Electric Railway line and she ought
not to remain so far behind
in this other and even more delightful form of
locomotion. [page
214] It was the
intention of the Government to unite the
two prefectures of Sung-jin and Kil-ju, but the people
of each prefecture are
violently opposed to the project. Neither is willing
to become a part of the
other, with the result that many people are leaving
their homes and moving away
to some other district. It will be remembered that
Sung-jin is the newly opened
port north of Wun-san. About the first
of May the Government detectives
raided the house of Yun T’a-sung in Kye-dong, Seoul,
and found a number of
counterfeiting machines together with $30,000 worth of
nickel money and $30,000
worth of nickel blanks. Mr. Yun had already made good
his escape and only three
servants were arrested. Three hundred
rifles for use by Korean cavalry and
16,000 rounds of ammunition arrived at Chemulpo early
in May. The cost of these
was $10,200, They must be very fine rifles at that
price! The Japanese
merchants who have heretofore imported
from Japan, yearly, something like 250,000 cases of
oil are somewhat exercised
over the fact that this large and lucrative business
will be entirely curtailed
by the direct importation of oil into Fusan by the
Standard Oil Company, whose
new go-downs at that point will be completed next
Fall. Yi Yong-sun, Min
Yung-ch’an, Min Yung-sun and Yu
Ki-whan were appointed early in May to the position of
“Special Minister
Plenipotentiary” but without being ordered to any
foreign post. On the first day
of May there lay in Chemulpo
Harbor ten men-of war of which three were English, one
Russian, four Austrian
and two Japanese. As the
Government contemplates establishing a
foreign paper mill in conjunction with the mint at
Yong-san negotiations were
opened with a large paper manufacturing company in
Osaka. Accordingly the Chief
Engineer of that company came to Korea early in May to
inspect the plant and
make the necessary arrangements for starting the new
project. A new site for
the Queen’s Tomb has been selected
in Keum-gok. It is near the site which was recently
rejected. The time for
moving the remains of the late Queen to this new tomb
is set for the 25th of
the first moon of next year. [page 215] On May 4th the
German Consul introduced to His
Imperial Majesty the Admiral of the Austro-Hungarian
fleet and his staff. Dr. H. A. Allen,
the United States Minister, has
published an interesting and valuable Chronological
Index giving the date of “Some
of the Chief events in the Foreign Intercourse of
Korea from the Beginning of
the Christian era to the Twentieth Century.” The Korea
Review acknowledges the
receipt of a copy of this Chronological Index, with
thanks. The Magistrate
of Musan has sent some particulars
about the fight with the Chinese bandits and gives
some further items of news.
He says that the leader of the bandits was one
Wang-gwe. He and thirty of his
followers were killed in the late fight. After this
the magistrate, for fear of
further trouble, set a sharp watch along the river.
This was a wise precaution,
for a few days later over a hundred bandits were seen
crossing the river a few
miles above the Magistracy where they went into camp
under Sa-mang Hill and
kept up a continual firing. The Korean soldiers were
too few to attack them, so
the magistrate sent and called in all the soldiers who
formed the cordon along
the river. Then they attacked the Chinese camp and put
its occupants to flight,
killing thirteen of them. The rest made their escape
across the river. Then
another party of Chinese 300 strong made its
appearance. The Korean Captain Ma
Yung-hu attacked them with a mere handful of men and
drove the Chinese to the
river bank. Now a letter has come from the Chinese
side from Chang So-yu saying
that he had heard that Wang-gwe had been defeated and
he was coming with 3500
soldiers to avenge his death. When this became known
it threw the whole
district, into confusion and many Korean robbers began
plundering right and
left. The Magistrate hopes that the Government will
allow him to call in the
tiger hunters to help the regular troops to put things
to rights. On May 5rd a mad
dog entered the grounds of the
Government Normal School and sprang into the face of
Kim Hak-hyun one of the
students, inflicting a severe wound on his chin. The
matter was referred to the
Educational Office and we learn with great
satisfaction that the Government has
granted the necessary funds to send him to Japan to be
treat- [page
216]
ed at the Pasteur Institute in Tokyo. Such an
enlightened policy as this gives evidence of the
genuine interest which the
government takes in its subjects. It is pleasant to
point to this at a time
when the darker side of the picture is being so
prominently mentioned. If, as
seems not wholly improbable, there should be an
epidemic of rabies, it is to be
hoped that a temporary Pasteur Institute would be
established in Seoul with the
help of the Japanese authorities. In the case
mentioned above, the dog made his
escape and it is hard to estimate how much damage even
one dog may do. A serious fracas
occurred at Wunsan late in April.
The Commissioner of Customs saw a Japanese walking
about his private compound
with a gun is his hands. He promptly relieved the man
of his weapon and sent it
to the Japanese Consulate by the hand of one of the
Customs coolies. As the
coolie issued from the Customs property he was
surrounded by a curious group of
Koreans and the gun was accidentally discharged. The
charge took effect in the
throat of one of the bystanders and instant death
resulted. The crowd went wild
and the unfortunate but innocent coolie beat a hasty
retreat into the Customs
yard, but the crowd armed with their ji-gi sticks
followed him closely. Most of
the Customs Staff were away to tiffin but the
Commissioner was there and he
made every effort to protect his man; but the crowd
got the coolie away and
beat him to death on the spot. It is easy to imagine
that the Commissioner
himself was for a few moments in a dangerous position,
for a Korean crowd when
thoroughly aroused are not likely to count the cost of
any hasty action into
which their temper may lead them. They probably knew
that the discharge of the
gun was accidental but they considered that the
carelessness of the act was
culpable enough to warrant summary punishment. On the 6th inst.
Prof. St Vraz, a citizen of
Venezuela but a Hungarian by birth, arrived in Seoul.
He has traveled not only
widely but thoroughly, having spent seven years in
Africa and other long
periods in India, China and the various republics of
South America, His written
works, which are all published in Hungarian, comprise
books on over a dozen different
lands and are all beautifully illustrated by his own
photographs. [page
217] The Korean
steamship Kyeng Chae which runs along
the western coast was found to be on fire when she
cast anchor in Chinnampo on
the 17th ult. The fire had been smouldering for a long
time in the cargo but
was not discovered until the hatches were taken off.
From the first there was
little hope of saving her. She was beached and then
burned to the waters edge.
It is fortunate that she did not burn while at sea.
Many of the foreigners in
Pyeng-yang lost goods which were on her, and it is
impossible to effect
insurance on goods beyond Chemulpo. There has
been no little complaint of late in regard to the
delays in the forwarding of
freight from Japan which is billed through to Korea
from America. An effort is
being made to have the Osaka Shosen Kaisha S. S. Co.
arrange with the
trans-pacific lines to bring freight through to Korea
on a single bill of
lading. These Osaka boats run twice a week and are
comparatively fast boats.
The time, between Kobe and Chemulpo is four days. We
ought to get freight from
San Francisco or Vancouver in twenty-five days, but a
month and a half would be
nearer the present figure. It would not do
for a Korean periodical to pass over
in silence the interesting fact that the largest, and
we presume the fastest
merchant steamship ever built in the United States was
launched a few weeks ago
on Chesapeake Bay and when the fair lady broke the
bottle of Champagne on the
ship’s bows and christened her, the name that passed
her lips was Korea. She is
to run on the San Francisco-Hongkong line and we would
venture a bit of
prophecy in connection with her,—namely that when the
Seoul-Fusan Raiload is
completed, one of her ports of call will be Fusan. The Korean
ambassadors to Europe on their arrival
at Shanghai put up at the Hotel des Colonies. The
ministers and their suites
aggregated eighteen men. The Prefect of
Ch’ul-san on the coast of Whang-ha
Province reports that 011 April 26th three Chinese
boats approached the shore
and upwards of thirty Chinese pirates landed and
commenced burning and
plundering, one Korean was killed and hundreds fled
from their homes into the
hills. He sent some police to look into the matter but
they are not able to [page
218]
oppose the pirates successfully, because they come
in with the tide and rob a village and then retire on
the ebb tide so that it
is impossible to guess where they will strike next. A part of the
Pyeng-yang garrison is to be
despatched to the northern border to oppose the
Chinese bandits who are plying
their nefarious business along the Yalu River. On April 20th P.
G. von Mollendorf Esq. the
Commissioner of Customs at Ningpo died suddenly of
heart disease. The name of
this gentleman is closely connected with the early
days of Korea’s intercourse
with foreign nations. The next number of the Review
will contain an account of
his relations with Korea during those interesting
years. The annual
meeting of the Methodist Episcopal
Mission began on Thursday May 9th with Bishop Moore
presiding. Every member of
the mission on the field excepting Mrs. McGill was
present. We hope to give an
account of this meeting in the next number of the
Review. The matter of
the Korean loan from France is still
far from a settlement. Strenuous opposition has been
made and it does not yet
appear just how the matter can be amicably settled.
Pressure has been brought
to bear upon the government to render a withdrawal
impossible. There is very
little use in going into the matter here until
something definite is arranged.
At the present moment things are in a state of stable
equilibrium but the
tension is considerable and gives us a little
excitement to vary the monotony
of life in this far corner of the worlds On May 10th Cho
Pyung-sik resigned from the privy
council but his resignation has not been accepted. His
attitude is not
favorable to the securing of a loan from the French. The native
papers report that the French Minister
called on Cho Pyung-sik and urged him not resign but
the latter stated that if
things were being done that he deemed injurious to the
country he would not
stop protesting even though he had to present his
resignation a hundred times. It is said that
if Korea retires from the loan
contract the French will ask for one year’s interest
amounting to $275,000. [page
219] The Koreans are
making quite a stir over the news
that a boy thirteen years old in Yung-yang prefecture
in Kyung-sang-do after
being three days dead came to life again and said that
this year an epidemic
called Hak-kwi = “swan-spirit” will spread over the
country. He gave a formula
which, repeated 300 times, will ward off the disease. It is reported
that the Seoul Electric Car Company
has been ordered by the government to hand over the
plant to the Household
Department. This very radical action will probably
meet with considerable
opposition on the part of those who have expended so
much time and energy in
the building and equipment of the line. Serious trouble
has broken out in Quelpart in which
it is claimed that the natives have attacked the Roman
Catholic converts, and
inflicted severe injuries upon their persons and
property. The two French
priests who went to Quelpart on the Hye-nik remained
in the island and did not
return by that boat, so it would seem that there is no
very great danger to
them personally. The matter has been brought to the
attention of the Foreign
Office by the French Minister. We regret to be
compelled to record the death of
Hon. J. M. B. Sill United States Minister to Korea
during the second term of
the presidency of Grover Cleveland. Mr. Sill’s death
occurred in Michigan last
March. We are also
notified of the death of Dr. J. B.
Busteed who for two years was a missionary to Korea
under the American
Methodist Episcopal Church. His many friends will
learn of his death with deep
regrets and with lively sympathy for Mrs. Busteed and
her children. On the 17th inst
a hundred criminals were condemned
to be strangled and a soldier who entered the palace
without authority was
condemned to be decapitated and three counterfeiters
were also condemned to be
hanged. Cho Pyung-sik
has resigned his position as
Councillor and has become Minister of Law, and So
Chung-sun has become
Councillor in his place. Kwun Cha-hyung has been
appointed Councillor. Kim
Kyu-hong has been transferred from the Ministry of
Education to that of
Agriculture. Commerce and [page 220] public works,
Min Yung-so has been appointed Minister of Education.
These
changes were made on or about the 17th inst. Kang Myun-heui
has been in prison for some time
because of his connection with the sale of Wul-mi (or
Roze) Island at Chemulpo.
He was the director of the Su-ryun-gica or
“Water-wheel Bureau.” This bureau
has charge of the matter of irrigation and the
reclaiming of waste land. This
man has now requested the Foreign Office to send a
despatch to the Japanese
Legation asking that the Japanese in Chemulpo who
claimed to have bought the
island be called up and put on the witness stand. Kang
Myun-heui claims that as
Director of the “Water-wheel Bureau” he simply gave
the Japanese permission to
cultivate a certain part of the island, but that there
was no sale and that no
deed was given. It would seem only equitable that the
Japanese who claims
possession should be made to show irrefragable proof
of the purchase from
persons clothed with power to sell such a valuable
portion of the public
domain. The 20th, 21st
and 22ud inst. beheld a very
imposing ceremony in memory of the Mother of Lady Om,
at the Sa-jul or “New
Monastery” not far from A-o-ga outside the West Gate.
There were thousands of
spectators among whom the Military were conspicuous.
It was a strictly Buddhist
ceremony. A memorial
service was held at the Chang-chung-dan
(Exalted Loyalty Altar) near the Su-gu Gate on the 9th
inst. The arrangements,
which were in the hands of Gen. Yi Hak-kyun, were most
elaborate. The service
was in commemoration of the officers who have lost
their lives during the last
eight years. Lack of space prevents our giving an
adequate account of the ceremony
in this issue of the Review. It was the most imposing
that we have ever
witnessed in Korea, with the exception of the funerals
of the late Queen and of
the Queen Dowager Cho. [page 221] KOREAN
HISTORY. As this was
without result, she sent and asked
openly that the Wei Emperor send an army and chastise
Ko-gu-ryu. The Emperor
replied that until Ko-gu-ryu omitted some overt act of
more hostile import than
the mere cementing of peaceful alliances no notice
could be taken of her. In
other words the Wei power refused to be the aggressor,
much to Pak-je’s
chagrin. The Wei Emperor sent this answer by way of
Ko-gu-ryu and the king of
that country was ordered to grant the messenger a safe
conduct through his
territory. But Ko-gu-ryu, as though bent on
self-destruction, refused to let
him pass, and so the great northern kingdom approached
one step nearer the
precipice which was to prove her destruction. Upon
learning the news of this
affront the Emperor was highly incensed and tried to
send the messenger by way
of a southern port; but stress of weather rendered
this impossible and Pak-je,
receiving no answer to her missive, took offense and
would have nothing more to
do with China, for a time. At this point
Ko-gu-ryu decided upon a bold attempt
to swallow Pak-je bodily. It was to be done partly by
strategem and partly by
force. A monk of Ko-gu-ryu named To-rim, a fellow of
excellent craft, arrived
at the Pak-je capital as if seeking refuge. The king
received him with open
arms and, finding him an excellent chess player, made
him his trusty councilor.
This monk told the king that the palaces, walls, tombs
and public buildings
ought to be thoroughly repaired, and so induced him to
drain the public
treasury in this work, and also in bringing a huge
monolith from Uk-nyi to the
capital. This done the monk fled back to Ko-gu-ryu and
announced that the
treasury of Pak-je was empty and it was a good time to
attack her. A large army
was put in the field, guided by one Kul-lu, a Pak-je
fugitive from justice. Almost
before Pak-je was aware, her capital was surrounded.
She had applied to Sil-la
for help, but too late. First the suburbs were laid in
ashes, and then access
being gained, the palace was fired. The king fled with
ten attendants out the
west gate, but Kul-lu the renegade followed and
overtook him. [page
222] The king begged
for mercy upon his knees but Kul-lu
spit thrice in his face, bound him and sent him to the
fortress of A-han where
he was killed. Then the Ko-gu-ryu army went back north
carrying with them 8,000
captives, men and women. Meanwhile Prince
Mun-ju had obtained help from
Sil-la and with 10,000 troops was hastening homewards.
He found the city in
ashes, his father dead, the people mourning their
lost, who had been dragged
away captive. He promptly assumed control of affairs,
moved the capital
southward to Ung-ju, the present Kong-ju, took all the
Pak-je people away from
Han-yang (Seoul) and moved them back across the Han
River and abandoned all the
territory beyond that natural barrier to Ko-gu-ryu to
whom it had originally
belonged. The following year he tried to send a
message to the Sung Emperor by
way of Ko-gu-ryu but the messenger was intercepted and
the message stopped. Chapter
X. Quelpart ....
origin of T’am-na .... new alliances
.... advances in Sil-la ... but not in Pak-je nor
Ko-gu-ryu... temporary peace
.... Buddhism in Sil-la .... remnants of barbarism
.... influence of Chinese
literature... .important reforms ....Ko-gu-ryu’s
foreign relations.... conquest
of Dagelet Island .... posthumous titles .... colors
in official grades ....Wei
displeased .... the “miracle” of Yi Cha-don .... end
of Ka-rak .... Sil-la
rejects Chinese calendar .... confusion in China ....
Pak-je attempts reform
.... history of Sil-la .... two alliances .... Pak-je
and Ko-gu-ryu envoys to
China .... advance of Buddhism in Sil-la .... music in
Sil-la .... war between
Pak-je and Sil-la .... retrogression in Sil-la because
of Buddhism....
Ko-gu-ryu and the Sui Emperor.... the Ondal. Tradition says
that in the dawn of history when the
island of Che-ju (Quelpart) was covered only with a
tangled forest three sages
arose from a crevice in the ground. This spot is shown
to this day by the
people of Che-ju. These three men were Ko-ulla,
Yang-ulla and Pu-ulla. As they
stood upon the shore they saw three stout chests
floating in from the
south-east. Drawing them to land, and opening them the
three wise men
discovered that each chest contain- [page 223] ed a calf, a
colt, a dog, a pig, and a woman,
together with sundry seeds, such as beans, wheat,
barley, millet and rice. By
the three families thus organised the island was
populated. During the early
days of Sil-la a certain court astrologer announced
that the “Friend Star” was
visible in the south and that a distinguished visitor
would soon arrive. Soon
after this three men came by boat from Quelpart,
landing at the harbor of
Tam-jin, now Kang-jin. They came straight to the court
of Sil-la where they
were hospitably entertained. One of the visitors was
Ko-hu one was Ko-ch’ung
but the name of the third is lost. The king called the
first Sung-ju or “Lord
of the Star,” the second Wang-ja or “King’s Son” and
the third To-na or “The
One who has Come.” He named their country Tam from the
name of the port where
they landed, and na, which seems to have meant
“Kingdom”, for we find that the
last syllable of Sil-la is this same na changed by
euphonic laws to la. It is
the root of the present Korean word na-ra or “kingdom”
So the kingdom was
called T’am-na. The authorities are at a loss to tell
the date or even the
reign during which these events transpired. In the
year 477 the little kingdom
of T’am-na sent an envoy to the court of Pak-je with
gifts. This is the first
really authentic mention of the place. If tradition is
of any value it must be
confessed that the story of the peopling of Quelpart
points toward a southern
origin. In 479 the aged
king of Ko-gu-ryu, Ko-ryun, now in
the sixty-eighth year of his reign, sought and
obtained recognition from
Emperor Ko-je (Kao-ti) the founder of the Ch’i dynasty
in China. That this
occurred in the very first year after the founding of
that dynasty shows how
sedulously Ko-gu-ryu was cultivating the good-will of
the Chinese. Pak-je was
not far behind, for she swore allegiance to the same
Emperor only two years later. During all these
years it is to Sil-la that we must
look for any signs of internal improvement. any of
those innovations which are
the mile-stones of progress. We saw above how she
introduced the use of the
cart and so raised a great burden from the shoulders
of the people. The wheel
is the great burden bearer of history. And now, we
find her introducing further
reforms. The first was the horse relay [page 224] system called
the Yong-ma. It did not bear so
directly upon the condition of the people but it
afforded an opportunity for
the rapid transmission of official information and
thus indirectly had an
important bearing upon the welfare of the masses. In
the next place, she
organised a general market where at stated intervals
merchants from the various
districts could meet and exchange commodities. These
are things that we look
upon as matters of course and we do not realise their
importance till we
imagine ourselves deprived of the comforts that spring
from the possibility of
rapid communication and exchange of commodities. That
Ko-gu-ryu had not made
similar advances in the line of industrial reform is
shown by the fact that
when the Emperor of the Wei dynasty sent to grant
investiture to Na-un the
twenty-first king of Ko-gu-ryu in 499 he presented him
with suits of clothes,
flags，a crown and a
cart. This shows that carts were not
as yet in common use in Ko-gu-ryu. As for Pak-je,
disaster was following upon
disaster. At one time a thousand people were swept
away in a flood. Then famine
carried away three thousand. A few years later ten
thousand people passed over
into Sil-la to save themselves from starvation. The sixth
century dawned upon a comparatively
peaceful Korea; for the time being the dogs of war
were held in leash and feuds
seem to have been laid on the shelf. The three
kingdoms employed their time in
different but characteristic ways. The king of Pak-je
built an enormous
pleasure-house and adorned it with all manner of
curious flowers and animals. To
the expostulations of his ministers he turned a deaf
ear. A few years
later he was murdered by one of his
courtiers. In truth, peace was nearly as bad for
Pak-je as war. In Sil-la
Buddhism had been introduced during the reign of
Nul-ji, 417-458. A monk named
Muk Hoja had been well received and was lodged in the
palace. But, at the first,
Buddhism did not find congenial soil in Sil-la.
Tradition gives the following
account of the first set-back which it suffered there.
In 502 while the king
was idling an hour away in a favorite summer-house
outside the city, a raven appeared
bearing in its beak a letter. It laid the missive at
the king’s feet and flew
away. The superscription said “If the king opens and
reads this note two people
will die; it he [page 225] does
not open it one will die”. He determined not to open
it, but one of his
attendants said “The one referred to is Your Majesty
and therefore you should
open it even though two lives are sacrificed” He broke
the seal and read the
strange words “Let the king take his trustiest bow,
hasten to the palace and
shoot an arrow through the zither case.” The king
obeyed the mandate, hastened
back to the palace by a private gate, entered the
queen’s apartments
unannounced and shot an arrow through a zither case
that stood against the
wall. The arrow pierced the zither case and the High
Priest who was hidden
behind it. The latter had taken advantage of the
king’s absence to attack his
honor. He was strangled together with the guilty
queen. With all her
attempts at progress some evidences of
the grossest barbarity still lingered in Sil-la. It
was not, so the records
tell us, until the year 503 that Sil-la discontinued
the horrible custom of
burying people alive when a king’s body was interred.
It had been customary to
bury five boys and five girls alive on such occasions,
but in 503 the king
published a decree forbidding the continuance of the
custom. The very barbarity
of the custom renders its abolition the more striking
and places the name of
king Chi-jeung, the twenty-second of his line, among
the names of Korea’s
benefactors. At the same time the custom of plowing
with oxen was introduced,
an innovation that had a most far-reaching effect upon
society. It was in the
beginning of the sixth century that Sil-la began to
show evidences of the
influence of Chinese literature and thought. In 504
she adopted the Chinese
word Wang as the title of her kings in place of the
pure Korean words I-sa-geum
or Ma-rip-kan. She also changed the name of the
kingdom from Kye-rim to Sil-la.
We have been speaking of this kingdom under the name
Sil-la but as a matter of
fact it was not so designated until the year 504 A.D.
Before that time it had
been variously styled Su-ya-bul, Sa-ro, and Kye-rim.
The word Sil-la is said to
have been composed of the Chinese words Sin and ra,
which when united become
Sil-la according to Korean laws of euphony. It is more
than probable that it
was merely an adaptation of Chinese characters to pure
Korean words, for the
last syllable la or na is the same as that used in
other words，centuries before
that time [page 226] in southern Korea. The na of
T’am-na is the same character. To the word
Sil-la was added the word Kuk or “kingdom” which put
her in line with the other
vassals of China. The Confucian code must have been
making headway too, for in
the following year the custom was adopted of assuming
a mourning garb for three
years upon the death of a parent. It was at this time
that the influence of
China upon Korea began to bear its legitimate fruit.
Chinese religion,
literature, government and art were beginning to mould
the thought and life of
the Korean people. Many Chinese words had been
introduced into Korea before
this time but the use of the Chinese character had not
been general. In the meantime
Ko-gu-ryu had been paying attention
not so much to internal reforms as to external
alliances. She sent to the Wei
Emperor begging him to remit the revenue in gold and
jade, as they were
obtained, the one in Pu-yu, which she claimed the
Mal-gal savages had seized,
and the other in Sup-na which she averred the wicked
Pak-je had feloniously
taken. But she added “Of course all that Ko-gu-ryu has
is yours”. The Emperor
good-naturedly remitted the revenue but urged his
vassal to continue the good
work of subduing the wild tribes of the peninsula. It
is said that in a single
year Ko-gu-ryu sent three separate embassies to the
Wei court. At the same time
she was coquetting, sub rosa,
with
the new Liang power which had arisen in 502. In this
Pak-je of course followed
suite. We thus see that the three kingdoms spent their
time in different ways;
Sil-la in internal improvement, Pak-je in
self-gratification and Ko-gu-ryu in
strengthening her foreign relations. In the year 512
the kingdom of U-san was added to
the crown of Sil-la. This was the little island of
Dagelet, off the eastern
coast of Korea, about opposite the prefecture of
Kang-neung. How Sil-la
happened to branch out in a policy of conquest we are
not told, but having
decided to do so she did it very neatly. The
expedition was led by Gen. Yi Sa-
bu. He ordered the construction of several lions with
gaping mouths and
enormous fangs. They were carved from wood. He placed
one of these in the prow
of each of the boats and when the little flotilla
approached the shores of the
island [page
227]
the natives were called upon to lay down their
arms and surrender, or the lions would be set loose
among them and would tear
them to pieces. This, it is averred, brought the
trembling islanders to their
knees at once and Sil-la won a bloodless victory. This
is among the most cherished
traditions of the Korean people. With the
accession of Wun-jong to the throne of
Sil-la in 514 the Chinese custom of conferring a
posthumous title upon a
deceased king was introduced for the first time into
Korea. Long before this
the custom had prevailed in Ko-gu-ryu of naming a dead
king after the place in
which he was buried but to the very last the Ko-gu-ryu
kings did not receive
posthumous honorific titles. Pak-je however followed
Sil-la’s example ten years
later. King Pup-heung
of Sil-la in 520 reorganised the
official list and indicated the different grades of
rank by different colors.
The grades called t’a-do, Rak-Ran and ta-a-son wore
lavender. Those called
a-son and Reup-son, wore red, and carried the ivory
memo tablets that are
common today The ta-na-ma and the na-ma wore blue. The
ta-sa and sun-jo-ji wore
hats of silk, shaped like the broad-brimmed, round
crowned hats of the
chair-coolie of the present day. The pa-jin-son and
the ta-a-son wore red silk
hats. The sang-dong, chuk-wi and ta-sa wore red hat
strings. The kaleidoscopic
colors of a royal Korean procession of today indicate
what a prominent role the
love of color plays in the oriental temperament. The Wei
power in China was not pleased with the friendship
that was springing up between
Ko-gu-ryu and the Liang courts. This came to a climax
when she stopped a Liang
envoy who was on his way to Ko-gu-ryu to confer
investiture upon the king. It
may be that Ko-gu-ryu realised that the Wei dynasty
was waning to its close and
that it was well to cultivate the good-will of the
young and rising Liang
power; but if so the forecast was false for the Liang
power outlived the Wei
only twenty-four years. The year 524
gave Sil-la Buddhism a new lease of
life. Its most celebrated, representative was a monk
named Muk Ho-ja who lived
about the middle of the fifth century. Com- [page 228] ing from
Ko-gu-ryu he had settled at the town of
Il-sung-gun where a Sil-la citizen had made him a cave
dwelling. The king of
Sil-la received a gift of incense from China, but did
not know how to use it
till this monk Muk Ho-ja showed him how. He told the
king to burn it and ask
anything of the spirits, and they would grant it. The
king’s daughter was very
ill at the time and the king burned the incense and
asked that his daughter be
healed. The story says that she immediately arose from
her bed a well woman.
This of course gave Buddhism a long start. Since that
time, as we have seen,
Buddhism had suffered a severe drawback in the person
of the wicked monk who
was discovered in the act of abusing his sacerdotal
function. It had recovered
from that shock however and had again assumed large
proportions in the state of
Sil-la. The king had come so completely under the
influence of the monks that
now in 524 the courtiers feared that their power would
be seriously threatened.
They therefore used every means to induce the king to
moderate his views. The
king gave his reluctant assent to the execution of the
high priest, Yi Cha-don.
Tradition says that when he was brought to execution
he exclaimed “When you
slay me, my blood will flow not red like blood but
white as milk and then you
will know that Buddhism is true.” And so it proved,
for when his head was
severed from the trunk his blood flowed white like
milk. None could gainsay this
evidence and from that day Buddhism advanced with
rapid steps. The following
year the king made a law against the killing of
animals. The kingdom of
Ka-rak had existed side by side with
Sil-la on terms of mutual friendship for four hundred
and eighty-two years, but
in 527 her king, Kim Ku-hyung, gave up his sovereign
power and merged his
kingdom into that of Sil-la. He was however retained
at the head of the Ka-rak
state under appointment by the king of Sil-la. It does
not appear from the
scanty records that this was other than a peaceful
change. Ka-rak had long seen
the growing power of Sil-la and doubtless recognised
that more was to be gained
by becoming part of that kingdom than by standing
aloof and running the chance
of becoming disputed territory between the rival
powers of the peninsula. She
had been founded in [page 229] 41 A.
D. and now she came to an end in 527 so her lease of
life seems to have been
four hundred and eight-six years rather than four
hundred and eighty-two as the
records state. As the dates of her beginning and end
are both taken from the
records the discrepancy must be laid at the door of
the recorder. About this time
Sil-la discovered that it was
useless to cultivate the friendship of the Chinese
powers. The Chinese
territory was divided into a number of petty kingdoms
and more were on the eve
of being founded. None of them had strength enough to
hold her own against the
others, much less to be of any avail in case of
trouble in the peninsula.
Perhaps it was for this reason that in 535 Sil-la
rejected the Chinese calendar
and named the year according to a plan of her own. In
China the Liang dynasty,
the Northern Wei and the Eastern Wei were all in the
field，while the Ch’en,
the Northern Chi, the Northern Chu and the Sui
dynasties were
just about to make their appearance and all to pass
away like summer clouds
before the power of the mighty T’ang. About the year
540 Pak-je moved her capital again;
this time it was to Sa-ja the site of the present
prefecture of Pu-yu in the
province of Ch’ung-ch’ung. She seems to have had some
aspirations after better
things, for in 541 she sent to the Liang court asking
that books of poetry,
teachers of literature, Buddhist books, artisans and
picture painters be sent
to help in creating a taste for literature and art in
that country. The request
was granted. The year 543
marks an important event in the life
of Sil-la. The history of that country existed as yet
only in the form of
notes, but now the king ordered that a congress of the
best scholars of the
land set to work compiling a proper history under the
leadership of the great
scholar Kim-gu Ch’il-bu, We will notice that this was
about two hundred years
before the earliest date that is set for the
publication of the Japanese work
entitled the Kojiki, And it should be noticed likewise
that this history of
Sil-la was not a collection of myths and stories only,
but a proper history,
worked up from government records which a certain
degree of knowledge of
Chinese had rendered the officials capable of making
and transmitting. One
needs but to compare the Kojiki with the [page 230] Sam-guk-sa or
“History of the Three Kingdoms”
founded on these records to see how immeasurably the
latter excels the former
as a source of accurate historical evidence. It was about
this time that the wild tribes of the
Mal-gal and Ye-mak began to realise that the continued
progress of Pak-je and
Sil-la meant extinction for themselves. So in 547 they
joined Ko-gu-ryu in an
attack upon Pak-je; but Sil-la and Ka-ya rendered aid
to Pak-je and the
northern allies were driven back. From this time on,
during a period of several
years, Ko-gu-ryu, Ye-mak and Mal-gal were allies, and
Sil-la. Pak-je and Ka-ya
were allies; a sort of dual arrangement, which
preserved a nice equilibrium in
the peninsula. In 549 the king
of Pak-je sent an envoy to present
his compliments to the Liang Emperor. When he arrived
at the capital of the
Liang power he found the palace in ashes and the reins
of government in the
hands of the usurper Hu-gyung; so he took his stand
before the Tan-mun (gate)
and wept aloud from morning till night. The
passers-by, hearing his story,
stopped and wept with him. This of course did not
please the usurper, and the
envoy was seized and thrown into prison where he
stayed until the rebellion was
put down and the Emperor returned. As the Ch’i dynasty
arose in 550 we are not surprised
to learn that Ko-gu-ryu sent an envoy immediately to
do obeisance and get into
the good graces of the new power. It must be
confessed that meantime Buddhism had
been making rapid strides in Sil-la. Monasteries had
been erected and the new
cult was winning its way into the hearts of the
people. In 551 the public
teaching of the eight laws of Buddhism against (1) the
slaughter of animals,
(2) theft, (3) licentiousness, (4) lying, (5)
drunkenness, (6) ambition. (7)
the eating of garlic, (8) levity, was decreed. It is probable
that the art of music was not highly
developed at this time but in 552 the king of Sil-la
sent three men to the
Ka-ya country to learn music from a celebrated master
named U Reuk; but that
learned man had come to realise that Ka-ya was doomed
and, taking his
twelve-stringed instrument under his arm he went with
his disciple Ni Mun to
the court of Sil-la. The three men, Pup-ji, Kye-go and
Man-dok, whom the king
had appointed to study music, entered [page 231] upon their
duties under this man’s tutelage. One
of them studied singing another the use of the
instrument and a third dancing.
When they had perfected themselves in these ornamental
arts they proposed to
alter some of the songs, on the plea that they were
too licentious, but old U
Reuk violently objected to expurgated editions of his
works, and so it was
stopped. From that time music became very popular and
in many cases students of
this great branch of art went among the mountains and
spent years in practice.
The instrument was called a Ka-ya-geum from Ka-ya
where it originated. It is
now called the ka-go and is shaped like a Korean
zither but is smaller. Among
the favorite songs that have come down to the present
time are “The Ascent of
the Mountain,” “The Descent of the Mountain,” The
Rustling Bamboo,” “The Stork
Dance,” “The Blowing Wind” and “The Monastery on the
Mountain” But music was
not the only art that flourished, for we are gravely
told that an artist
painted a tree on the wall of “Yellow Dragon
Monastery” with such skill that
birds tried to alight on its branches. In 555, war
broke out between Sil-la and Pak-je. We
are not told its cause but Sil-la was victorious and
added to her territory a
large tract of country along the eastern side of
Pak-je, which she erected into
a prefecture under the name of Wan-san-ju (now
Chun-ju). One authority says
that in this war Pak-je lost one half of her territory
to Sil-la. It seems that
Sil-la had by this time developed the taste for
diplomatic intercourse with
China. Frequent embassies were sent on the long and
costly journey. Each of the
three powers sent two and three times a year to one or
other of the various
Chinese courts. The Emperor of the Ch’i dynasty sent
Sil-la great store of
Buddhistic books. It is said that as many as 1700
volumes were sent at one
time. When Pak-jong
ascended the throne of Sil-la in 576
the Buddhistic tendencies had begun to bear their
legitimate fruits. The king
was so given over to it that he became a monk and the
queen became a nun. All
thought of progress seems to have been given up and
the revenues were
squandered in sending useless embassies to China. The
style of Buddhism
prevalent in Sil-la is illustrated by the fact that in
the second [page
232]
year of this reign the minister of war took the
king severely to task for spending so much time in the
chase, though the
killing of animals is the first prohibition of the
Buddhist law. Tradition says
that this faithful minister, Hu-jik, plead in vain,
and finally, when dying,
asked to be buried near the road the king usually took
when going to hunt It
was done and the king when passing the grave heard a
noise of warning
proceeding from it. When he was told that it was the
faithful but neglected
Hu-jik, the king determined on the spot that he would
reform, and so the
faithful minister did more by his death than by his
life. It was in the
year 586 that Ko-gu-ryu again moved
her capital northward to the old place near the
present Eui-ju. Soon after this
the Tsin dynasty in China fell before the victorious
Sui, and Ko-gu-rye, who
had been friendly with the Tsin but had never
cultivated the Sui, was left in
an extremely delicate position. She immediately began
preparations for
repelling a Sui invasion. The Emperor however had no
such intentions and sent a
swift messenger chiding the king for his unjust
suspicions and opening the way
for a friendly understanding. This seemed a little
strained to the king and he
feared treachery; so, while he greatly desired to send
an envoy, he hardly
ventured to do so. One of the
famous traditions of Korea centers about
this king. His daughter when of tender years cried so
much that on one occasion
the king impatiently exclaimed “When you grow up you
cannot marry a man of the
nobility but we will marry you to an ondali.” Now an
ondali is a very ignorant,
foolish fellow, a boor. When the girl reached a
marriageable age the king who
had forgotten all about his threat was for marrying
her to a high noble but the
girl called to his remembrance the words he had spoken
and said she would marry
no one but an ondali. The king bound ten golden
hairpins to her arm and drove
the away from the palace. She fled to the hut of an
ondali on the outskirts of
the town but he was away in the hills gathering elm
bark to eat. His mother,
old and blind, said “You smell of perfume and your
hands are soft and smooth.
My boy is only an ignorant ondali and no match for
you.” Without answering, the
maiden hastened to the hills and found the boy, but he
thought her a spirit and
took [page
233]
to his heels and ran home as fast as he could go.
She followed and slept before his door that night. At
last the youth
comprehended the situation and accepted the hand of
the princess. With the ten
golden hairpins she set him up in the horse-raising
business. He bought the
broken-down palace ponies and by careful treatment
made them sound and fleet
again. In the chase he always led the rout and when
the King asked who he might
be the answer was “Only an ondali.” From this the
youth advanced until he
became a famous general and had the honor of defeating
a Chinese army in
Liao-tung. He was killed during an invasion of Sil-la
but no one was able to
lift his dead body till his wife came and knelt beside
it saying “The dead and
living are separated.” Then it was lifted and carried
back to Ko-gu-ryu. Chapter
XL Ko-gu-ryu
relations with the Sui court.... Ko-gu-ryu
suspected.... takes the offensive.... submits.... the
Emperor suspicious....
the great Chinese invasion.... Chinese allies ....
Ko-gu-ryu’s allies....
Chinese cross the Liao.... go into camp.... naval
expedition.... defeated at P’yung-yang....
routes of the Chinese army.... Ko-gu-ryu spy....
Ko-gu-ryu lures the Chinese on
pretense of surrender.... Chinese retreat.... terrible
slaughter.... Pak-je
neutral.... second invasion.... siege of Liao-tung
fortress.... Chinese
retire.... and give up the contest.... treaty with the
T’ang Emperor....
triangular war renewed.... China neutral.... guerilla
warfare.... first woman
sovereign.... Pak-je retrogrades.... attacks
Sil-la.... Pak-je’s terrible mistake.... Chinese spy....
rise of Hap So-mun.... the tortoise and the rabbit....
Taoism introduced.... China finally sides with
Sil-la.... and announces her
program.... preparations for war.... the invasion....
siege of Liao-tung
Fortress.... siege of An-si Fortress.... Chinese
retire. We have seen
that Ko-gu-ryu did not respond freely
to the friendly advances of the Sui power in China.
Although a Sui envoy came
and conferred investiture upon the king in 590, yet
the relations were not
cordial. Something was lacking. A mutual suspicion
existed which kept them both
on the watch for signs of treachery. But two years
later the king did obeisance
to the Emperor and was apparently taken [page 234] into his good
graces. And now the net began to be
drawn about Ko-gu-ryu. Her position had always been
precarious. She was the
largest of the peninsular kingdoms and the nearest to
China. She was also
nearest to the wild tribes who periodically joined in
an attempt to overthrow
the Chinese ruling dynasty. So Ko-gu-ryu was always
more or less suspected of
ulterior designs and she seems to have realised it,
for she always sedulously
cultivated the good-will of the Emperors, She knew
very well that with Sil-la
and Pak-je, hereditary enemies, at her back, the day
when she fell under the
serious suspicion of any strong dynasty in China would
be her day of doom. And
so it proved in the end. She had now thoroughly
alienated the good-will and
aroused the suspicions of the Sui Emperor; Sil-la and
Pak-je were in his good
graces, and stirring times were at hand. These two
rival powers sent envoys to
China urging the Emperor to unite with them in
invading Ko-gu-ryu and putting
an end to her once for all. To this the Emperor
assented. Ko-gu-ryu knew that
the fight was on and, being the warlike power that she
was, she boldly
determined to take the offensive. Drawing on her
faithful allies the Mal-gal
for 10,000 troops she despatched these, together with
her own army to western
Liao-tung and across the river Liao, where the town of
Yung-ju was attacked and
taken. This was her declaration of war. The Emperor in
598 proclaimed the royal
title withdrawn from the king of Ko-gu-ryu and an army
of 300,000 men was put
in motion toward the frontier. At the same time a
naval expedition was fitted
out. But reverses occurred; storms by sea and bad
management of the
commissariat by land rendered the expedition a
failure. It opened the eyes of the
Ko-gu-ryu king however and he saw that the Emperor was
fully determined upon
his destruction. He saw but one way to make himself
safe and that was by abject
submission. He therefore hastened to tell the Emperor,
“I am a base and
worthless subject, vile as ordure,” which vas received
by the Emperor with
considerable complaisancy, and a show of pardon was
made; but it was probably
done only to keep Ko-gu-ryu from active preparations
until China could equip a
much larger army and put it in the field. Pak-je, who
did not like to see
affairs brought to a halt at this interesting
juncture, sent an [page
235]
envoy to China offering to act as guide to lead a
Chinese army against the foe. When Ko-gu-ryu learned
of this her anger knew no
bounds and she began to make reprisals upon Pak-je
territory. About this
time the Sui Emperor had business in the north. The
Tol-gwul tribe needed
chastisement. When the Chinese forces entered the
chief town of the humbled
tribe they found a Ko-gu-ryu emissary there. This fed
the Emperor’s suspicions
for it looked as if Ko-gu-ryu were preparing a league
of the wild tribes for
the purpose of conquest. He therefore sent to
Ko-gu-ryu saying “The king should
not be afraid of me. Let him come himself and do
obeisance. If not, I shall send
and destroy him.” We may well imagine that this
pressing invitation was
declined by the king. The last
year of the sixth century witnessed the compilation of
the first great history
of Ko-gu-ryu, in 100 volumes. It was named the Yu-geui
or “Record of Remembrance.” It took China
some years to get ready for the
carrying out of her plan, but at last in 612 began one
of the mightiest
military movements in history, China massed upon the
western bank of the Liao
River an army of 1,130,000 men. There were forty
regiments of cavalry and
eighty of infantry. The army was divided into
twenty-four battalions, marching
with an interval of forty li between each, so that the
entire army stretched
for 960 li or 320 miles along the road. Eighty li in
the rear came the Emperor
with his body-guard. When this
enormous army reached the banks of the
Liao they beheld on the farther bank the soldiers of
Ko-gu-ryu. Nothing can
better prove the hardihood of the Ko-gu-ryu soldiery
than that, when they saw
this well-nigh innumerable host approach, they dared
to dispute the crossing of
the river. The Chinese army
was composed of Chinese regulars
and of allies from twenty-four of their dependencies
whose names are given as
follows. Nu-bang, Chang-jam, Myung-ha, Ka-ma, Kon-an,
Nam-so, Yo-dong, Hyun-dot
Pu-yu, Nang-nang, Ok-ju, Chum-sun, Ham-ja, Hon-mi,
Im-dun, Hu-sung, Che-ha,
Tap-don, Suk-sin, Kal-suk, Tong-i, Ta-bang and
Yang-p’yung. One would suppose
from this long , list that there could be few left to
act as allies to
Ko-gu-ryu. but when we remember that the Mal-gal group
of tribes was by far the
[page
236]
most powerful and warlike of all the northern
hordes we will see that Ko-gu-ryu was not without
allies. In addition to this,
Ko-gu-ryu had two important factors in her favor; in
summer the rains made the
greater part of Liao-tung impassable either for
advance or retreat, and in
winter the severity of the weather rendered military
operations next, to
impossible. Only two courses were therefore open to
and invading army: either
it must make a quick dash into Ko-gu-ryu in the spring
or autumn and retire
before the summer rains or winter storms, or else it
must be prepared to go
into camp and spend the inclement season in an enemy’s
country, cut off from
its base of supplies. It was in the spring that this
invasion took place and
the Emperor was determined to carry it through to a
finish in spite of summer
rains or winter storms. No sooner had
the Chinese army reached the Liao
River than the engineers set to work bridging the
stream. So energetically was
the work done that in two days a double span was
thrown across. There had been
a miscalculation however, for it fell six feet short
of reaching the eastern
bank, and the Ko-gu-ryu soldiers were there to give
them a warm welcome. The Chinese
troops leaped from the unfinished end of the bridge
and tried to climb up the
steep bank, but were again and again driven back. The
eastern bank was not
gained until Gen Mak Chul-jang leaped to the shore and
mowed a path for his
followers with his sword. At this point the Ko-gu-ryu
generals Chon Sa-ung and
Mang Keum-ch’a were killed. When the whole
army had effected a crossing the
Emperor sent 1200 troops to occupy the fortified town
of Liao-tung but the
Ko-gu-ryu general, Eul-ji Mun-duk, hastened thither
and drove back this
detachment of Chinese in confusion. The Emperor
learned of the retreat and
proceeded toward the scene of action. When he came up
with the flying
detachments of his defeated force he severely
reprimanded the generals in
charge and chided them for being lazy and afraid of
death. But it was now late
in June and the rainy season was at hand, so the
Emperor with his whole army
went into camp at Yuk-hap Fortress a little to the
west of the town of
Liao-tung, to await the end of the wet season. He was unwilling
however to let all this time pass
without any active work; so he sent a fleet of boats
by sea to sail [page
237]
up the Ta-dong River and attack P’yung-yang. This
was under the leadership of Gen. Na Ho-a. Landing his
force on the bank of the
Ta-dong, sixty li below the city, he enjoyed there a
signal victory over a
small force which had been sent to head him off. This
made the general
over-confident and in spite of the protests of his
lieutenants he marched on P’yung-yang
without an hour’s delay. With twenty thousand troops
he went straight into the
town, the gates being left wide open for him. This was
a ruse on the part of
the Ko-gu-ryu forces. A strong body of Ko-gu-ryu
troops had hidden in a
monastery in Na-gwak Fort on the heights within the
city. The Chinese found
themselves entrapped and Gen. Na was forced to beat a
hasty retreat with what
forces he had left, and at last got back to Ha-p’o
(harbor) in Liao-tung. What
the Emperor said to him is not known but it could not
have been flattering. The rainy season
had now come and gone and the main
plan of the invasion was ready to be worked out. It
was necessary for the
Emperor to spread out his force over the country in
order to find forage, and
so, in approaching the borders of Ko-gu-ryu, it was
decided that they should
come by several different routes. Gen. U Mun-sul led a
detachment by way of
Pu-yu, Gen. U Chung-mun by way of Nang-nang, Gen.
Hyung Wun-hang by way of
Yo-dong, Gen. Sul Se-ung by way of Ok-ju, Gen. Sin
Se-ung by way of Hyun-do,
Gen. Chang Keun by way of Yang-pyung, Gen. Cho Hyo- ja
by way of Kal-suk, Gen.
Ch’oe Hong-seung by way of Su-sung, Gen. Wi Mun-seung
by way of Cheung-ji. It
is said that they all rendezvoused on the western bank
of the Yalu River, but
if so there must have been great changes in the
position of these wild tribes.
It is more than probable that like the North American
Indians they had moved
further and further back from their original lands
until they were far beyond
the Yalu and Tumen rivers. In the early
autumn of 612 the whole army lay just
east of the Yalu River. The king of Ko-gu-ryu sent Gen
Eul-ji Mun-duk to the
Chinese camp to tender the Emperor a pretense of
surrender but in reality to
spy out his position and force. When he appeared the
Emperor was minded to kill
mm on the spot [page 238] but
thought better of it and, after listening to what he
had to say, let him go.
Not an hour after he had gotten beyond the Chinese
pickets the Emperor changed
his mind again, and sent in pursuit of him; but the
general had too good a
start and made too good use of his time to allow
himself to be retaken. And now appeared
one of the disadvantages of being
far from one’s base of supplies, and in an enemy’s
country. Some weeks before
this each Chinese soldier had been given three bags of
rice and told that he
must carry them on the march besides his other
necessary accoutrements. Death
was to be the penalty of throwing any of it away. The
result was that most of
them buried a large part of the rice in their tents
and so escaped detection.
Now they were short of provisions, while the generals
thought their knapsacks
were full of rice. The Ko-gu-ryu Gen. Eul-ji who had
been in their camp,
however, knew about it. He entered upon a geurilla
warfare with the object of
luring the enemy far into Ko-gu-ryu territory and then
cutting them to pieces
at leisure. To this end he made a feigned retreat
several times each day, thus
giving the enemy confidence and blinding them to his
own strength. It was
decided that a Chinese force of 305,000 men under Gen.
U Chung-mun should
proceed straight to P’yung-yang. It seemed wholly
unnecessary that the whole
army of 1,130,000 men should undergo that long march
when only a pusillanimous
enemy barred the way. On they came
toward the capital without meeting anything but a few
skirmishers, until they
reached the Sal-su, a stream only thirty li from
P’yung-yang. Crossing this,
the Chinese went into camp for a few days to recover
from the fatigue of the
rapid march before attacking the town. At this point
Gen. Eul-ji began operations. He
wrote a very humble letter sueing for mercy. When the
Chinese general received
this, his course of reasoning must have been something
as follows: “My forces
are completely exhausted by this long march; the
provisions are almost gone; I
shall find the capital defended by desperate men; it
may be that I shall be
handled as roughly as were the forces of Gen. Nil. I
will accept this
submission and start back in time to reach the Yalu
before my provisions are
entirely gone. I will thus spare my army and gain the
desired end as well.” [page
239] Whether this was
his course of reasoning or not,
sure it is that he accepted the submission tendered
him and put his army in
motion toward the Yalu. But before his forces had gone
a mile they found
themselves attacked on all sides at once by an unseen
foe which seemed to fill
the forests on either side the road. When half the
army had gotten across the
Sal-su the other half was fiercely attacked and cut to
pieces or driven like
dumb cattle over the face of the country, where they
were butchered at leisure.
The retreat became a flight, the flight a rout, and
still the Ko-gu-ryu
soldiers hung on their flanks like wolves and dragged
them down by scores and
hundreds. It is said that in a single day and night
the fugitive Chinese
covered four hundred and fifty li, and when the
remnant of that noble army of
305,000 men that had swept across the Yalu went back
across that historic
stream it was just 2700 strong. Over 300,000 men had
perished along the
hill-sides and among the forests of Ko-gu-ryu. The
Emperor in anger imprisoned
the over-confident Gen. U Chung-mun. Meanwhile what
of Pak-je? She had promised that she
would rise and strike Ko-gu-ryu simultaneously with
the Emperor, but when the
moment, for action came, like the paltroon that she
was, she waited to see
which side would be most likely to win in the end.
When the Chinese fled back
to the border in panic Pak-je quietly stacked her arms
and said nothing about
attacking her neighbor. Winter was now
at hand, or would be before another
plan could be perfected and carried out. The army was
without provisions. There
was nothing left but to retreat. The Chinese army,
still a mighty host, moved
slowly back across the Liao River and Ko-gu-ryu was
left to her own pleasant
musings. All that China gained was that portion of
Ko-gu-ryu lying west of-the
Liao River, which the Emperor erected into three
prefectures. If Ko-gu-ryu
flattered herself that her troubles
were all over she was woefully mistaken. With the
opening of spring the Emperor’s
determination to humble her was as strong as ever. All
the courtiers urged him
to give over the attempt. They had seen enough of
Ko-gu-ryu. The Emperor, however,
was firm in his determination, and in the fourth moon
another army was launched
against the hardy little kingdom [page 240] to the east. It
crossed the Liao without opposition but when it
arrived at
Tong-whang Fortress, near the present Eui-jin, it
attempted in vain to take it.
The Emperor decided therefore to make a thorough
conquest of all the Liao-tung
territory and delimit the possessions of Ko-gu-ryu as
far as the Yalu River. To
this end siege was laid to the Fortress of Liao-tung.
After twenty days the
town was still intact and the Chinese seemingly as far
from victory as ever.
Ladders were tried but without effect. A bank of earth
was thrown up as high as
the wall of the town, but this too railed. Platforms
of timber were erected and
rolled up to the wall on trucks of eight wheels each.
This seemed to promise
success but just as the attempt was to be made fortune
favored Ko-gu-ryu, for
news came to the Chinese that an insurrection had
arisen in China, headed by
Yang Hyun-gam. The tents were hastily struck and the
army by forced marches
moved rapidly back towards China. At first the
Ko-gu-ryu forces thought this
was a mere feint but when the truth was known they
rushed in pursuit and
succeeded in putting several thousands of the Chinese
braves hors de combat. The following
year the Emperor wanted to return to
the charge but an envoy came from Ko-gu-ryu offering
the king’s humble
submission. To this the Emperor replied “Then let him
come in person and
present it.” This he would not do. Four years later
the king of Ko-gu-ryu died and his
brother Kon-mu assumed control. It was in this same
year 618 that the great T’ang
dynasty was founded on the ruins of the Sui and the
fear of vengeance was
lifted from Ko-gu-ryu. She immediately sent an envoy
to the T’ang court
offering her allegiance. Pak-je and Sil-la were only a
year behind her in
paying their respects to the new Emperor. As a test of
Ko-gu-ryu sincerity,
Emperor Kao-tsu demanded that she send back the
captives taken during the late
war. As the price of peace Ko-gu-ryu complied and sent
back 10,000 men. The
next year the T’ang Emperor conferred the title of
royalty upon all the three
kings of the peninsula which, instead of settling the
deadly feud between them,
simply opened a new and final scene of the fratricidal
struggle. To Ko-gu-ryu
the Emperor sent books on the Shinto faith, of the
introduction of which into
Korea we here have the first intimation. THE
KOREA REVIEW, June
1901 [page
241]The
Image of Gautama. A
Chant of the Buddhist Monks. * By
Archer Butler Hulbert The
monks form in line and pass before the Image of
Gautama from left to
right chanting as follows.) In
a mountain-hall† on a pale, white night, I
silently take my seat. To
ponder well on the west wind’s wail As
it sings aloft over hill and dale And
brings to this retreat The
Voice of the Void and the Great Unknown To
moan with the monks in monotone. He
knows he lies who dares to say That Karma ‡
cannot be; For the body of
Dharma§, pure and white. Ever lives in
the liquid light， Tho’ his form we
may not see. In a thousand
rivers there water is In a thousand
rivers a moon In a thousand
leagues no cloud is seen * This chant is translated freely from the
original. † The poetic name for a monastery. ‡ The state of sin or. error arising from
ignorance § The doctrine of Buddhism personified Ⅱ By
reflection [page 242] And the Heavens
lie like an endless dream,* To temple our
wind-swept tomb. On Griddore Peak
where vultures fly † And
lustrous, flowers are found, Full many an
occult thing may be. If the wood
comes not can the tortoise see. Till a thousand
years roll round?‡ (They pause
and prostrate themselves.) O Honorable One
by the Altar, O source of the
pure, endless Springs, Strengthen our
frail lips that falter, O grant us the
Three Blessed Things The Buddha, The Dharma, The Sangha, The
thrice-blest, the Three Precious Things. (They retire.) A clear, pure
wind § of a measureless source Blew fair and
straight afar. Had not your
heart been proved so sweet Who would have
dared its message keep, Pyel Ho of
Kasyapa?§ In all the
forest but one tree stood New sprung from
living soil; The buds grew
ripe in the wind’s caress * The unclouded heavens, typical of the pure
faith
of Buddha. † Gridhakuti, or Vulture Peak, in India, where
Mara
in the form of a vulture tempted Ananda. Formerly
covered with the cells of
ascetics. ‡ An immense tortoise that lives in the sea
and
catches a glimpse of the world only once in a thousand
years, and not even then
unless it chances to find a piece of wood with a hole
in it through which it
can insert its head. Failing this, the opportunity is
lost for another thousand
years. This is a figurative expression referring to
the fortunate chance of
Buddha’s birth into the world. § The one to whom the first Buddha entrusted
the
faith. The purity of the doctrine is typified as a
pure, clear wind. ⅡReferring
to the Buddhist faith which was supposed
to have existed before the world was created. [page 243] While glorious
blossoms burst to bless A sin-bound
world of toil. Nor yet what
might their color be Was no man found
to tell; For white they
were not, yet did lack The tint of
azure and of black; Nor man knew
whence they fell. (At their cells
the monks chant a stanza of
repentance and repeat the prayer for the
Three Blessed Things.) Sin itself no
nature has, * But follows
passion’s track. O starve that
passion to its death, No more to chill
the soul’s sweet breathy. No more to draw
us back! O Honorable One
who ever hears, Behold our
penitential tears. See that we
prostrate fall. By mandate swift
dispel our fears O Honorable One
who ever hears Grant us the
Three Blessed Things The Buddha, The Dharma, The Sangha. The
thrice-blessed, the Three Precious Things. (In the morning
the procession passes the image
from right to left or opposite to the direction of the
night before.) The three worlds
swing in an endless arc † Rebirth, decay
and death; And a hundred
thousand Kalpas‡ fly . Like a grain of
dust across the sky, While Buddha
breathes a breath. Could one but
walk on a mountain top And there
Cha-keut § could meet, Tho’ autumn
winds blew wild and bold, * The tenets of the doctrine were debatable,
only
the general principles were known. † More literally the raising and lowering of a
well-bucket. ‡ 4,320,000,000 years. § One of the seven worthies of the Bamboo
Grove. [page
244] And autumn
leaves fell sere and old, What joy in that
retreat! (Prostrating.) O Honorable One
by the Altar O Source of the
pure, endless springs. Strengthen the
weak lips that falter, O grant us the
Three Blessed Things. The Buddha, The Dharma, The Sangha. The
thrice-blest, the Three Precious
Things. (Rising and
marching to the day’s meditations.) As the day grows
warm on the south incline, I silently take
my seat And ponder well
on the south wind’s cry, As it moans
through the crags with a stifled sigh. With my censer
and incense complete. And our chanting
goes forth to the Honorable One As he sits by
the Altar on High, Striving to
break the dark clouds of night, That worlds may
reflect his glorious light, And Karma be
banished for aye. [page
245] Baron
von Mollendorff. Baron P. G. von
Mollendorff, whose death occurred
at Ningpo, China, on April 20th 1901, was a leading
figure in Korean politics
and finance during the dramatic period of Korea’s
opening to foreign
intercourse. There is perhaps no more fitting place to
give a resume of the
chief events in his career in Korea than in this
REVIEW, and the important part
he played in the peninsula abundantly warrants more
than a single word. We will remember
after that the emeute of 1882, which
was a purely military riot, the Japanese retired from
Seoul, having been driven
from the temporary legation grounds outside the West
Gate. Several Japanese
were killed during this emeute. On the fifth of the
seventh moon Count Inouye
arrived in Chemulpo and demanded an indemnity for the
lives of these murdered
Japanese. The ex-Regent who, after the Queen’s flight
to the south, was again
in power replied that to cover such indemnity it would
be necessary to tax all
Japanese merchants heavily. This was equivalent to a
refusal, and the Japanese
envoy immediately withdrew to Japan. Hardly had he
left when a Chinese force 3,000
strong landed at Nam-yang off the town of Su-wun. It
can scarcely be doubted
that these troops came at the urgent call of the Min
faction which had suffered
so severely in the emeute, and it was from that hour
that the Min party turned
unreservedly toward China and gave the latter occasion
for beginning that
series of encroachments upon Korea’s practical
independence, which terminated
in the China-Japan war. These troops encamped in
various places in and about
Seoul. Then followed the ruse by which the ex-Regent
was spirited away to
China, thus leaving the field quite clear for the Min
party to work [page
246]
out the problem of Korea’s opening. It should be
borne in mind that this Min party or faction was at
this time progressive. It
had strongly and successfully combatted the extreme
conservatism of the Regent
and whatever of progress had been made was through
their direct influence. But
the necessity of obtaining Chinese military backing
turned their progressive
tendencies China-ward thus securing their ultimate
non-success. This is evinced
by every move that follows. Toward the close
of 1882 a Foreign Office was
established and it at once invited the Chinese to
secure an adviser for it. The
Chinese complied and P. G. von Mollendorff of the
Imperial Chinese Customs
Service was appointed to come to Korea and establish a
customs service and act
as adviser to the Foreign Office. This was the first
diplomatic triumph of the Chinese.
Von Mollendorff was a man of commanding presence,
great affability of manner,
and fluency of speech. But above all his other
qualifications he was an
excellent student of Chinese and could write and speak
that language with
readiness. Probably this explains best of all his
close contact with the
Koreans and their unquestioning confidence in him. He arrived in
Korea in the Spring of 1883
accompanied by upward of a score of other Europeans
who were to be placed in
the leading positions in the Customs Service. He was soon
installed in his position of Vice
President of the Foreign Office receiving the title of
Ch’am-p’an, a title of
the second grade, only the P’an-su grade being
superior to it. He elected to
live in purely Korean style. He put his hair up in a
top-knot, wore the
broad-brimmed Korean hat and the flowing Korean robes
and adopted Korean
customs even to the details of domestic life. There
were those who smiled at
this as being extreme but there is no doubt that this
together with his knowledge
of the Chinese character brought him much nearer to
the Koreans than he
otherwise could have come. But of course the question
arises whether this
closeness of contact was essential to the carrying out
of the work in hand;
whether, in fact, somewhat more of distance would not
have con- ducted to a
longer lease of power and a greater effectiveness of
service. One can but
marvel at the amount of work that von Mollendorff
assumed from the very first.
One would think that the thorough organization of a
customs service would have [page
247]
exhausted the energies of any one man but he not
only assumed this work but practically dictated the
work of the Foreign Office
at a time when that branch of the service was burdened
with countless questions
of the utmost delicacy, when treaties with foreign
powers were still to be
drawn up and ratified, when trade regulations, foreign
settlements and the
strained relations between Japan and China had all to
be kept constantly and
strenuously in mind; and when questions of finance had
to be grappled with. The
Government needed ten men all as strong as von
Mollendorff to help in these
multifarious works but it had―one. It was manifestly
beyond the power of any
man to do all these things and do them well. It is too
much to expect any one
man to be first-class linguist, diplomat and financier
and to be both organizer
and executive in all these branches at one and the
same time. And the
difficulty of his position was greatly increased by
the factional strife that
was rapidly drawing on toward the crisis of December,
1884. It was
inevitable that one or other of the
departments of which he was chief should suffer. The
customs suffered from lack
of supervision. The receipts were considerable but no
accounts were ever
rendered to the Government nor were the national
revenues swelled from this
source. At the same time more serious difficulties
arose in connection with the
Foreign Office. The various foreign representatives
naturally felt some degree
of hesitation in dealing with a Foreign Office in
which everything was decided
by a foreigner appointed by China and presumably
working in the interests of
that power. In that state of things the British
attitude was the logical one,
namely the managing of the purely diplomatic matters
through the Peking
representative. During the initial stages in the
evolution of a Foreign Office
his services must have been of rare value but that he
should continue to
dominate the foreign relations of the country was of
course impossible. His
position was further embarrassed by the fact that two
Chinese generals, Wang
Suk-ch’ang and Ma Kun-sang, were attachees of the
Foreign Office. The year 1883
which marked the height of von
Mollendorff’s power in Korea witnessed more advance in
Korea than any other
year either before or after. A glance at the
“Chronological Index” published
recently shows this con- [page 248] clusively. It
beheld the organization of the Foreign Office and of
the
Customs, the ratification of a treaty between Korea
and the United States. The
Regulations for trade in Liao Tung were drawn up and
signed. The Japan-Korean
conventions in regard to port limits, fisheries and
trade were signed. A Korean
Embassy was despatched to the United States. The Japan Korea
convention regarding the Chemulpo
Settlement was drawn up and ratified. An English
school was started at the
instigation of von Mollendorff. The British Korean
treaty was drawn up and
signed. The German Korean treaty was signed. An
arsenal was erected in Seoul. These are a few
of the things Baron von Mollendorff
was doing in addition to his duties as Commissioner of
Customs, in which a
great many perplexing questions must have been handled
owing to the, as yet,
unsettled condition of things and the fact that the
service had not been gotten
into smooth running order. But, as stated
above, the time was soon to come
when the Foreign Office must voice Korean sentiment
instead of bowing to the
will of any one foreigner however capable he may have
been. The Foreign
Representatives desired to deal more directly with the
Korean Government than
was possible under these conditions. It is impossible
to say exactly what led
to his resignation from the vice-presidency of the
Foreign Office. It was done
in order to test the feeling of the Government in the
matter, but his relations
with the Government were such as to warrant his belief
that the resignation
would not be accepted. And in truth if the Government
had felt at liberty to
follow its own inclinations his services would
doubtless have been retained in
the Foreign Office, but one can easily see that under
the circumstances this
could not well be. So His Majesty reluctantly accepted
Baron von Mollendorff’s
resignation. One cannot
escape the conviction that had von
Mollendorff been able to dissociate himself from his
many other forms of work
and to devote all his energies to the work of the
Foreign Office, and if he had
been able to do it in a more impersonal way, rather as
adviser than as a
virtual dictator, he would have had an opportunity for
distinction such as few
men have had in the Far East. That his temperament was
of such a [page
249]
kind as to render this impossible is his
misfortune rather than his fault. That he worked hard
and faithfully in the
Foreign Office cannot be gainsaid. But he still
retained the Chief Commissionership of
the customs and here was a field of labor that was
worthy of his best powers,
but he seems to have been bent upon carrying out many
schemes for Korea’s
development that were outside this field. These were
without exception laudable
in themselves but were thwarted one after the other
either through untoward
natural conditions or through the apathy of the
Government, which seems to have
taken them up rather as fads of the hour than as a
settled system of
improvement which must be carried through to a
successful termination. The first these
innovations was a school for the
training of interpreters. It was a most necessary and
most useful institution
and the man selected by von Mollendorff as a head of
that school, Pref. T. E.
Hallifax, was an efficient and successful teacher. It
is much to be regretted
that this school was allowed to disband after von
Mollendorff left. But even
during its brief existence it accomplished a very
valuable work for Korea. This
school was organized in the summer of 1883 while von
Mollendorff was still in
the Foreign Office. In 1884 von
Mollendorff elaborated a scheme for the
culture of silk on an extensive scale. He sent to
Shanghai and engaged the
services of A. Maertens, Esq. an expert of
acknowledged capacity and long
experience. Mr. Maertens came to Korea and went to
work with energy, investing
considerable money of his own in the venture. But like
everything else, the
plan fell through because of the lukewarmness of
Government. There was no intrinsic
reason why sericulture should not be carried on in
Korea on a large scale and
with eminent success, but the Government did not
possess the requisite degree
of pertinacity, and two years later the whole thing
was given up at a sacrifice
of many thousands of dollars. Then again von
Mollendorff proposed to magnify the
culture of tobacco in Korea and supply the East with
the Korean grown article.
For this purpose he obtained the services of a German
gentleman, Mr. Kniffler,
from Japan who came to [page 250] Korea and
looked over the ground, but the scheme was abandoned
before any
considerable amount of money had been thrown away upon
it. Mining also
occupied the attention of von
Mollendorff and it was through him that Dr. Gottsche,
a German geologist, came
to Korea and travelled extensively through the country
in the summer and autumn
of 1884. As the subsequent openings of gold and coal
mines in the north have
demonstrated, there was nothing chimerical about the
plan and yet it failed.
There was no one to carry it through to a successful
issue. It was about the
same time, July 31, that von
Mollendorff resigned from the vice presidency of the
Foreign Office, but he
seems to have been as ambitious as ever for the
industrial development of
Korea, for in that same month Joseph Rosenbaum was
called to Korea by von
Mollendorff for the purpose of beginning the
manufacture of glass from the sand
along the Han River. But as it was found that the sand
was not the right kind
for glass-making Mr. Rosenbaum was instructed to begin
the manufacture of
matches. A plant was secured and a certain amount of
work was done. A large
number of matches were turned out but as they were
without heads the scheme did
not succeed as a financial venture and Mr. Rosenbaum
retired. This too might
well have been made a success had it been carried on
with determination, for
today we see the Japanese reaping a rich harvest in
Korea from the match
business. A foreign mint
was also determined upon. The
currency of the country was to have been transformed
and the monetary system
rehabilitated. There was need enough of it and there
was no intrinsic reason
why good coin should not have been minted. An enormous
amount of money was put
into it by the Government but as time went on
something else arose that caught
the fancy of officials that were responsible, and thus
the costliest venture
that the Government ever made fell to the ground. The repeated
abandonment of plans for industrial
improvement leaves the unpleasant impression that the
Korean officials in
charge of them were anxious to retire from the
responsibility and labor
involved in their successful prosecution [page 251] as soon as they
found out that there was no longer
any probability of personal gain to themselves in
them. For this von Mollendorff
can hardly be held responsible. That he sincerely
desired to see Korea progress
along industrial lines cannot be doubted but all the
time he was working
without the proper or necessary amount of sincere
unselfish backing on the part
of the Koreans in power. Meanwhile the
Custom’s Service had been performing
its function steadily and with a modicum of success.
But von Mollendorff had
given so much time and energy to other matters that
the best results had not
been attained. Still the Government reposed full
confidence in its adviser, as
is shown by the fact that when in April 1885 Port
Hamilton was occupied by the
British, von Mollendorff was asked to accompany a
commission to Port Hamilton
and to Japan for the purpose of helping to a speedy
settlement of the question. This is a
fitting place to set straight one
misapprehension which was to some extent prejudicial
to the reputation of Baron
von Mollendorff. The Koreans got the notion that he
was working in the
interests of Russia. Such a report, however unfounded,
could not but prove
detrimental to his influence among Koreans. It may or
may not be true that he
considered it wise to have the matter of army
reorganization put in Russian
hands. But even if true it does not follow that he was
not attempting to work
solely in the interests of Korea. The army needed
reorganization and under any
circumstances the work must be done by foreigners. Von
Mollendorff’s connection
with China made it impossible for him to propose that
the matter be left to the
Japanese. It could not be expected that he would
propose that it be done by the
English. China could not be depended upon for this
work, for she was herself in
need of military tutelage. That he should have
preferred to let Russia do it is
not a thing to be laid up to his discredit except as
the jealousy and suspicion
of other powers might prompt them to impute sinister
motives to him. Russia was
a neighboring and friendly power and one well able to
put the Korean army in
shape for effective work. If he so proposed, which is
a matter of mere surmise
it shows no lack of solicitude for Korea’s welfare. It
merely shows that he [page
252]
was unaware of a deep-seated though seldom
expressed suspicion on the part of Koreans in regard
to Russia’s methods and
intentions. Even if we take
the fact of von Mollendorff’s
decoration by the Russian Government as an indication
that he favored a certain
degree of Russian influence in Korea it is easy to
find reasons for it which
redound to his credit. Japan had taken a leading part
in the opening of Korea
and China may well have feared that Japanese influence
would become paramount
in the peninsula. What other influence than that of
Russia could have been
appealed to in order to offset that of Japan and
effect an equilibrium that
would insure the continuity of Korean institutions?
Only a few years had passed
since Japan had witnessed a sanguinary rebellion whose
fundamental reason was
the hesitation of the Japanese Government to make war
upon Korea. This
indicated a strong desire on the part of a numerous
party in Japan to go to
extremities in the peninsula. Under these
circumstances no reasonable man can
deny that the introduction of a modicum of Russian
influence would be directly
in the interests of China. At least such an
explanation can he given of von
Mollendorff’s attitude, and it should set at rest any
unworthy suspicion of his
having been in any way untrue to the best interests of
Korea. But when we
consider the Korean attitude toward Russia and the
influences that might be
brought to bear upon Peking to thwart von
Mollendorff’s plans it is not
surprising that his position became untenable and that
on Sept. 4th, 1885 he
was relieved of the position of Chief Commissioner of
Customs, his place being
filled by another member of the Chinese Custom’s
staff, H. F. Merrill, Esq. Such is a brief
and inadequate account of Baron von
Mollendorff’s work in Korea. That much of that work
was highly beneficial to
Korea is as true as that the extremely broad field he
endeavored to cover made
it impossible to achieve success in every part. Home
for Destitute Children. Those who
attended the public meeting at the Home
for Destitute Children on the afternoon of May 30th
passed a [page
253]
very enjoyable afternoon and gained a new
impression of this most praiseworthy institution. Few
of us would have believed
that homeless children, bag-boys, and vagrants of
extreme degrees, taken
literally from the streets, could be brought in so
short a space of time to
such admirable discipline and to the preliminary
stages of such complete
fitness for citizenship as these children exhibit. It
is quite safe to assert
that in no one of the Christian Churches of Korea is
any such precision and
unison attained in the singing of hymns. The
exhibition of industries was interesting
beyond description. One does not often see a child of
five years seat himself
upon the floor and, taking a wisp of straw and turn it
deftly into a pair of
shoes for his own wear. The skill of the blind boys in
weaving colored mats and
baskets is notable. Other parts of the exercises, such
as recitations and
marching, were also of great interest as showing
careful training. The officers of
the Home wish us to express their
appreciation of the effort made by busy people in
attending upon this occasion,
and of the kindness of the ladies who furnished and
served the refreshments and
made other preparations. Also and especially, of the
obliging considerateness
of Hon. J. McLeavy Brown in occupying the chair. The Home for
Destitute Children came into being
between three and four years ago in response to the
unwearying efforts of Miss
Jean Perry, its superintendent. It occupies,
rent-free, a most suitable
property outside the West Gate of Seoul. A Council of
nine ladies and
gentlemen, members of several different missionary
bodies, give aid to Miss
Perry in administering the Home. But it has no fixed
resources and is wholly
dependent for support on the contributions of those
interested in its welfare.
Yet there has never been a time since its opening when
funds were not in hand
for immediate needs. There are at
present twenty-three inmates, of whom
nineteen are boys. Most of the work of the institution
is done by these
children, including cooking, laundering, and the care
of a large garden. Last
summer quite a sum of money was earned by raising
foreign vegetables and
selling them at the legations and elsewhere. At the
same time a laundry for
foreign patrons was carried on to the great satis- [page 254] faction of some
dozen or more employers. With the
coming of cold weather it had to be discontinued for
lack of facilities and of
foreign supervision. Many other industries have been
engaged in with marked
success, and a friend of the Home is now in England
studying brick-making,
silk-weaving and several forms of industry with the
expectation of returning
and introducing them among the beneficiaries of the
institution. Daily classes
are also held for the instruction of the children
whether girls or boys, in
both Chinese and Korean, in singing, arithmetic,
geography, sewing, and other
branches of elementary knowledge. The care of so
large and busy a household is
necessarily a great strain, and Miss Perry has often
passed considerable
periods devoid of efficient assistance. No one will
wonder that she greatly
feels the need of a thorough rest. Funds are waiting
that especial purpose and
she is detained from a trip to England only by the
difficulty of providing
during her absence for the care to her charges. We bespeak the
interest of all friends of Korea in
this institution, so desirable an object lesson in
Christian civilization, and
already so notably successful in several respects—a
beggar-boy in less than a
year transformed into an energetic student of the art
of compounding
drugs―several waifs adopted into native homes—a group
of happy, neat,
industrious children in training to institute thrifty
homes. Many facilities
not now possessed are desirable, and funds are always
welcome for the supplying
of daily needs. Probably nowhere in Korea will a sum
of money bring more
satisfactory return to its giver. The treasurer is
Mrs. Fulton Gifford, Seoul,
Korea. Korean
Etymology. The fascinating
study of Korean etymology has
received as yet but little attention. It will be many
years before an adequate
presentation of the subject will be possible. Korean
is an agglutinative
language and highly inflected, especially in its
verbal forms. Probably two thirds
of all pure Korean words can be traced to verbal
stems. It is my purpose in
this paper not to discuss the subject of Korean
etymology but by [page
255]
taking up one small phase of it to illustrate a
line of study that ought to prove of great value to
the serious student of the
language. For this purpose I will touch upon the
verbal nouns in 口 =m But even
this is too broad a subject for a brief paper, so I
shall
confine myself to the verbal nouns in 口 based upon
verbs whose
stems end in ㄹ=l. By verbal nouns
in 口 we mean the
nouns which are formed on the stems of verbs by the
simple
addition of the letter 口, as 봄=pom, from 보=“to see,” 함=ham, from 하=“to do,” 밋음mit-eum, from 밋=“to believe.”
To get at the meaning of this verbal
noun we must notice that there are three verbal nouns
ending respectively in 기=ki, 지==chi and ㅁ=m. The verbal noun in 기 =ki denotes the
present performance of the act as 먹기=muk-ki
“eating,” or “the act of eating,” 잡기=chap-ki,
“catching” or “the act of catching.” The verbal noun
in 지 is used almost
always in a future or negative sense 가지마라=ka-ji ma-ra “do
not go.” 내가가지안켓
소=na-ga
ka-ji
an-k’es-so “I will not go.” The The verbal noun in ㅁ=m indicates a
past act or the present product of a past act. 밋음=mit-eum is the
past verbal noun of the verb 밋=mit, “to
believe.” It means “belief” not merely the act of
believing. It
is the residuum or the product of believing; as we
might ask what a man’s
beliefs are. But as we are to
confine ourselves to verbs in ㄹ=l we must
notice that the simple letter ㅁ cannot be added
without the use of a helping vowel. The two weak
vowels 아 =a and 으=eui are used in
Korean for this purpose. From the
verb 밋=mit, “to
believe” we do not get 밋 口 but the helping
vowel being used to introduce the 口. So the verb 놀=nol, “to play”
adds 음 but the final ㄹ of the stem is
attracted into the second syllable
giving us 노람 =no-ram,
“gambling” From 바르다=pa-reu-ta we
have 바람=pa-ram, “hope.”
From 다르다 ta-reu-ta, “to
be different” We have 다름 ta-ram, “difference.”
From the verb 것
다
whose stem is “to walk” we have 거름=ku-reum, “a
pace.” The cases above
cited are well known to be derived
from the verbs in the form of the past verbal noun but
in looking through a
Korean vocabulary we shall find many words ending [page 256] in 람 or 름 whose
derivation is not so plain and our curiosity compels
us to inquire
whether they too are not so derived. Having cited a
few in which the derivation is
beyond question let us advance to consider some in
which the connection is not
quite so plain and yet is reasonably certain. Take the
word 어름=u-reum “ice.”
There can be little doubt that it is the past verbal
noun of
얼다=ul-ta, “to
freeze.” It is the result of freezing.
Then again the word 서름 means “sorrow” and is evidently from the
verb 서르다=su-reu-ta, “to
grieve.” The verb 다라나다=ta-ra-na-ta “to
run” gives us the word 다름 which is found in the compounds 다름박질 “to
scamper” and 다람취=ta-ram-ch’wi,
“squirrel.” From the verb 안다=an-ta “to
know,” whose stem is 알, we have the noun 아름 which is found
in the reduplicated form 아름아리=a-ram-a-ri,
“acquaintance.” With all these
in mind it is not hard to believe
that 아람=a-ram, “an
armful” is from 안
다=an-ta
“to take in the arms,” “to embrace.” The two words 여름=yu-ram, “fruit”
and 여름=yu-reum
“summer” would seem to have some
etymological relationship and I believe they are both
from the verb 열
다=yul-ta
“to open,” in the sense of development, although of
course the fact
that 열=yul is the
Korean pronunciation of the Chinese
character for “heat” might suggest another derivation.
It would be quite
contrary to the genius of the language to form the
word 여름 from the simple
Chinese word 열 although I
confess the
coincidence is sufficiently striking. The verb 뭇다=mut-ta “to
ask” has for its stem 무러 or 물 and from this we get 무름 as illustrated
in the compound 무
름맛침하다 in which 무름 =mu-ram “ question,” 맛침=mat-ch’im, “a
matching,” “a comparing,” the whole meaning “to
compare evidence.” The noun 나름=“nature”
“characteristics” may be reasonably derived from 나다=na-ta “to be
born” “to originate,” although at the present time
there is
no ㄹ in the verb 나다. The words 바람 “thread”
and 바늘 =pa-nal
“needle”
seem to have a great affinity but we have found no
verb that these can be
derived from. They are probably derivatives of a verb
now obsolete. The word 보름=po-ram has two meanings, first “a sign”
and second “full moon.” The
meaning “a sign” would indicate [page 257] derivation from
보=po，”to see;” and as
the moon
plays a most important part in marking time in Korea
the meaning “full moon” is
not difficult of explanation. I have reserved
the three most interesting cases to
conclude this little sketch. They are the words: 구름=ku-ram “a
cloud.” Upon applying to a Korean
scholar he immediately declared without any prompting
that this word was
derived from 굴다=kul-ta, “to
roll,” referring to the motion of the
clouds. “The Rollers!” Not a bad description of that
most beautiful of nature’s
phenomena. 바람=pa-ram, “wind.”
This word is very commonly
pronounced pu-ram in the south and apparently comes
from 분다=pun-ta “to
blow” whose stem is 불=pul. 사람=sa-ram “man.”
This most important and common word of
pure native origin presents no difficulty. The verb 산다 ==san-ta “to
live”, whose stem is 살=sal provides us with a
striking example of this etymological law in Korea. As
Eve was the “Mother of
all living” so in Korea, man is the Living One. Such are a few
hints at a subject which is not
unworthy of investigation. The great amount of erosion
which this language has
suffered during the centuries, and the losses it has
sustained through the
introduction of Chinese, complicate the problem and
give opportunity for the
formulation of endless theories, but the difficulties
in the way should only
whet the appetite of the true student. To suggest only
one out of many valuable lines of
study, it would be interesting to secure a list of
those words which formerly
must have existed here in pure Korean but which we
have today only in Chinese,
and by a study of derivatives discover what the
original pure Korean word must
have been. For instance the ordinary word for “room”
in Korea is pang, which is
of course pure Chinese. Surely there must have been a
Korean word for this,
before the introduction of Chinese. But we notice that
the broad flat stones
that are used in making a Korean floor are called 구들장=ku-deul-jang.
At the same time among the country districts of
Kyong-sang
Do in. the south the word 구들=ku-deul is
used almost exclusively to mean room. Thus we conclude
that Ku-deul is the pure
，native word for
room. [page 258] Odds
and Ends. Fishing
Boat. The
largest native Korean craft is called the
cho-gi cham-nan pa. This means the “Cho-gi Catching
Boat,” cho-gi being a sort
of fish much in demand in Korean markets. These boats
differ in size, but the
largest are seventy-two feet long, twenty-four feet
wide and twelve feet deep.
The width is further increased by wide gangways on
either side which extend
four feet over the water. The two masts are
seventy-two and sixty-six feet high
respectively. The sails are fifty-four feet long by
thirty feet wide. The
anchor rope is six inches thick and 420 feet long and
is handled by a huge
reel, twelve feet wide. The anchor is made of hard
wood and is sixteen feet
long. The rudder is twenty-one feet long and five and
a half feet broad. The
rudder post is a foot thick and forty feet long. They
anchor in 280 feet of
water or less while the net is being cast. The net
itself is in the shape of a
huge bag, 300 feet long, the opening being regulated
by two poles, each of
which are seventy feet long. One of them is sunk to
the bottom and the other is
held immediately under the boat in a horizontal
position. The opening of the
net is sixty feet long by eighteen feet wide. The cost
of one boat with
complete outfit is about $2800 Korean currency. A full
fishing crew consists of
forty-five men, but twenty-five only are required to
handle the boat. A fairly
successful cruise will bring in 300 tong of fish, each
representing 1000 fish. They sell, on
the wharf, for $10 or $12 a tong
which means from $3000, to $3600. A short time since,
a man invested in one of
these boats and on the first trip, which was unusually
successful, netted
something like 500 % on the investment. At the least
estimate a single trip
will more than pay for the entire plant and the
expenses of the trip. Fisheries
form a most important asset of the Korean people. The
“Harvest of the Sea”
means more to them than almost any other one thing
excepting rice. But like so
many other of Korea’s opportunities, the superior
enterprise of neighboring
peoples is preempting these valuable fields and is
lining some [page
259]
body’s pockets. If one looks at it from a broad
standpoint he must admit that, sentiment aside, it is
better to have Korea’s
neighbors catch the fish and satisfy someone’s hunger
than to have the harvest
go to waste and the field lie fallow. Everywhere we
come face to face with the
potent truth that to the industrious belong the
spoils. A
Red Sea Path.
It
will be remembered that when the young King
Tan-jong was deposed by his uncle in 1456 he was sent
to the prefecture of
Yung-wul in Kang-wun Province. This is near the
head-waters of the northern
branch of the Han River. The spot to which the
unfortunate boy was sent was on
the south bank of the So-yang, a river tributary of
the Han. Behind it towered
a frowning mass of mountains which made access to the
place almost impossible
except by crossing the narrow but deep stream. At that
time there was nothing
but a miserable hamlet at the place and the child, for
he was little more,
would have starved had it not been for the pity of a
gentleman named Mr. Om who
lived on the opposite side of the stream. That
gentleman at the risk of his own
head sent cooked rice to the banished king at the hand
of a faithful servant
who daily swam the stream with the dish of food upon
his head. One day,
however, when the stream was in spate, the faithful
servant was swept down the
stream and drowned. Things began to look desperate.
The loyal gentleman knew
that, unless food was carried across, the unfortunate
youth would starve. In
great perturbation of spirit he took a dish of food
and came to the river bank,
but there was no way to cross. He set the dish on the
ground and besought the
Genius of the stream to interfere in his behalf.
Immediately the waters parted
before him and a dry path led through the very bed of
the stream. He hastened
through this awesome chasm and lay the dish at the
feet of his sovereign. The
waters did not close together until he had returned to
his own side again. A
Curious Asset.
The Koreans rightly
estimate the condition of a “poor gentleman” as the
most pitiable that society
has to show. The following incident that actually came
within the notice of a
foreigner a few weeks ago throws an interesting side
light on what expedients
the poor but proud may be driven to. This particular
gentle- [page
260]
man had pawned everything that was negotiable and
at last found himself at the last ditch. But he had
one thing left. It was the
diploma which he had received many years before at a
national examination or
kwa-ga. With great shame of face he offered this to a
lowly but well-to-do man
of his neighborhood saying that if he would but buy it
he would be immediately
elevated, by its very possession, to the position of
gentleman and scholar. The
low born would have to bow before him and forswear
smoking in his presence. His
name would be enrolled in the glorious list of the
literati and honor would be
added to his accumulated riches. It was subtle
flattery but the man of low
degree had the remarkably good sense to decline the
offer, for he said that
although the low people would have to bow before him
the literati would not
accept him at par and that consequently he would be
neither one thing nor the
other. Question
and Answer. (13) Question.
The Koreans call him the “Ant Devil” His body is the
size and shape of a navy bean, gray
in color, with a small thorax and head, armed with a
ferocious pair of pincers.
On the sunny side of a gully near the top under the
overhanging sod he digs a
funnel shaped pit-fall two inches wide and one inch
deep. At the bottom in the corner
he completely hides himself. Presently an ant falls
down into the pit and,
struggle as it may, it cannot mount the sandy slope.
It is a clear case of “The
Strange Ride of Morrowby Jukes.” His struggles awaken
the “Ant Devil” who
switches his head from side to side throwing a little
shower of sand at each
switch until his pincers are free from the sand with
which he has concealed
himself. He then leaps on his prey and sucks its
blood. Around the edge of the
pit will be found the dried bodies of his victims. His
abdomen is so large in
comparison with his head and legs that if you dig him
out from his earth-works
he is perfectly helpless. He moves back-wards like a
crab. Push him down an ant
hole and presently you will see him dragged out by an
ant not one tenth his
weight. The question is what his scientific name is
and his common’ name in
English. [page
261] Answer. If the
late Hon. M. B. Sill were living and
still in Korea we would have this question answered in
an hour, for he was a
specialist on the Arachnidae. We shall not fail to
find the answer sooner or
later. Editorial
Comment. The recent
Annual Meeting of the American Methodist
Mission in Korea brings up the whole question of
Christian propagandism in
Korea, a question that is interesting to every one
though perhaps for different
reasons. This work is
carried on so quietly and
unostentatiously that unless one takes pains to inform
himself of the facts it
is difficult to realize that the extremely rapid
spread of Christianity in
Korea is beginning to attract world-wide attention. It
is not merely on account
of the numbers of people who have been led to attach
themselves to the
Christian Church, although this in itself is
sufficiently striking, but also on
account of the readiness with which they give their
time and money to the work. The value of
this work cannot be belittled on the
ground that mistakes are made and that unworthy
persons are received into
Christian fellowship in the Church. Such has been the
case in all lands since
the founding of the Church. It is as valid an argument
against the Church in
Europe and America as against the Church in Korea. The
teachings of Christ
himself and of the Apostles indicate that until the
final consummation the
visible Church and the Spiritual Church will not be
identical. In the Far East
foreign opinion in regard to
Missions may be divided into three classes. First
there are people who are
thoroughly and warmly in favor of Christian
propagandism and who openly support
it by word and act. Second, there are those who
neither advocate it nor oppose
it. They attend to their own affairs and let others do
the same. Third, there
are those who let no opportunity pass for holding up
missions to scorn and
obloquy. They do not hesitate to vilify people whom
they have never seen and of
whom they know nothing and to ridicule work of whose
good or ill effects they [page
262]
they have absolutely no means of judging. Their
position is aptly described by the Korean proverb
“So-gyung tanch’ung ku-gyung
ha-ta’ ‘or in other words “The blind man distinguishes
between read and blue.”
They would be the first to deny the general principle
that people have a right
to use there money as they wish so long as they act
within the law, but they
make an exception of missionaries. The position is
irrational and absurd. If
people at home want the Gospel preached to the Chinese
or Koreans, and find
persons willing to do it, and are satisfied with the
results of the work done,
it is as impertinent for anyone to indulge in abusive
language against this
work as against the work of the merchant, the engineer
or the diplomat. But we
waste words, for no argument will cure the cronic
grumbler against missions.
His attitude and tone are so malignant as to leave the
impression that his
sympathies are enlisted on the other side. Meanwhile
Christian missions thrive today, as they
have always done, on opposition. Much has been made of
the Boxer troubles in
China by the enemies of missions. Trade has been
injured and missionaries are
to blame! When it is pointed out that Missionaries are
the vanguard of
civilization and pioneers in the field of bringing the
natives of China into
contact with the west, that through their labors, in
large part. the language
has become accessible to the westerner and that in
many other ways the missionary
has been of vast importance to commercial interests,
the grumblers change their
tune and charge the missionary with doing work outside
his own legitimate
field, as if, indeed what he has done for commerce
were not entirely incidental
to his main work.
These
opponents of missions would of course agree that
religious freedom is one of
the bulwarks of western civilization, that, in fact,
it is the main mark of
distinction between a merely civilized people and an
enlightened people; and
vet they demur because an opportunity is given to the
Chinese or other
non-Christian peoples to choose between their own
national cults and that other
oriental religion which has proved its cosmopolitan
character by conquering the
Occident. We would invite
the attention of those who claim
that missions do not accomplish what they pretend, to
certain facts in Korea.
During the past fifteen years Protestant missions [page 263] have brought
into connection with the Christian
Church between eight and ten thousand Koreans. They
include men of every class
from the lowest to the highest. The only way to test a
man’s sincerity is to
see how he acts. These Koreans have in a vast majority
of cases made pecuniary
sacrifices in joining the Christian Church. They have
given generously of their
money to build chapels and schools in scores of
country villages, they have
rejected the custom of concubinage, suffered heavy
financial losses through
observance of the Sabbath, earned the suspicion of
their fellow countrymen,
broken down the barriers of caste, discountenanced
child marriage, destroyed,
their fetiches, established schools, published books,
given almost much money
for Indian Famine Relief, in proportion to their
means, as the average of
nominally Christian people in any, other country in
the world. Not more than
two percent of them have received salaries out of
foreign funds and then only
for full value received. Now to an
unprejudiced mind these results even from
a merely social and intellectual standpoint are worth
the money and the labor
expended but when we consider that these are the
result of a moral and
spiritual change which bears in itself the power of
self-propagation and bids
fair to renovate the whole social fabric of Korea the
price paid for it is
infinitessimal. The traveller in
the desert digs a well and drinks
at it but he does not take the well away with him. It
is perennial, and
thousands after him say “God bless the man that dug
this well.” So the
missionary is piercing the arid crust of this moral
desert until living water
flows which shall quench the thirst of many a
wayfarer. The man who only sifts
the desert sands for gold leaves it more a desert than
it was before. News
Calendar. An attempt has
been made by the Government to
reintroduce some old time forms of missile weapons.
The first is the “fire
arrow” or Wha-jun. It is claimed that they shoot 800
feet and on alighting
explode with considerable force. The second is an old
style cannon. Besides
these they have [page 264] what
they call the Yong-un-gok or “Dragon-cloud-armor”
which is affirmed to be
impervious to bullet. A trial was made of these lately
at Yak Monastery outside
the north-east gate and it is claimed they were a
success. Since the first
of June silver coin has been minted
at the Yong-san mint. It is reported
that the Government has granted a
gold mining concession to the French. The location has
not been determined upon
but it will be sixty li long and forty li wide. The resignation
of Cho Pyung-sik from the position
of Minister of Law has at last been accepted and on
June 9th Sin Keui-sun was
appointed to that post. Of late the
Japanese have been actively engaged in surveying
along the coast. Some friction was caused in the
vicinity of Ha-ju where the
natives accused the Japanese of interfering with
neighborhood wells. It is
hardly to be wondered at that the Japanese should
insist on a certain degree of
cleanliness about the wells in the vicinity of which
they are working and it is
probably this which has incensed the people. The claim
that the Japanese have
cut the people off from access to the wells is
doubtless a gross exaggeration. Su Chung-sun
resigned from the Council and Sim
Sang-hun was appointed to the place on June 9th. On the same date
Min Yung-gyu was appointed
President of the Privy Council. A sound of
revelry was heard by night and Ta Han’s
Capital had gathered then her beauty and her chivalry.
The fun was over an
enormous and bespangled Dragon Boat that was made at
the Chang-ok-wun or “Music
Hall” near the Government Hospital and taken to the
Palace on the tenth inst. There seems to
be little doubt that the French loan
will become an accomplished fact. That very many of
the highest officials are
desperately opposed to it cannot be denied but the
Government is in great need
of funds and the pressure brought to bear has been
enormous. Officials and
scholars have united their appeals in order to prevent
its consummation but
without avail. The Japanese press has been especially
sharp in its comments
upon Yi Yong-ik and other officials who have [page 265] stood in favor
of the loan, so much so, in fact, that
Yi Yong- ik appealed to the authorities to stop the
ugly comments, with the
result that the papers quieted down. We have no
arguments to offer for or
against this loan. It is impossible to say whether it
will be for Korea’s
ultimate good or not. It depends entirely upon what
use is made of the powerful
influence thus brought directly to bear upon the
Korean Government. The
conflicting interests of foreign powers in Korea give
every political move a
double aspect. It is the best thing in the world or
the worst, according to
which side you are on. We only trust that it will work
ultimately for Korea’s
welfare. If we were sure it would not, we should be
free to say so. To tell the
truth it is very difficult to say just what is what in
the peninsula to-day. To
use an Americanism, we do not know just “where we are
at.” If anybody knows,
let him tell. But it is very apparent that in Korean
official life to-day there
is comparatively little of that otium cum
dignitate which is so dear to the heart of a
true born Korean. That Korean
official life is at least strenuous appears from the
warmth with which Yi
Yong-ik denied any connection with the French loan.
The strenuousness of the
situation reached a point that threatened a collapse. In the absence
of disinterested witnesses it is
impossible to obtain an unbiased account of the riots
in the island of
Quelpart. The best we can do is to give a free
translation of the report of the
magistrate of that district, Yi Cha-ho. It is
straightforward and bears all the
outward marks of veracity, but we cannot vouch for it.
He says:— The difficulty
arose from two causes; for two years
the tax-collectors have been levying excessive toll on
the people of the island
and in the second place the Roman Catholic adherents
have been playing a very
high hand. If the excesses of the tax gatherers, such
as plundering houses,
seizing fields, binding and beating the people, be not
stopped, and if the
Roman Catholic adherents be not restrained from
forcing people into the Church
matters are sure to get beyond control. On May 14th
(28th of 3rd moon) the
people congregated at a point ten li south of the town
of Che-ju and conferred
together about their wrongs. Soon two French priests
appeared on the scene with
300 armed followers and attempted to scatter the [page 266] crowd. In this
attempt one of the crowd was
severely wounded in the leg. The leader of the crowd
was seized with five
others and carried captive to the Church. The
Magistrate forthwith went out of
the town and ordered the people to retire. While this
was going on the Church
party entered the town, seized all the arms and
ammunition, barred the gate of
the town and terrorized the people by firing upon them
and killing one and
wounding three others. By this time the people were
thoroughly aroused. The
sight of blood had made them quite reckless. They
called in all the hunters
that could be round and attacked the Roman Catholic
position, killing eight or
nine of them. They forced their way into the town and
released the men whom the
Church faction had seized. The latter seeing that
things were likely to go hard
with them scattered and the two French priests by the
aid of Kim Heui-ju made
their escape. The people
thereupon wrote a circular letter to every town and
village and large numbers
of Catholic adherents were seized and killed. Forty or
fifty a day were
massacred and on the 27th of May 250 Roman Catholics
were killed. These were
men who had scattered throughout the country trying to
find a hiding place. Two
men, Chang Yun-sun and Ch’oe Sun-hyang, who had been
banished to the island,
and had joined the Church, were pursued. The former
was caught and killed and
the latter escaped by boat to the mainland, and sent a
telegram from Mok-po to
the French Legation in Seoul. One hundred soldiers of
the Kang-wha guard
accompanied by Mr. Sands of the Imperial Household
Department and one hundred
of the Kwang-ju guard went to Quelpart on a French
man-of-war and on June 2nd
the soldiers landed and were welcomed by the
authorities. A second body of 200
troops was sent later but by this time the revolt had
been put down and
everything was quiet. This account,
given by the prefect, is an open
attempt to place upon the adherents to Christianity
part of the blame for the
troubles in Quelpart. There may be more or less
friction between the Christians
and the non-Christian populace and it may easily be
believed that in the
presence of foreign priests the excessive levying of
taxes would bear harder
upon the latter than upon the former. This would
naturally create trou- [page
267]
ble. We can see no reason why one class or sect
should enjoy immunity from taxation. If it does, it
forms a very insidious
temptation for people to join that class or sect,
whether it be Roman or
Protestant; which is greatly to be deplored. The Japanese
daily newspaper in Seoul makes some
rather severe strictures upon what it calls the
Ye-su-kyo. We do not know
whether by this it means Roman Catholics or
Protestants or both but as he
mentions the Catholics under the term Chun-ju-kyo he
apparently means
Protestants. He says that if an adherent of
Christianity in Korea were asked
his reasons for joining the Christian Church he would
give one or other of the
following. (1) Because others told me to, (2) to get
the sugar which was
promised, (3) to get medicine, (4) to get money, (5)
because they say it is
better than official position, (6) because my parents
did so, (7) to get power,
(8) to escape the tax-collector, (9) to get away from
the jurisdiction of the
prefect, (10) to escape from of the persecution the
peddlar’s guild, (11) to
escape the private inspectors, (12) to escape
taxation, (13) to escape the
continual importunities of the adherents of that
religion, (14) to escape
arrest, (15) to be able to steal with impunity (16) to
escape the consequences
of having been a Tong Hak, (17) in order to have an
opportunity to play, (18)
because many handsome women have entered it, (19}
because they say I shall see
heaven (20) in order to have an opportunity to ride
upon the clouds and see the
Four Seas. Our Japanese
friends seem to be trying to
antagonize Christianity in Korea, but they will do no
harm so long as they talk
about Korean Christians the way the Chinese talked
about the Japanese before
the China-Japan war. From a somewhat close
acquaintance with the facts of the
case we are able to affirm that the statements made by
the editor of the
Han-sung Sin-mun in regard to the reasons for Koreans
joining the Protestant Christian
Church are quite fictitious. We fear he has not come
into personal contact with
many of them nor examined carefully into the question.
Our friend does not seem
to remember that modern Japan has broken away from all
this sort of narrowness,
and he would do well to emulate that fairness of
criticism which the better
portion of his countrymen evince. On the 14th of
the 5th Moon (June 29th) a grand
festival [page
268]
will be held in honor of the 80th birthday of the
Emperor’s mother whose title is Myung-heun T’a-hu. It
will be held in the
palace, and $60,000 has been appropriated to cover the
expenses. Rear Admiral Sir
James Bruce, K.C.B. arrived in
Chemulpo on the Barfleur
on May 31st
and came to Seoul in company with Lady Bruce on June
3rd. They returned to
Chemulpo on the 8th and the Barfleur
left Chemulpo on the 10th. Several other British boats
have been in Chemulpo
Harbor lately, namely the Isis which
arrived May 25th, the Pique which
arrived on the same date and the Astraea
which arrived June 6th. Of these the Astraea
is the only one in harbor now. The torpedo boat
destroyer Otter was also in port for a few days. A rather
serious fracas took place between Koreans and Chinese
at the Pochun Pyung-mun
not far from the Su-pyo Tari or “Water Gauge Bridge.”
A Korean was buying some
sugar cakes at a Chinese bakery in that place when a
dispute arose about the
quality of the goods. Some Chinese watchmen began
ill-treating the Korean and
two Korean soldiers who were on guard in the vicinity
came up and inquired what
the trouble was. The Chinese did not answer and the
Korean soldiers proceeded
to stop the quarrel, but only succeeded in making it
worse, for the Chinamen
turned on the soldiers, knocked them down and took
away their muskets. A
considerable crowd of Koreans had gathered by this
time and they were greatly
angered by this treatment of the Korean soldiers. They
crowded round the
Chinese and began throwing stones. The Chinese
presented a solid front and
charged the crowd which had been reinforced by some
more soldiers and police.
The Chinese, who had swords, drove them back but the
stones continued to fly
and as the crowd thickened the Chinese saw that they
would soon be
out-numbered. So they shut their shops as best they
could and ran away. Soon after this
some of the gendarmes and the
captain of the central police station appeared on the
scene and stopped the
stone throwing. They then began investigating the
matter and looking after the
men who had been hurt. On the Chinese premises they
found a well filled up with
rubbish and there seems to have been a suspicion that
the Chinese had dis- [page
269]
posed of a dead body in the well. It was partially
cleaned out. Two guns were found beneath the rubbish
but no body was discovered
though up to the present the search has not been
completed. A Chinese merchant
and an employee were taken under the protection of the
police and two Korean
employees of the Chinese were taken to police
headquarters to be examined as to
the cause of the trouble. The crowd did not retire
until Yu Han-ik came with an
Imperial order and commanded them to disperse. The
place is heavily guarded by
soldiers and a temporary telephone station has been
erected there. Up to Thursday
the 20th the missing soldier of the
Pyeng-yang regiment had not been found and there seems
reason to fear that he
met his death at the hands of the Chinese. The Acting
Chinese Minister visited
the place and examined the premises with the Korean
authorities but no
settlement of the matter had at that time been
effected. It is reported
that Yi yong-ik is in communication
with some French company with a view to the
establishment of a powder mill in
Korea. The initial expense is estimated at $170,000. On Wednesday
afternoon at the Seoul Union rooms a
General Meeting of the Korea Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society was held, with
the President, Mr. Gubbins, in the chair. The paper of
the day was read by Rev.
Geo. Heber Jones and its subject was “The Spirit Gods
of Korea.” The audience
of thirty or more enjoyed a very fine presentation of
a most interesting
subject. Mr. Jones is the authority on this important
phase of Korean life and
he handled the subject in a highly entertaining and
instructive manner. We
understand that this is an introductory paper and that
it will be followed by
others on the same or on related themes. Yi Yong-ik has
been relieved of the position of
Steward of the Imperial Estate and Yi Pong-na has been
appointed in his place In Seoul there
are nine common schools with an
attendance of 630. In a city of 200,000 souls these
numbers ought to be
multiplied at least by ten. We hope the time will soon
come when each ward in
the city will have a thoroughly equipped school. [page 270] Mr. H. B. Gordon
an architect from America arrived
in Seoul on the 17th inst. to superintend the erection
of the new Presbyterian
hospital and mission residences in this city. We are
glad to learn that the
hospital work is to be pushed. A thoroughly equipped
hospital is a crying need
in Seoul. From the 16th
inst. an extra train has been run on
the Seoul-Chemulpo Railroad thus adding much to the
convenience of the public.
We are waiting patiently for the Seoul-Fusan road to
be completed. When we
remember the trials and tribulations of an old time
trip to Chemulpo we feel a
personal interest in every railroad in Korea. We regret to
learn that Mr. Leigh Hunt of the
American Mines in Korea has been very ill in Nagasaki.
At last reports he was
slowly improving. M. Paul de
Kehrberg, Secretary of the Russian
Legation in Seoul, has left for Europe on furlough.
His Excellency, A. Pavloff,
the Russian Minister, has returned from Japan. Angus Hamilton,
Esq., special correspondent of the
Pall Mall Gazette has been in town for some days. He
was brought here by a
rumor rife in Peking that on a certain day an
ultimatum on the part of one of
the Powers was to create a crisis here and that
serious trouble was sure to
result. Cho Pyung-sik
who has sternly opposed the floating
of the French loan seems to have excited considerable
feeling on the part of
those interested in that transaction; so much so, in
fact, that they demanded
that he should be put on trial. Leaving aside the
question as to the
advisability of the loan we do not see how a man can
be brought to trial for
advocating either one side or the other of a national
policy to which there
must be distinctly two sides. If it is true, however,
that in his opposition he
exaggerated the difficulties and misrepresented the
amount of interest that
would be required the complaint is well grounded. The
fact is that whatever may
be said for or against the antecedents of Cho
Pyung-sik he is one of the most
virile and independent of the political leaders of the
day and his opposition
has been a sore drawback to the plans of those who
wish the Government to
effect a French loan. They tried argument and entreaty
in order to break down
his opposition but seemingly without avail. [page 271] Rev. Geo. Heber
Jones has just issued an
introductory work on Church History in the native
Korean. It is a pioneer work
of its kind. It is in the form of question and answer.
He says in the
introduction, among other things: “Nearly everything
of a controversial nature
has been passed over in silence until we strike the
point of divergence at the
Reformation”― “As teachers in the Korean Church we are
almost dumb in the great
fields of systematic and exegetical theology and their
cognate studies because
there is as yet no language in which to speak, we must
invent our terminology.”
The book will certainly prove a valuable addition to
native Christian
literature. A new U. S.
Secretary of Legation to Korea has been
appointed in the person of Gordon Pollock, Esq. of New
York. Rev. S. A. Beck,
manager of the Methodist
Publishing House, Seoul, left for America with his
family on June 1st. Rev.
Graham Lee and family of Pyeng-yang accompanied by
Mrs. Webb left Chemulpo for
America on furlough June 22nd. Mrs. R. S. Hall and
Miss Lewis left June 9th for
their furlough in the U. S. The ceremony of
opening the new Chemulpo Club was
performed on Saturday June 22nd at half past four.
Soon after the guests
assembled Mrs. H. N. Allen opened the door with a
silver key and led the way
into the building. After the company had looked about
and admired the handsome
rooms and fittings Mr. Herbert Goffe, the British
Consul, in a neat speech,
gave some particulars as to the building of the Club,
mentioning the valuable,
services of Messrs. Sabatin，Deshler and
Luhrs. He
then asked Mrs. Allen to declare the Club opened. The
health of the new
enterprise was then drunk with great enthusiasm. After
a light collation Mr.
Goffe proposed a health, “To Mrs. Allen and the
Ladies” which was responded to
with cheers. The silver key was then presented to Mrs.
Allen as a souvenir of
the occasion. The Club House with its commanding view,
its spacious billiard
and reading-rooms and the adjacent tennis courts, is a
distinct ornament to the
enterprising community of Chemulpo. Long may she wave!
Thomas Townsend
Keller, Esq. Inspector of U. S.
Con- [page
272] sulates, Washington, U. S., in the course
of a trip
through the Far East, arrived in Korea June 17th. He
expresses himself as
highly delighted with the bracing air and picturesque
scenery of Korea. Mr. Cameron one
of the superintendents at the
American Gold Mines at Un-san was brought to Chemulpo
recently suffering from a
disease whose nature was at first not known, but it
soon developed into the
most malignant form of small-pox and he died on
Saturday the 22nd. It is reported
that the Hon. Augustine Heard of
Washington, formerly U. S. Minister to Korea, died at
his home in Washington
during the Spring of the present year, though the
exact date is not given. Mr.
Heard was formerly one of the leading business men of
the Far East at the time
when the tea business was in the heyday of its youth. Early in June a
son was born to Dr. and Mrs. R.
Hardie of Wonsan. [page 273] KOREAN
HISTORY. Now that danger
from the west no longer threatened
Ko-gu-ryu, she turned to her neighbors and began to
exercise her arms upon them.
Pak-je also attacked Sil-la fiercely and soon a
triangular war was being waged
in the peninsula which promised to be a war of
extermination unless China
should interfere. Of course each wished the Emperor to
interfere in her behalf
and each plied the throne of China with recriminations
of the others and with
justifications of herself until the Emperor was wholly
at a loss to decide
between them. The details of
this series of hostilities between
the three Korean states form a tangled skein. First
one border fort was taken
and then recovered, then the same was repeated at
another point; and so it went
all along the line, now one being victorious and now
another. Large forces were
not employed at any one time or place, but it was a
skirmish fire all along the
border, burning up brightly first at one spot and then
at another. One
remarkable statement in the records, to the effect
that Ko-gu-ryu began the
building of a wall straight across the peninsula from
Eui-ju to the Japan Sea
to keep out the people of the northern tribes, seems
almost incredible, If true
it is another testimony to the great power of
Ko-gu-ryu. It is said the work
was finished in sixteen years. In 632, after a
reign of fifty years, King Chim-p’yung
died without male issue but his daughter Tong-man, a
woman of strong
personality, ascended the throne of Sil-la, being the
first of her sex that
ever sat on a Korean throne. Many stories are
told of her precocity. Once when
she was a mere child her father had received from the
Emperor a picture of the
mok-tan flower together with some seeds of the same.
She immediately remarked
that the flowers would have no perfume. When asked why
she thought so she
replied “Because there is no butterfly on them in the
picture.” While not a
valid argument, it showed a power of observation very
uncommon in a child. This
proved to be true, for when [page 274] the seeds
sprouted and grew the blossoms had no fragrance. The
Emperor
conferred upon her the title of royalty, the same as
upon a male sovereign. The first few
years of her reign were peaceful ones
for Sil-la, and Pak-je, as usual when relieved of the
stress of war, fell back
into her profligate ways again. The king built gardens
and miniature lakes,
bringing water from a point some twenty li away to
supply them. Here he spent
his time in sport and debauchery while the country
ruled itself. In the fifth
year of her reign Queen Tong-man,
while walking in her palace grounds, passed a pond of
water but suddenly
stopped and exclaimed “There is war on our western
border.” When asked her
reasons for thinking so she pointed to the frogs in
the pond and said “See how
red their eyes are. It means that there is war on the
border.” As if to bear
out her statement, swift messengers came the next day
announcing that Pak-je
was again at work along the western border. So runs
the story. And so the fight
went on merrily all along the
line, while at the capitals of the three kingdoms
things continued much as
usual. Each of the countries sent Princes to China to
be educated, and the
diplomatic relations with China were as intimate as
ever; but in 642 Pak-je
made the great mistake of her life. After an unusually
successful military
campaign against Sil-la during which she seized forty
of her frontier posts,
she conceived the bright idea of cutting off Sil-la’s
communication with China.
The plan was to block the way of Sil-la envoys on
their way to China. Thus she
thought that China’s good will would be withdrawn from
her rival, Sil-la. It
was a brilliant plan but it had after effects which
worked ruin for Pak-je.
Such a momentous undertaking could not be kept from
the ears of the Emperor nor
could Sil-la’s envoys be thus debarred from going to
the Emperor’s court. When
the whole matter was therefore laid before the Chinese
court the Emperor immediately
condemned Pak-je in his own mind. About this time
a Chinese envoy named Chin Ta-t’ok
arrived on the borders of Ko-gu-ryu. On his way to the
capital he pretended to
enjoy all the views along the way and he gave costly
presents to the prefects
and gained from them ac- [page 275] curate
information about every part of the route. By this
means he spied
out the land and carried a fund of important
information back to the Emperor.
He advised that Ko-gu-ryu be invaded both by land and
sea, for she would not be
hard to conquer. It was in this
year 642 that a Ko-gu-ryu official
named Hap So-mun assassinated the king and set up the
king’s nephew Chang as
king. He himself became of course the court favorite.
He was a man of powerful
body and powerful mind. He was as “sharp as a falcon.”
He claimed to have risen
from the water by a miraculous birth. He was hated by
the people because of his
cruelty and fierceness. Having by specious promises so
far mollified the
dislike of the officials as to have gained a position
under the government he
became worse than before and some of the officials had
an understanding with
the king that he must be put out of the way. This came
to the ears of Hap
So-mun and he gave a great feast, during the course of
which he fell upon and killed
all those who had advised against him. He then sent
and killed the king in the
palace, cut the body in two and threw it into a ditch.
Then, as we have seen,
he set up Chang as king. This Hap So-mun is said to
have worn five swords on
his person all the time. All bowed their heads when he
appeared and when he
rode in state he passed over the prostrate bodies of
men. When an envoy,
soon after this, came from Sil-la he
was thrown into prison as a spy and was told that he
would be released as soon
as Sil-la should restore to Ko-gu-ryu the two
districts of Ma-hyun which had at
one time belonged to Ko-gu-ryu. This envoy had a
friend among the Ko-gu-ryu
officials and to him he applied for help. That
gentleman gave him advice in the
form of an allegory. It was as follows. The daughter of
the Sea King being ill, the
physicians said that she could not recover unless she
should eat the liver of a
rabbit. This being a terrestrial animal it almost
impossible to obtain, but
finally a tortoise volunteered so secure a rabbit and
bring it to the king.
Emerging from the sea on the coast of Sil-la the
tortoise entered a field and
found a rabbit sleeping under a covert. Awakening the
animal he began to tell
of an island off the shore where there were neither [page 276] hawks nor
hunters—a rabbit’s paradise, and
volunteered to take the rabbit across to it upon his
back. When well out at sea
the tortoise bade the rabbit prepare for death, for
his liver was needed by the
Sea King. After a moment’s rapid thought the rabbit
exclaimed “You might have
had it without all this ado, for when the Creator made
rabbits he made them
with detachable livers so that when they became too
warm they could take them
out and wash them in cool water and then put them
back. When you found me I had
just washed mine and laid it on a rock to dry. You can
have it if you wish, for
I have no special use for it.” The tortoise in great
chagrin turned about and
paddled him back to the shore. Leaping to the land the
rabbit cried “Good day,
my friend, my liver is safe inside of me.” The imprisoned
envoy pondered over this conundrum
and its application and finally solved it. Sending to
the king he said “You
cannot get back the two districts by keeping me here.
If you will let me go and
will provide me with an escort I will induce the
Sil-la government to restore
the territory to you.” The king complied, but when the
envoy had once gotten
across the border he sent back word that the
restoration of territory was not
in his line of business and he must decline to discuss
the question at the
court of Sil-la. In 643 the
powerful and much dreaded Hap So-mun
sent to China asking the Emperor to send a teacher of
the Shinto religion; for
he said that the three religions, Buddhism, Taoism and
Shintoism were like the
three legs of a kettle, all necessary. The Emperor
complied and sent a teacher,
Suk-da, with eight others and with books to be used in
the study of the new
cult. The prowess of
this Hap So-mun was well known at
the Chinese court and it kept the Emperor from
attempting any offensive
operations. He said it would not do to drain China of
her soldiers at such a
critical time, but that the Mal-gal tribes must first
be alienated from their
fealty to Ko-gu-ryu and be induced to attack her
northern border. Others
advised that Hap So-mun be allowed free rein so that
all suspicion of
aggression on the part of China should be removed and
Ko-gu-ryu would become
careless of her defenses. This would in time bring a
good opportunity to strike
the decisive blow. It [page 277] was in
pursuance of this policy that the Shinto teachers were
sent and
that Hap So-mun’s creature, Chan, was given
investiture. At the same time a
Sil-la emissary was 0n his way to the Chinese court
asking for aid against
Ko-gu-ryu. The Emperor could not comply but proposed
three plans: first, that
China stir up the Mal-gal tribes to harry the northern
borders of Ko-gu-ryu and
so relieve the strain on the south; second, that China
give Sil-la a large
number of red flags which she should use in battle.
The Pak-je or Ko-gu-ryu
forces, seeing these, would think that Sil-la had
Chinese allies and would
hasten to make peace; third, that China should send an
expedition against
Pak-je, which should unite with a Sil-la force and
thus crush the Pak-je power
once for all and join her territory to that of Sil-la.
This would prepare the
way for the subjugation of Ko-gu-ryu. But to this
advice the Emperor added that
so long as Sil-la had a woman an the throne she could
not expect to undertake
any large operations. She ought to put a man on the
throne and then, after the
war was over, restore the woman if she so wished. The
Sil-la envoy pondered
these three plans but could come to no decision. So
the Emperor called him a
fool and sent him away. We see behind each of these
schemes a fear of
Ko-gu-ryu. China was willing to do anything but meet
the hardy soldiers of Ko-gu-ryu
in the field. We see that the
Emperor had virtually decided in
favor of Sil-la as against Pak-je and Ko-gu-ryu. The
long expected event had at
last occurred. Tacitly but really China had cast her
vote for Sil-la and the
future of the peninsula was decided for so long as the
Tang dynasty should
last. That the decision was a wise one a moment’s
consideration will show.
Ko-gu-ryu never could be depended upon for six months
in advance and must be
constantly watched; Pak-je, being really a mixture of
the northern and southern
elements, had neither the power of the one now the
peaceful disposition of the
other but was as unstable as a cloud. Sil-la on the
other hand was purely
southern, excepting for a strain of Chinese blood
brought in by the refugees from
the Tsin dynasty. Her temperament was even, her
instincts peaceful, her
tendencies toward improvement and reform- She was by
all means the best ally
China could have in the peninsula. [page 278] And so the die
was cast and henceforth the main
drift of Chinese sympathy is to be Sil-la-ward. The year 644 was
a fateful one for Korea. The
Emperor sent an envoy to Ko-gu-ryu and Pak-je
commanding them to cease their
depredations on Sil-la. Thus was the Chinese policy
announced. Pak-je hastened
to comply but Hap So-mun of Ko-gu-ryu replied that
this was an ancient feud
with Sil-la and could not be set aside until Ko-gu-ryu
recovered 500 li of
territory that she had been despoiled of. The Emperor
in anger sent another
envoy with the same demand, but Hap So-mun threw him
into prison and defied
China. When he heard however that the Emperor had
determined upon an invasion
of Ko-gu-ryu he changed his mind and sent a present of
gold to the Chinese
court. But he was too late. The gold was returned and
the envoy thrown into
prison. There were many
at the Chinese court who could
remember the horrors of that retreat from P’yung-yang
when China left 300,000
dead upon the hills of Ko-gu-ryu, and the Emperor was
advised to move
cautiously. He however felt that unless Ko-go-ryu was
chastised she might
develop an ambition towards imperialism and the throne
of China itself might be
endangered. He therefore began to collect provisions
on the northern border,
storing them at Ta-in Fortress. He called into his
counsels the old general,
Chong Wun-do, who had been an eye-witness of the
disasters of the late war with
Ko-gu-ryu. This man gave healthful advice, saying that
the subjugation of
Ko-gu-ryu would be no easy task; first, because the
way was so long; second,
because of the difficulty of provisioning the army;
third, because of the
stubborn resistance of Ko-gu-ryu’s soldiers. He gave
the enemy their due and
did not minimize the difficulties of the situation. The Emperor
listened to and profitted by this
advice, for during the events to be related his
soldiers never suffered from
over-confidence, but in their advances made sure of
every step as they went
along. Active
operations began by the sending of an army
of 40,000 men in 501 boats to the harbor of Na-ju
where they were joined by
land forces to the number of 60,000, besides large
contingents from the wild
tribes of the north. Large numbers of ladders and
other engines of war had been
con- [page
279] structed and were ready for use. Before
crossing
the Liao River the Emperor made proclamation far and
wide saying “Hap So-mun
has killed our vassal, King of Ko-gu-ryu, and we go to
inquire into the matter.
Let none of the prefects along the way waste their
revenues in doing us useless
honors. Let Sil-la, Pak-je and Ku-ran help us in this
righteous war.” Crossing the
Liao without resistance the Chinese
forces marched toward the fortress of Kon-an which
soon fell into their hands.
Some thousands of heads fell here to show the rest of
Ko-guryu what they might
expect in case of contumacy. Then Ham-mo Fortress fell
an easy victim. Not so
the renowned fortress of Liao-tung. As the Emperor
approached the place he
found his way obstructed by a morass 200 li in length.
He built a road through
it and then when all his army had passed he destroyed
the road behind him as
Pizarro burnt his ships behind him when he landed on
the shores of America to
show his army that there was to be no retreat.
Approaching the town he laid
siege to it and after a hard fight, during which the
Chinese soldiers lifted a man
on the end of a long piece of timber until he could
reach and set fire to the
defences that surmounted the wall, an entrance was
finally effected and the
town taken. In this battle the Chinese were materially
aided by armor which
Pak-je had sent as a gift to the Chinese Emperor. The Chinese were
destined to find still greater
difficulty in storming An-si Fortress which was to
Ko-gu-ryu what Metz is to
Germany. It was in command of the two generals, Ko
Yun-su and Ko Hye-jin who
had called to their aid 100,000 warriors of the
Mal-gal tribes. At first the
Emperor tried a ruse to draw the garrison out where he
could give them battle.
The wise heads among the Ko-gu-ryu garrison strongly
opposed the sortie saying
that it were better to await an opportunity to cut off
the Chinese from their
base of supplies, and so entrap them; but they were
outvoted and the greater
part of the Ko-gu-ryu and allied forces marched out to
engage the enemy in the
open field. The Emperor ascended an eminence where he
could obtain a view of
the enemy and he beheld the camp of the Mal-gal allies
stretching out forty li,
twelve miles. He determined to exercise the utmost
caution. One of his
generals, Wang Do-jong begged to be allowed to [page 280] march on
P’yung-yang, which he deemed must be
nearly bare of defenses, and so bring the war to a
speedy close; but the
Emperor, like Hannibal when begged by his generals to
march straight into Rome,
made the mistake of over-caution and so missed his
great opportunity. To the
Emperor this sounded too much like a similar attempt
that had once cost China
300,000 men. A messenger was
sent to the Ko-gu-ryu camp to say
that China did not want to fight but had only come to
inquire into the cause of
the king’s death. As he intended, this put the
Ko-gu-ryu forces off their guard
and that night he surrounded the fortress and the
forces which had come out to
engage him. This was done in such a way that but few
of the surrounding Chinese
army were visible. Seeing these, the Ko-gu-ryu forces
made a fierce onslaught
anticipating an easy victory, instead of which they
soon found themselves
surrounded by the flower of the Chinese army and their
retreat to the fortress
cut off. It is said that in this fight 20,000
Ko-gu-ryu troops were cut down
and three thousand of the Mal-gal allies, besides
losing many through flight
and capture. These were all released and sent back to
Ko-gu-ryu excepting 3,500
noblemen whom the Emperor sent to China as hostages.
This fight occurred
outside the An-si Fortress and the Emperor supposed
the gates would now be
thrown open; but not so, for there was still a strong
garrison within and
plenty of provisions; so they barred the gates and
still defied the Chinese.
Upon hearing of the Chinese victory the neighboring
Ko-gu-ryu fortresses Ho-whang
and Eui capitulated, not knowing that An-si still held
out against the victors. Many of the
Emperor’s advisers wanted him to ignore
An-si and press on into Ko-gu-ryu leaving it in the
rear, but this the wary
Emperor would not consent to do, for he feared lest
his retreat should be cut
off. So the weary siege was continued. One day,
hearing the lowing of cattle
and the cackling of hens within the walls, the Emperor
astutely surmised that a
feast was being prepared preparatory to a sortie that
was about to be made.
Extra pickets were thrown out and the army was held in
readiness for the
attack. That very night the garrison came down the
wall by means of ropes; but
finding the besiegers ready for them they retired in
confusion [page
281]
and suffered a severe defeat. The siege went on.
The Chinese spent two months constructing a mound
against the wall but the
garrison rushed out and captured it. It is said that
during this siege the
Emperor lost an eye by an arrow wound, but the Chinese
histories do not mention
it. The cold blasts of late autumn were now beginning
to give warning that
winter was at hand and the Emperor was obliged to
consider the question of
withdrawing. He was filled with admiration of the
pluck and bravery of the
little garrison of An-si and before he broke camp he
sent a message to the
commander praising his faithfulness to his sovereign
and presenting him with a
hundred pieces of silk. Then the long march back to
China began, and the 70,000
soldiers wended their way westward, foiled a second
time by the stubborn
hardihood of Ko-gu-ryu. Chapter
XII. Revolt in Sil-la
....Ko-gu-ryu
invaded.... Sil-la invades Pak-je.... China decides
to aid Sil-la.... war between Pak-je and Sil-la....
relations with China....
league against Sil-la.... China diverts Ko-gu-ryu’s
attention.... traitors in
Pak-je.... Sung-ch’ung’s advice.... Chinese forces
sent to Pak-je.... portents
of the fall of Pak-je.... conflicting plans.... Sil-la
army enters Pak-je....
Pak-je capital seized.... Pak-je dismembered.... end
of Pak-je.... disturbances
in Pak-je territory.... Ko-gu-ryu attacks Sil-la....
final invasion of
Ko-gu-ryu planned.... Pak-je malcontents....
combination against Ko-gu-ryu....
siege of P’yung-yang raised.... Pok-sin’s fall....
Pak-je Japanese defeated....
governor of Ung-jin.... Buddhist reverses in
Sil-la.... Sil-la king takes
oath.... Nam-gun’s treachery.... the Mal-gal tribes
desert Ko-gu-ryu.... the
Yalu defended.... Chinese and Sil-la forces march on
P’yung-yang.... omens.... Ko-gu-ryu forts
surrender.... Ko-gu-ryu falls. Tong-man, the
Queen ruler of Sil-la, died in 645
and was succeeded by her sister Song-man. The Emperor
confirmed her in her
accession to the throne. It began to look seriously as
if a gynecocracy was
being established in Sil-la. Some of the highest
officials decided to effect a
change. The malcontents were led by Pi-un and
Yum-jong. These men with a
considerable number of troops went into camp near the
capital and prepared to
besiege it. For four days the rebels and the loyal
troops faced each other
without daring to strike a [page 282] blow. Tradition
says a star fell one night among the loyal forces and
caused consternation there and exultation among the
traitors. But the loyal
Gen. Yu-sin hastened to the Queen and promised to
reverse the omen. That night
he prepared a great kite and fastened a lantern to its
tail. Then he exhorted
the soldiers to be of good cheer, sacrificed a white
horse to the deities of
the land and flew the kite. The rebels, seeing the
light rising from the loyal
camp, concluded that Providence had reversed the
decree. So when the loyal
troops made their attack the hearts of the rebels
turned to water and they were
driven over the face of the country and cut down with
great slaughter. That
same year the Emperor again planned to attack
Ko-gu-ryu but the baleful light
of a comet made him desist. At the
instigation of Hap So-mun, the king of
Ko-gu-ryu sent his son to China, confessed his faults
and begged for mercy, but the
Emperor’s face was flint.
The next year the message was again sent, but
Ko-gu-ryu’s day of grace was
over. China’s answer was an army of 30,000 men and a
mighty fleet of ships. The
fortress of Pak-cha in Liao-tung was besieged but it
was so fortified by nature
as to be almost impregnable. The Emperor therefore
said “Return to China and
next year we will send 300,000 men instead of 30,000.”
He then ordered the
building of a war vessel 100 feet in length. He also
had large store of
provisions placed on O-ho Island to be used by the
invading army. Meanwhile Sil-la
had become emboldened by the
professed preference of China for her and she arose
and smote Pak-je, taking
twenty-one of her forts, killing 30,000 of her
soldiers and carrying away 9,000
prisoners. She followed this up by making a strong
appeal to China for help,
saying that unless China should come to her aid she
would be unable to continue
her embassies to the Chinese court. The Emperor
thereupon ordered Gen. So
Chong-bang to take 200,000 troops and go to the aid of
Sil-la. He evidently was
intending to try a new way of attacking Ko-gu-ryu. As
the Sil-la messenger was
hastening homeward with this happy news emissaries of
Ko-gu-ryu dogged his
footsteps and sought his life. Once he was so hard
pressed that he escaped only
by a clever and costly ruse. One of his suite dressed
in his official garments
and [page
283]
personated him and thus drew the assassins off the
scent and allowed himself to be killed, the real envoy
making good his escape.
It was now for the first time that Sil-la adopted the
Chinese costume, having
first obtained leave from the Emperor. It is said that
it resembled closely the
costume used in Korea today. Unfortunately
for Sil-la the Emperor died in 649
and Ko-gu-ryu began to breathe freely again. It also
emboldened Pak-je and she
invaded Sil-la with a considerable army and seized
seven forts. Sil-la
retaliated by seizing 10,000 houses belonging to
Pak-je subjects and killing
the leading Pak-je general, Eum-sang. Sil-la lost not
a moment in gaining the
good will of the new Emperor, Envoys with presents
were sent frequently. She
adopted the Chinese calendar and other customs from
the suzerain state and so
curried favor with the powerful. The Pak-je envoy was
received coldly by the
Emperor and was told to go and give back to Sil-la the
land that had been taken
and to cease the hostilities. This Pak-je politely
declined to do. Each emperor
of China seems to have declined the legacy of quarrels
handed down by his
predecessor. So bye-gones were bye-gones and Ko-gu-ryu
was accepted again on
her good behavior. With the end of
Queen Song-man’s reign affairs in
the peninsula began to focus toward that crisis which
Ko-gu-ryu and Pak-je had
so long been preparing for themselves. In 655 a new
combination was effected
and one that would have made Sil-la’s horizon very
dark had she not been sure
of Imperial help. Her two neighbors formed a league
against her, and of course
the Mal-gal tribes sided with Ko-gu-ryu in this new
venture. Pak-je and
Ko-gu-ryu were drawn together by their mutual fear of
Sil-la and soon the
allied armies were marching on Sil-la’s borders. At
the first onslaught
thirty-three of Sil-la’s border forts passed into the
hands of the allies. It
was now China’s last chance to give aid to the most
faithful of her Korean
vassals, for otherwise she would surely have fallen
before this combination. A
swift messenger was sent imploring the Emperor for aid
and stating that if it
was not granted Sil-la would be swallowed up. The
Emperor had no intention of
letting Sil-la be dismembered and without a day’s
delay troops were despatched
into Liao-tung under Generals [page 284] Chung Myung-jin
and So Chong-bang. Many of Ko-gu-ryu’s fortresses
beyond
the Yalu River were soon in the possession of China.
This was successful in
diverting Ko-gu-ryu’s attention from Sil-la, but
Pak-je continued the fight
with her. The advantage lay now with one side and now
with the other. The court
of Pak-je was utterly corrupt and except for a small
army in the field under
almost irresponsible leadership, she was weak indeed. Now it happened
that a Sil-la man named Cho Mi-gon
had been taken captive and carried to Pak-je where he
was employed in the
household of the Prime Minister. One day he made his
escape and found his way
across the border into his native country, but there
meeting one of the Sil-la
generals he was induced to go back and see what he
could do in the Pak-je
capital towards facilitating an invasion on the part
of his countrymen. He
returned and after sounding the Prime Minister found
him ready to sell his
country if there was anything to be made out of it. It
is said that here began
the downfall of Pak-je. The king of Pak-je was utterly
incompetent and corrupt.
One of his best councillors was thrown into prison and
starved to death for
rebuking him because of of his excesses. But even
while this faithful man was
dying he sent a message to the king saying “Do not
fail to place a strong
garrison at ‘Charcoal Pass’ and at Pak River.” These
were the two strategic
points of Pak-je’s defenses; if they were guarded
well, surprise was
impossible. From that time affairs in Pak-je went from
bad to worse. China kept
Ko-gu-ryu busy in the north and nothing of consequence
was gained by either
side in the south until finally in 659 another Sil-la
envoy made his appearance
in the Emperor’s court. At last the great desire of
Sil-la was accomplished.
The Emperor ordered Gen. So Chong-bang to take 130,000
men by boat to the
shores of Pak-je and there cooperate with a Sil-la
army in the utter
subjugation of Pak-je. The Sil-la army went into camp
at Nam-ch’un and received
word from the Chinese general to meet him at the
Pak-je capital in the seventh
moon. Tradition says
that the doom impending over Pak-je
was shadowed forth in advance by many omens and signs.
Frogs, it is said, grew
like leaves on the trees and if anyone killed one of
them he instantly fell
dead. Among the mountains black [page 285] clouds met and
fought one another. The form of an animal, half dog
and
half lion, was seen in the sky approaching the palace
and uttering terrible
bellowings and roarings. Dogs congregated in the
streets and howled. Imps of
awful shape came into the palace and cried “Pak-je is
fallen, Pak-je is fallen,”
and disappeared in the ground. Digging there the king
found a tortoise on whose
back were written the words “Pak-je is at full moon;
Sil-la is at half moon.”
The diviners were called upon to interpret this. “It
means that Sil-la is in
the ascendant while Pak-je is full and about to wane.”
The king ordered their
heads off, and called in another company of diviners.
These said that it meant
that Sil-la was half waned while Pak- je was at her
zenith. Somewhat mollified
by this, the king called a grand council of war. The
advice given was of the
most conflicting nature. Some said the Chinese must be
attacked first; other
said the Sil-la forces must be attended to first. A
celebrated general who had
been banished was sent for and his advice was the same
as that of the famous
statesman whom the king had starved in prison. “You
must guard the ‘Charcoal
Pass’ and the Pak River.” But the majority of the
courtiers said that the
Chinese had better be allowed to land before they were
attacked and that the
Sil-la army should be allowed to come in part through
the pass before being
opposed. This latter point was decided for them, for
when the Pak-je troops
approached the pass they found that the Sil-la army
was already streaming
through, and at its head was the famous Gen. Kim
Yu-sin. When the battle was
joined the Pak-je forces held their ground and fought
manfully; but victory
perched upon the banners of Sil-la and when the battle
was done nothing lay
between the Sil-la forces and the capital of Pak-je,
the place of rendezvous.
It is said that Gen. Ke-bak the leader of the Pak-je
forces killed all his
family before starting out on this expedition, fearing
lest the thought of them
might make him waver. He fell in the battle. The capital of
Pak-je was situated on the site of
the present town of Sa-ch’un. When the Sil-la warriors
approached it the king fled
to the town now known as Kong-ju. He left all the
palace women behind and they,
knowing what their fate would be at the hands of the
Sil-la soldiery, went
together to a beetling precipice which overhangs the
harbor [page
286]
of Ta-wang and cast themselves from its summit
into the water beneath. That precipice is famed in
Korean song and story and is
called by the exquisitely poetical name Nak-wha-am
“Precipice of the Falling
Flowers.” The victors forced the gates of the capital
and seized the person of
the Prince, the king’s second son, who had been left
behind. A few days later
the King and the Crown Prince came back from their
place of hiding and
voluntarily gave themselves up. The allies had
now met as they had agreed and
Pak-je was at their mercy. The Chinese general said
that the Emperor had given
him full authority to settle the matter and that China
would take half the
territory and Sil-la might have the other half. This
was indeed a generous
proposal on the part of China but the Sil-la commander
replied that Sil-la
wanted none of the Pak-je territory but only sought
revenge for the wrongs that
Pak-je had heaped upon her. At the feast that night
the king of Pak-je was made
to pour the wine for the victors and in this act of
abject humiliation Sil-la
had her desire for revenge fully satisfied. When the
Chinese generals went back
to China to announce these events they took with them
the unthroned King of
Pak-je together with his four sons, eighty-eight of
the highest officials and
12,807 of the people. It was in 660
that Pak-je fell. She survived for
678 years and during that time thirty kings had sat
upon her throne. A singular
discrepancy occurs here in the records. They affirm
that the whole period of
Pak-je rule covered a lapse of 678 years; but they
also say that Pak-je was
founded in the third year of Emperor Ch’eng-ti of
China. That would have been
in 29 B. C. making the whole dynasty 689 years. The
vast burden of proof favors
the belief that Pak-je was founded in 16 B. C. and
that her whole lease of life
was 678 years. As Sil-la had
declined to share in the
dismemberment of Pak-je, China proceeded to divide it
into provinces for
administrative purposes. There were five of these,
Ung-jin, Tong-myung,
Keum-ryun, Tuk-an. The central government was at Sa-ja
the former capital of
Pak-je. The separate provinces were put under the
control of prefects selected
from among the people. The country was of course in a
very unsettled state;
disaffection showed itself on every side and
disturbances were frequent. A
remnant of the Pak-je army [page 287] took its stand
among the mountains, fortified its position and bid
defiance to the new government. These malcontents
found strong sympathisers at
the capital and in the country towns far and wide. The
Chinese governor, Yu
In-wun, found the task of government no easy one. But
still Sil-la stood ready
to aid and soon a Sil-la army crossed the border and
attacked the fortress of
I-rye where the rebels were intrenched. Taking this by
assault they advanced
toward the mountain fortress already mentioned,
crossed the “Chicken Ford,”
crumpled up the line of rebel intrenchments and lifted
a heavy load from the
governor’s shoulders. Ko-gu-ryu soon
heard the ominous news and she took
it as a presage of evil for herself. She immediately
threw a powerful army
across the Sil-la border and stormed the Ch’il-jung
Fortress, The records
naively remark that they filled the commander as full
of arrows as a hedgehog
is of quills. Now that Pak-je
had been overcome China took up
with alacrity the plan of subduing Ko-gu-ryu. The
great final struggle began,
that was destined to close the career of the proudest,
hardiest and bravest
kingdom that the peninsula of Korea ever saw. The
Pak-je king who had been
carried to China died there in 661. In that same year
Generals Kye-p’il, So
Chong-bang and Ha Ryuk, who had already received their
orders to march on
Ko-gu-ryu, rendezvoused with their forces at Ha-nam
and the warriors of the
Whe-bol together with many volunteers from other
tribes joined the imperial
standards. The plan was to proceed by land and sea.
The Emperor desired to
accompany the expedition, but the death of the empress
made it impossible. Meanwhile
matters in Pak-je were becoming
complicated again. A man named Pok Sin revolted
against the government,
proclaimed Pu-yu P’ung, the son of a former king,
monarch of the realm and
planned a reestablishment of the kingdom. This was
pleasing to many of the
people. So popular was the movement that the Emperor
feared it would be
successful. He therefore sent a summons to Sil-la to
send troops and put it
down. Operations began at once. Gen. Yu In-gwe
besieged Ung-jin the stronghold
of the pretender and chased him out, but a remnant of
his forces entrenched
themselves and made a good fight. They were however
rout- [page
288] ed by the combined Sil-la and Chinese
forces. But
in spite of this defeat the cause was so popular that
the country was
honeycombed with bands of its sympathisers who gained
many lesser victories
over the government troops and their Sil-la allies.
The Sil-la general, Kim
Yu-sin, was very active, passing rapidly from one part
of the country to
another, now driving back to the mountains some band
of Pak-je rebels and now
holding in check some marauding band from Ko-gu-ryu.
He was always found where
he was most needed and was never at a loss for
expedients. It is said that at
this time rice was so plentiful in Sil-la that it took
thirty bags of it to buy
a single bolt of grass cloth. That same autumn
the Chinese engaged the Ko-gu-ryu forces
at the Yalu River and gained a decided victory. Then
the fortress at Ma-eup San
fell into their hands. This cleared the road to
P’yung-yang, and the Chinese
boldly advanced and laid siege to that ancient
stronghold. At the same time the
Emperor ordered Sil-la to send troops to cooperate
with the imperial army. She
obeyed, but with great trepidation, for the fame of
Ko-gu-ryu’s arms made this
seem a matter of life and death. She was obliged to
comply, however, or lose
all the vantage ground she had gained in the Emperor’s
favor. There were still
some Ko-gu-ryu forces in the north and they were
attempting to check the
advance of a large body of Chinese reinforcements. It
was late in the autumn
and the Yalu was frozen. Taking advantage of this the
Chinese crossed in the
night and falling suddenly upon the unsuspecting army
of Ko-gu-ryu inflicted a
crushing defeat. It is said that 30,000 Ko-gu-ryu
soldiers were killed in this
engagement. The speedy downfall of Ko-gu-ryu seemed
now inevitable, but a sudden
timidity seized the Emperor, who feared perhaps to let
his army winter on
Korean soil. So he sent orders for an immediate
retreat back to Chinese
territory. The generals before P’yung-yang were deeply
chagrined and indeed
found it impossible on account of lack of provisions
to obey the command at
once. Soon the Sil-la army arrived before P’yung-yang
with full supply of
provisions. These the Chinese took and the greater
part of them reluctantly
broke camp and marched back to China, leaving Sil-la
in a frame of mind better
imagined than described. [page
289] THE
KOREA REVIEW, July, 1901. The
Ni-t’u. (Translated
from Courant’s Introduction to Bilbliographie Coreenne.) Koreans made use
of Chinese characters to
transcribe the sounds of their language, proper names
and official titles. This
phonetic usage is, besides, in perfect accord with
Chinese custom. Naturally
the Chinese have never used any other system to
express the pronunciation of
foreign words. But, not going as far in this respect
as their neighbors,
Koreans have never had a syllabary or alphabet by
means of ideograms, at any
rate there exists no trace of such; and to the end of
the seventh century they
had nothing written in the native language except
proper names and titles. In
692 A. D. the scholar Sul Ch’ong, “succeeded in
explaining the meaning of the
nine sacred books in the vernacular for the
instruction of his pupils.” Such
are the terms used in the Mun-hun pi-go,
book eighty-three. The Sam-guk Sa-geui,
in the biography of Sul Ch’ong, expresses it
differently and says that Sul Ch’ong
read aloud the nine sacred books with the aid of the
vernacular for the
instruction of his pupils; to the present time
students follow his example.”
The preface of Cheung In-ji for the Hun-min
Chong-eum expresses it thus. “Formerly Sul
Ch’ong of the Kingdom of Sil-la
invented the Ni-t’u writing, which is used till to-day
in the yamens and among
the people. But it is composed entirely of characters
borrowed from the Chinese
[page
290]
which are stiff in style, narrow in sense and, to
say the least, inelegant and ill-settled in the matter
of usage; they are not
able to render the ten-thousandth part of the
language.” Modern Korean
tradition conforms entirely to the statements of
Cheung In-ji. In place of the
terms Ka-eui, “to explain the
sense,” which are found in the Mun-hun-pi-go,
and are very easily understood, the Sam-guk gives the
word tok which means “to
study, to read aloud.” Apart from this difference in
the verb used, the
important part is the same in the two phrases. It
seems probable that the
authors of the recent work have copied the ancient
work and have substituted
for the phrase “to read aloud’’ the phrase “to explain
the sense,” which rounds
off the period better. This correction is. not a happy
one. “To explain the
sense’’ would seem to indicate a translation or a
commentary; but a written
translation is not possible, the Korean language being
till that time simply
spoken, and an oral explanation would not merit from
Sul Ch’ong such a special
mention. Besides, the classics were studied long
before in Korea and the
explanation would have disappeared with the
commentator. The force of the
expression “read aloud” is very different, and we see
in it the matter of
reading as it conforms to actual practice of Korean
scholars, and as it is
explained by the nature of the characters Ni-t’u as
they are described in the
preface of Cheung In-ji and as they are still used. Even though we
lay aside the difference in the
pronunciation of characters in China, Japan and Korea,
the reading of the
Chinese text itself is essentially different in the
three countries. The
Chinese express the sound of each character as it
presents itself and pronounce
no other sound than what appears in the text; the
Japanese add to the text numerous
terminations, which are not written, substitute for
Chinese sounds words purely
Japanese and frequently reverse the order of the words
to make it conform to
the construction of their own language. The Korean
reads the characters as they
present themselves to him giving them a pronunciation
nearly enough like that
of China to be recognizable by an ear slightly
practised; but he punctuates his
reading with isolated syllables or groups of two,
three or four which are never
in the [page
291]
text. These syllables which correspond to the
terminations inserted by the Japanese are case-endings
and verbal forms of the
Korean language. They serve as a guide to the Korean
reader in the
understanding of a language, the genius of which is
entirely different from
that of his mother tongue. But in the majority of
cases the Chinese text is
placed in all its purity under the eyes of the Korean,
who should already have
a sufficiently deep knowledge of Chinese syntax to
correctly put in place the
native particles. Every error in the nature of the
termination used, or the
point at which it is placed, upsets the sense. The work of Sul
Ch’ong was to assist in the reading
aloud, and as a consequence the understanding of the
Chinese, by writing Korean
particles such as were used by the reader of the
Chinese text. You will find in
the notes that I have added to the Yu-su
il-ji and the Su-jun-ta-mun,
two
lists of the most important affixes; although
incomplete, these lists will
suffice to show that the Ni-t’u or Ni-mun notes the
cases, postpositions, which
take the place of our prepositions, verbal
terminations, which at one and the
same time play the part of modes, tenses,
conjunctions, punctuation marks and
honorific words. Besides, a certain number of common
adverbs and some terms in
use in the administrative language can be written in
Ni-t’u. The notation of
Sul Ch’ong answers the purpose of grammatical skeleton
for the phrase, but it
is an empty outline which has to be filled in with the
Chinese characters. It
is no more possible to write a whole phrase in Ni-t’u
than it would be possible
to express an idea in Latin, for example, by cutting
out all the roots of the
words and leaving only the endings of the declensions
and conjugations with the
prepositions and conjunctions. In this way the three
texts that I have cited,
which are the only ones that I know of, dealing with
the invention of Sul Ch’ong,
can be easily explained; the Ni-t’u while entirely
incapable of expressing the
ten thousandth part of the language, is indeed for the
poorly educated Korean
an indispensable aid in reading aloud and
understanding the text. It has
certainly contributed to the diffusion of Chinese
culture, and in that way
justifies the recognition granted Sul Ch’ong, the
titles he received after death,
and the place that was given him in the temple of
Confucius. [page
292] The greater part
of the signs made use of in the
Ni-mun are common Chinese characters, some only are
abbreviations or invented
figures; the characters are employed alone, in groups
of two or three,
sometimes even seven of them together. Often
characters have been chosen to
express a Korean termination, because in the Chinese
pronunciation they
approached the sound of the termination; we have
before us in this a simple
application of phonetic transcription used for Korean
words. Sometimes the
sense of the Chinese characters gives approximately
that of the particle which
it translates; thus the character wi (爲) to make,
always takes
the pronunciation ha the radical of the verb to make;
si (是) to be, takes
the sound i the radical of the verb to be and it is
still
kept in combinations where the sense of the verb to be
seems to be absent.
Often there is no relationship to be established and
the characters seem to
have been chosen arbitrarily. The character eun (隱) under its
complete or an abridged form presents an interesting
use; it is
joined to ha to form han, to ho to form hon, to na to
form nan; it has the
force of final n. In general the same sound has always
the same sign but there
are exceptions to this. In petitions,
indictments, letters of yamen clerks,
written sentences, the particles in Ni-t’u are
inserted in the Chinese phrase
in the place where Korean syntax requires it,
sometimes in smaller characters
than that of the text. When these signs are used to
guide in the reading of
classic books they are placed in the upper margin. I
know, moreover, of only a
single work of this kind which has the particles in
Ni-t’u. The endings of the
classic style are not the same as those of the Yamen
style; some are found in
both yet they are nearly always written with the aid
of different characters;
the particles of the classic style are shorter and
simpler, and less use is
made among them of honorific forms. This system is
different from that of the Japanese,
who have much more frequent recourse to the phonetic
value of the characters
and have come, with their syllabary, to write their
language as they speak it.
The invention of Sul Ch’ong has not had the same
fortune, and it has always
remained insufficient and little suited to use. It has
remained however even
till today. What we have, is it the primitive form or
a [page
293]
development? The edition of the Chu-king with
Ni-t’u, is it a
reproduction of the reading of the scholar of Sil-la?
The lack of authorities
does not permit us to decide. A short notice
placed on the first leaf of the To-ri-p’yo
and written in Chinese,
presents alongside of the principal text certain
characters which occupy the
place suited to the Korean particles, and which for
the greater part are not to
be found in the two lists of Ni-t’u known to me.
Koreans asked as to the these
signs, have not been able to inform me; I am of the
opinion until more
information is forthcoming that they are parts of
Ni-t’u characters used in
place of the complete signs, as the fragments called
Kata-kana in Japan often
take the place of complete characters phonetically.
This method exists already
to some extent in the tables of the Ni-mun that I have
written out; thus the
syllables ra, na, i, teun, tye, eun are often found
under their complete form
and under an abridged form as well, the last of these
syllables entering into
combination with the preceding sign and then taking
the value of the letter n.
In the To-ri-p’yo this double method of abbreviation
and combination of
characters has been so extended, that they become
veritable syllabic signs or
alphabetical letters: ei is written e + i, ikei is
written i+ke+i. I have
unfortunately no information on tins transformation of
the characters of Sul Ch’ong
and the very text which reveals to me its existence is
entirely insufficient,
since it contains only a dozen of these signs.
Jas.
S. Gale. A
Conundrum in Court. Kwi-dongi was a
Korean boy born in the southern
town of Nam-wun in the “Garden of Korea.” From infancy
he was a Yangban of the
Yangbans. He would rather sit with stick in hand and
drone through the Thousand
Character Classic any day than wear out sole-leather
in the fascinating, game
of hop-scotch. He used to stay after school and polish
off an extra score of
characters nearly every day. There seemed no doubt
that sometime he would
become a distinguished scholar. [page 294] On his tenth
birthday an old friend of the family,
who enjoyed the power of “second sight,” looked
earnestly in the boy’s face for
a full ten minutes and then shook his head sadly. “Bring me a
piece of yellow paper” he cried. It was brought,
and on it he wrote the two
characters 狗三 meaning “Three
Dogs.” He handed it to the boy and
said “When the great crisis in your life arrives and
death seems unavoidable
this may save you.” Kwi-dongi folded it carefully and
put it away in the pouch
which hung at his belt. One day he
stayed at school long after the teacher
and all the other boys had gone. It was beginning to
grow so dark that the
characters blurred before his eyes. So he gathered up
his books, backed out of
the door so as to get his shoes on straight and
stepped down to the ground.
Just over the wall from the place where he stood was
the house of a wealthy
gentleman who was enjoying the height of Korean
felicity―a quiet country life
with nothing to disturb his studies. The boy had not
taken three steps before a little
white snow-flake of paper came drifting over this wall
and fell at his feet. He
stooped and picked it up. To his amazement it was a
note addressed to him. He
broke the seal and read the most astonishing missive
that had ever fallen into
his hands. It was from the young daughter of this
neighboring gentlemen. She
complained that she was kept all the time confined in
the house while all the
boys were allowed the freedom of the fields and
forests. She had seen the
studious boy over the wall and she felt so lonesome
that she had dared to brave
her father’s anger in suggesting that she and
Kwi-dongi become acquainted. If
he was so minded she would hang a piece of cotton over
the wall the following
evening after school and he could grasp it and come
over the wall. Now this was
highly improper, of course. It would
have been so in any country, but especially in Korea;
but this little girl
meant no harm. She was simply so lonesome that life
seemed quite unbearable.
Why should she be immured like a felon to spend her
time in sewing and
embroidery without a single hour of congenial
companionship? So she looked at
it, and while we cannot commend her course we must
sympathize a little with the
causes which drove her to it. [page 295] But without
moralizing on it unduly, we must notice
that when the following evening came, Kwi-dongi stayed
after school as usual;
but he was not as intent upon the classics as
hitherto. A matter of more
immediate interest claimed his attention. He was
probably better aware than the
girl of the difficulties into which a compliance to
her request might lead them
both but Korean gallantry is of that quality which
could not slight the
invitation however untoward might be the result. So
finding the cotton cloth
hanging over the wall he grasped it with both hands
and lightly scaled the
barrier. He found himself in the presence of a
beautiful and innocent child who
greeted him shyly and led him into a pavilion where
she regaled him with sweets
and wine and played to him on her zither. So they
passed an hour in harmless
amusement. Each was deeply impressed by the other and
when Kwi-dongi went back
over the wall he was determined that he would win this
girl for his bride. Each
evening he spent a happy hour with her, finding her
intelligent and witty and
she in turn finding in him her ideal of manly grace.
But an evil hour; was at
hand. The boy had preserved the note he had received;
but one day he carelessly
left it among some other papers in the school room,
and it came under the eye
of the teacher, a young man of not the very highest
reputation except for his
scholarship. That afternoon
the teacher dismissed the school
promptly and sent the boys off home, though Kwi-dongi
was evidently anxious to
stay and read a few more pages. But the teacher’s word
was law and off he went. The next morning
the air was rife with the rumor
that a terrible crime had been committed. The young
daughter of a leading
citizen had been stabbed to death in her own
apartments. There was no clue to
the perpetrator of tins outrage. When Kwi-dongi heard
of it he was
heart-broken. From his happy dream of wedding this
girl he was rudely awakened.
The cup had been dashed from his lips. He was the most
eager of them all in trying to find
out who the criminal was. But to his horror his own
teacher accused him of the
crime and produced a shoe which he claimed to have
found in the girl’s
apartment when the search party were hunting for a
clue. It was Kwi-dongi’s
shoe. He was [page
296]
seized and thrown into jail. Deny it as he might,
there was the damning evidence and when asked to
explain it he could only
reply: “What can I say
in the face of such evidence? Let
me die, for I am evidently the man who killed her.” Influence was
brought to bear upon the officials to
mitigate the sentence but no leniency could be shown.
Kwi-dongi was beyond
doubt the man who did it and he must suffer the
extreme penalty of the law.
There could be no extenuation of the crime. When the
unfortunate boy was called before the
judge to receive his sentence he was told to speak out
and say why he should
not be executed. He replied: “There is only
one thing that puzzles me. When I
was a child; a man who had the power of second sight
announced that when a
crisis came in my life there was but one thing that
could save me―namely this
paper which I now deliver into the judge’s hands.” The judge took
the sheet of yellow paper and,
opening, read the curious words “Three Dogs.” He
turned it over but could find
nothing more on it. He was greatly puzzled. He would
gladly have, found
evidence which would exculpate the boy but at last he
shook his head. “I do not see
how this paper effects the case, but
under the circumstances I do not wish to decide
hastily, so I will take this
paper and examine it more carefully and give judgment
to-morrow.” As he sat, late
that night, pondering deeply upon
that seemingly senseless inscription his favorite
daughter happened to look
over his shoulder at the two words. She asked her
father what it was all about
and when he was done she said: “Why, the
meaning is quite plain. This yellow paper
stands for Whang (황) which means yellow; the dog stands for
Ku (狗) and the three
for sam (三) so all you
have to do
is to find a man named Whang Ku-sam and he will help
you out of your
difficulty.” This seemed far
from probable, but the next morning
when inquisition was made for one Whang Ku-sam it was
found to be the name of
the accused boy’s teacher. This man was cited before
the judge and, supposing
that all was dis- [page 297] covered,
fell on his face and confessed that he was the
murderer. He had entered the
girl’s apartments for evil purposes and when repulsed
by her had stabbed her in
a fit of passion. Kwi-dongi was
thus cleared of all suspicion and the
real criminal was brought to justice. The boy
completed his studies and finally
married the judge’s daughter, whose cleverness had
saved his life. Korean
and Efate. If the Koreans
are a remnant of that great family
which was driven from India by the Aryans and which
scattered in many
directions but principally to Malasia and the islands
of the Pacific we ought
to be able to find something more than an occasional
or accidental similarity
between modern Korean and the languages of the South
Sea Islands. The argument
from vocabularies is by no means conclusive but it
must have more or less
weight in the cumulative argument which proves that
the Koreans are of southern
rather than northern stock. In order to save
space I adopt the following
abbreviations: For this reason
I propose to show some rather
striking similarities which exist between the Korean
vocabulary and that of the
Efate people who inhabit the New Hebrides Islands. But
besides these I shall
have occasion to mention several other languages of
the Pacific.* Before
proceeding to this comparison it should be mentioned
that the phonetic systems
of the two are very much alike. In each we have the
continental vowel sounds of
a, e, i, o and u. In each there is but one character
for b and p. In each the
k, l, m, n, r, s, and t are sounded as in English.
There are three differences.
The g of Efate is pronounced ng as in certain parts of
Japan, and except in one
of its dialects the letter h is not found, its place
being taken by s. But in
Korean the letters h and s are very often confounded.
For instance 형 is pronounced
either hyung or sung, 힘 is either him or sim. 흉 is either,
hyung or An.=Aneityum Ha.=Hawaiian My.=Malay
Tah.=Tahiti Ef.=Efate
Ma.=Maori
Pa.=Paama
To.=Tonga Er.=Eromanga Mg.=Malagasy Sa=Samoan
Ta.=Tauna Fi.=Fiji
Ml.=Malekula
Ta. Sa.=Tangoan Santa dd.=Dialects [page 298] sung. This is a
peculiarity of the South Turanian
languages. In Efate we find the letter f. In the
following list I give only the
root of the Korean word, as a rule. The Efate words
form the basis of the
following list and are arranged alphabetically. A, often e or
i,=in, at, to or of: Korean e (에) with the same
meanings excepting the last which in Korean is eui (의). Ab = father:
Korean ab-i or ab-a-ji. [Ma. = pa; My. —
pa; Mg.
=aba]. Afa = to carry a
person on one’s
back: Korean up (업) = to carry a
child on the
back. The f of the Efate becomes p in Korean. In, Efate this
word by metonomy means to carry anything, but its root
signification is the above and identical with the
Korean. [Sa. = fafa, to carry
a person on the back; Mg. = babi, carried on the back;
Fi. = vava, to carry on
the back]. Afaru = wing;
Korean p’ul-p’ul, to flutter. The f
and r of Efate change to their corresponding letters p
and 1 in Korean. [Tidore
== fila-fila; Torres Id. = peri-peri; = ma-bur]. Aga = to, that
to (often used as possessive
particle); Korean E-ge (에게) or Eui-ge (의게), to, also
used to denote possession as in the phrase 나의게잇소 na-eui-ge
is-so = I have (lit. is
to me).] Al-o = An
inclosure, inside―hence belly; Korean an,
= inside. In many of the Turanian languages the
letters 1, n and r are very
weak and often interchangeable. In Korean there is but
one letter for 1 and r
and it is frequently pronounced n. [Sa. = alo, belly,
inside; Ha. = alo,
belly]. Alo-alo =
spotted or marked; Korean = arung-arung,
streaked. Here the letters r and 1 are interchanged. Amo-amo = to be
soft or smooth; Korean = ham-ham,
smooth. [Sa. ma-ma, smooth or clean; Tah. = ma-ma,
clean; To. and Ma. = ma,
clean (in the sense of smooth).] Ani-na = son or
daughter: Korean = na, to be born,
and nani = which has been born. [My.=anak; Mg. =
anaka; My. = kanak.] [page
299] Anu = I; Korean
= na. [Ef. dd. anu, enu. An. =
aiuyak; Epi. =nagku; Ta. Sa. = enau; My. = ana; Papuan =;
nan.] Ata = to know:
Korean = al, to know. The Korean l
often has the hard l sound called the cerebral l which
is a close approximation
to d. So much so in fact that foreigners have
frequently pronounced the Korean
word 어리 as idi. Ba = to rain:
Korean = pi. It should be remembered
that the Efate b is both b and p. [Epi-=mboba; Ta. =
ufu.] Ba = to go, to
tread: Korean = palp, to tread upon.
[Fi. =
va-ca.] Babu = cheek (dd. = bamu): Korean
= byam, cheek. [My. = pipi; Tah. =
papa.] Bago-bacro=crooked:
Korean kubul-kubul. We may have
here a case of the transference of consonants, the b
and g of the Efate becoming
k and b in Korean. This is mere change of position and
is a common phenomenon
in the growth of language. Bagota = to buy
(lit. to separate): Korean = pak-ku
to buy (lit to change). Here we have the same derived
idea of buying from the
idea of separating, changing or exchanging. Both refer
to barter. Baka = a barrier
or fence: Korean = mak,to stop up,
obstruct. Here the Efate b seems to have changed to
its corresponding nasal m
in Korean. [Ha. = pa, a fence; Ma. = pa, to block up
or obstruct.] Balo = to wash
(by rubbing): Korean = bal-la, to
wash clothes. [Sa. = fufulu, to rut, to wash.] Bani = to act
violently, to take away property
violently: Korean = to seize, take away violently. Bolo = work:
Korean = po-ri, work. The b and l
become p and r in Korean. Be = to be
great, to extend: Korean = pu, to swell,
enlarge. Bila=to shine:
Korean-pul, fire. [Sa. = pula, to
shine] Bile = to be
quick: Korean=balli, quickly; often
reduplicated in Korean to balli balli = hurry! [Ef.
dd. = bel-bel] The Ef. also
has bili-bili to be quick. [page 300] Bite=to cut:
Korean = pi, to cut. [My.=potong, to
cut, in connection with which see Korean pu of
puajinta = to cut. Bor-ia=to break:
Korean = puru-jita, to break off. Bu=to see:
Korean = po, to see. Bu = a bundle:
Korean = po, a cloth wrap. [Fi.
=vau] Bua=to divide,
cut open: Korean = puu-jita to be
cut. Bua=to be empty:
Korean=pui-ta, to be empty. Buele = to be
lost: Korean = ilhu-purita, to lose.
The similarity comes out better in the My. = il-ang,
to lose. The root in each
case is in the syllable il. Buka=to be
filled: Korean = pu, to swell, to be
distended. Buma=to blossom:
Korean =piu, to blossom. [Ml. =
pug, to blossom: Sa. = fuga, flowers. My. =bunga,
blossoms; Mg. = vony, flower] Bur-ia = to make
a fire: Korean = pul, fire. Busi = to blow:
Korean =pu, to blow. [Tah. = puha,
to blow; Ha, = puhi, to blow; E = in, on:
Korean = e, to, at, in. [Sa. = i, in,
at, with, to, for, on, on account of, concerning. (The
K. has most of these
meanings); Ma. = i, of; Fi. = e or i, with. ] Ei = yes: Korean
= nye, Yes. [Mg. = ey; Sa. = e] Eka = a
relative: Korean = ilga a relative. Elo (dd. alo) =
sun: Korea = nal, sun. Emai==far:
Korean = mo, far. [Sa. = mas, far] Enu = I: Korean
= na, I. (Ef. dd. = anu) Erik = here:
Korean = iri, here. Fasi = tread
upon: Korean = palp, to tread upon. Fira = to pray:
Korean = pil, to pray. [Tah. =
pure, to pray Ga = 3rd pers.
sing. he, she or it: Korean keu,
commonly, used in denoting the 3rd pers. sing. Lit.
that one.] Gi ki = to:
Korean = ke, to (only used in
connection with human beings). [page 301] Go = and: Korean
= ko, and. [Ml. = ga. ka and ko:
Fi. =ka: Goba = to cut:
Korean: =k’al, knife，[Mg.=kafa, cut] Gko or Goko = to
cut: Korean = gak，to cut. Gore = nose:
Korean=k’o, nose. [Fi. ucu; Ma, = ihu]
I = this: Korean = I. this I-gin = here:
Korean =겠 iri, here. [Sa.
=i’inei; Fut. = ikunei] In = this:
Korean = i, this. [Mg. = iny, this; My.
= ini. this] Inin = here:
Korean=iri, here. Ita = come, come
now: Korean = etta, here! Ka = there
(near): Korean = keu, that (near): [My.
= ik: ika, iku, this，that: Ta Sa. = aki, ake, this] Kabe = a crab.
Korean =kue，crab. Kaf = to be
bent: Korean = kubul-kubul, Crooked,
bent [Ma. =kapu, curly] Kalumi = spider:
Korean =komi,
spider. Kami = to seize,
grip: Korean = chap, to seize. Kam-kam =
scissors: Korean = kawi, scissors. [My. =
cubi: Ja. = juwit, to
nip, pinch; Ha. = umiki, to pinch. Fi. = gamu, to
take with pincers; Ef. agau = tongs,
nippers.] Kar-ia = to
scratch, scrape: Korean = kariawa, to
itch, and also; Kars-Karoa =
itchy, scratchy: Korean kariuwa. itchy Kasau = branch:
Korean = kaji, branch Kata = a thing:
Korean = kut, thing. [Fi, = ka, thing] Ke = this:
Korean = keu, that. Kei=this, that
(near): Korean =keu, that. (near) Ki-nau = I:
Korean = na, I. [dd. anu or enu = I,
also nau= I, An. = ainyak,
I; Epi.=nagku; Ta Sa. = enau• My. = aku.] Kita = to
divine: Korean = kut, ceremony of
exorcism. [Ma. = kite, discover, foresee, divine] (To be
concluded). [page
302] W.
Du Flon Hutchison. At six o’clock
on the the morning of the 23rd of
July 1901 Mr. Hutchison succumbed to an acute attack
of uraemia. He had been
ailing for some little time but the end was a sad
surprise to his many friends. Mr. Hutchison
first came to the East under
appointment from the British Government to teach in a
school in Hongkong. He
carried certificates of the highest character showing
that he was a properly
qualified teacher. For a time he acted as deputy
post-master in Hongkong. When
Baron von Mollendorff came to Korea he selected Mr.
Hutchison to attend him as
his private secretary. This was in 1883. When von
Mollendorff left in 1885 and H. F. Merrill
became Chief of Customs, Mr. Hutchison became his
secretary until sent to
Chemulpo to help Mr. A. B. Stripling who was
Commissioner at that port. After
Mr. Stripling’s resignation in 1885 Mr. Hutchison
continued a short time in the
customs but finally left the service and through Yuan
Shei-ki, who was Chinese
Minister in Seoul, secured a position as teacher in an
English Language School
in Formosa. After some years of successful work at
that point he was granted
leave of absence to go home on furlough and the school
was discontinued. In 1892 he
returned to Korea and was appointed, by
the Government, teacher in a naval school on the
island of Kang-wha but after
the resignation of Mr. Bunker from the Government
English School in Seoul Mr.
Hutchison was transferred to the capital where he
served six or seven years in
the English School. About two years before his death
he severed his connection
with the Government and entered the service of The
Eastern Pioneer Company,
better known as The English Mining Co., as their Seoul
agent. This position he
held up to the time of his demise. He was a man of
great intellectual attainments and
of generous instincts. His cordial handshake will be
sadly missed by his wide
circle of friends. [page 303] Odds
and Ends. Substitute
for Vaccination. In
the days of King Kong-min of the Ko-ryu dynasty a
woman married and bore
a son, Sin Sung-gyum, who later became prime minister.
She married a second
time and bore a son Pok Chi-gyum and he also became
prime minister. She married
again and bore a son Pa Hang-gyum and he also became
prime minister. The
greatest of these three was Sin Sung-gyum who, when
the barbarians pressed the
King to desperation and forced a surrender, personated
the king and went out to
the enemy and was killed. The King escaped. His
descendant of the eleventh
generation was Sin Suk who sickened and died of
smallpox. But three days later
he appeared again as well as ever. Being questioned as
to his post mortem
experiences he averred that his illustrious ancestor
came with a host of
followers and arraigned the smallpox imp before the
bar of justice and demanded
why it had attacked his only living descendant. The
imp was found guilty and
had to send his victim back to earth; all of which
shows that if we want to
live free from the ills that flesh is heir to we must
take particular pains
with our ancestors. Could
not Bell the Cat. The
little village of Po-gang on the bank of the
Han river about three miles from Seoul claims the
distinction of being the only
village or town in the country that is quite safe from
cholera. The denizens of
this quiet village point to the hill above them and
say it is shaped like a cat’s
back. Now every one knows that cramps in the legs,
that attend cholera in its
first stages, are due to the cholera “rats” which
enter at the feet and force
their way up through the tissues of the legs. How else
should these horrible
wrenching pains arise? But living on the cat’s back
makes them safe from these
rats. If, as is sometimes said, fear adds greatly to
the danger of taking this
disease, then it may be that their belief in the story
adds to their safety
since they surely feel quite safe. [page 3042] Question
and Answer. (13) Answer. We
have received two answers which are
practically identical—namely, that this insect is the
ant-lion or myrmeleon
formicarius. One correspondent calls attention to the
fact that it does not suck
the blood of the ant, as the ant has no blood, but it
sucks the fluids of the
body which take the place of blood. Another
correspondent says “it belongs to
the order of neurpotera. The insect is similar in
appearance to the dragon-fly,
though the latter belongs to a different order. The
animal is found in Europe,
too, also in India where I often counted eight or ten
holes to the square foot.” (14) Question.
Can you give us a list of Korean
weights and measures? Answer. In the
following list we give the
Sinico-Korean terms and native terms as well. The
latter are in brackets. The
English equivalents are approximate only. This is by
no means a complete
tabulation but we invite further contributions to this
important topic. We do
not give the land measure here as it is such a large
subject that it demands a
separate article by itself. NATIVE
COPPER CASH. I nyang, 两 a hundred cash
=
10 chon 錢 (ton) I chon (ton)
ten cash = 10 p’un, 分,* I p’un, one
cash =
10 yi 厘 *The
cash used in Seoul are five cash pieces making only
two to the chon or
ton. MODERN
COINAGE. I wun, 元 , dollar
= 10 kak, 角. I kak, dime (not
coined now)
= 2 pak-tong, 白銅， I pak-tong,
nickel
=
5 tong-jon, 銅錢, I tong-jon, cent
= 5
yup 葉, cash [page 305] TIME
(OLD STYLE). I nyun, 年,(ha), year
=
12 wul, 月, (tal) I wul, (tal)
month
= 30 il, 曰 , (nal) I il, (nal) day
= 12 si 時 I si, two h urs
= 10 pun, 分, 12 minutes The Koreans who
have come in contact with
westerners use our divisions of time calling them
respectively year = ha. month
= tal, day = nal, hour =: si, minute = pun， second = ch’o,
quarter-hour = kak. WEIGHT. I t’oe= 3732
lbs.
= 2800 keun 斤 I in, 引,40 lbs.
=
30 keun I keun, catty,
1/3 lb. = 16
nyang 両 I nyang, 1 1/3
oz.
=
10 chon, 錢, I chon, 64
grains, about. LINEAR MEASURE. I chu ch’un 周天 celestial
circumference] =
360 to, 度 I to, degree,
=
200 yi 里 I yi, = three
tenths mile = 180 chang 丈 (kil) I chang (kil)
stature, 9 ft
=
2 po 步 (ku-reum) I po, pace, 4
1/2 ft.
= 5 ch’uk 尺(cha) I cha, about a
foot = 10
chon, 寸 (ch’i) I chon, an inch
=
10
p’un, 分，= 1/10 inch. SQUARE
MEASURE. 1 pang yi 方, surface, 2,430,000 sq. ft.]
= 500 myo 畝 (pat tu-duk) I kyung, 頃, one day’s [plowing
= 100 myo 1 myo about 4860
sq. ft.
=
10 pun 分 I pun about 486
sq. ft.
= 6 pang-jang 方丈 I pang-jang, square, stature, 81 sq.
ft.]
=
4 pang-po 方步 [page 306] I pang-po about
20 sq. ft.
=
25 pang-ch’uk
方尺 I pang-ch’uk not
quite a. sq. ft. ]
=
100 pang-ch’on 1 pang-ch’on
about 1 sq. in. SPHERICAL
MEASURE. I kwun 圏 circle
= 360 to I whan 圜 ball = 12 Kung
宮 I wun 圓 sphere = 4
sa-sang-han I kung circuit =
30 to I sang 象 quadrant
= 90 to I to degree = 60
pun 分 I pun minute of
circle GRAIN
MEASURE. I suk, 石, (sum), bag =
10 tu, 斗, (mal) I tu, about 15
qt. = 10 seung, 升 (toe) I seung, 1 1/2
qt.
=
10 hap, 合,(hop) I hap, handful =
10 chak, 勺. I chak = 10 myo,
秒 Editorial
Comment The Kobe
Chronicle thinks that the editorial in the Korea Review for June was “apparently
written by a missionary.” In
fact, such is not the case. The Chronicle will be
pained to learn that there
are a few people in the Far East outside of
missionaries who are thoroughly in
sympathy with the aims and methods of Christian
Missions. As the Japan
Gazette recently remarked, there are
various kinds of criticism, legitimate and otherwise.
We have never said a word
against fair criticism, nor shall we. What we do
object to is wholesale
condemnation of missionaries simply because thy are
missionaries, which is too
much the fashion of the East. No one could object to
an honest criticism of the
value of mission work but that is a very different
thing from [page
307]
imputing to missionaries unworthy motives for
engaging in the work. We might for instance argue
against the present banking
system of the United States but that is different from
claiming that cashiers
in these banks obtain their positions for the purpose
of defaulting, simply
because there is an occasional defalcation. A prominent
foreign resident in the East recently
remarked in public that every missionary ought to be
hung on a tree and prodded
with sharp sticks. If this is the attitude of the Kobe Chronicle, it is evident that
argument is out of the question.
It is this attitude that is so fashionable among a
certain considerable number
of people in the East. and tourists are quick to fall
into line. Not that it
will do any permanent harm but that the unfairness of
it, the absence of the
Anglo-Saxon spirit of fair play, is so painfully
evident, and so dis-
creditable to those who are otherwise pleasant people. The Kobe
Chronicle has cited the “confessions” of
missionaries in China. Those confessions were that
when hundreds of native
converts were starving in the midst of those who had
despoiled them, and who
were consequently sure to be visited by the stern hand
of law, the missionaries
suggested that the marauders purchase partial immunity
from the law’s penalty
by giving toward the temporary support of their
victims. Where houses had been
deserted the converts were allowed to appropriate the
property temporarily,
keeping careful account of all property so taken, with
a view to future
payment. In all this there was nothing unchristian. A
Roman magistrate was
allowed to purchase exemption from the punishment, due
to his having scourged a
Roman citizen un- condemned, by coming and escorting
St. Paul from the common
jail. Neither the Kobe Chronicle nor any one else dare
affirm that they have
evidence to prove that the missionaries were actuated
by the desire for
personal aggrandizement or even by the desire to give
the converts an
opportunity to retaliate upon their depredators. It
was simply to keep the life
in them till the sharp crisis was over and means could
be found for their
support. We reaffirm our
belief that as a rule these extreme
critics of Christian Missions know neither the men,
the methods nor the results
which they so lightly condemn. Let them make as [page 308] exhaustive a
study of Christian Missions as the
Church has made of the demoralizing effect of public
bars opium dens, ordinary
theaters and music hails. and then if they find
sufficient reason let them
stigmatize missions as strongly as the Church does
drunkenness, and
libertinism. News
Calendar. Trouble is
reported from Ch’u Island off Chul-la
Province between the people and the Roman Catholic
adherents. The former charge
the latter with various acts of oppression. This
trouble probably arose from
the report of the riot in Quelpart. Of course it is
impossible to get an
unbiased account of the matter. It is one of many
charges which have been made
and which the radical antagonism between Christianity
and Confucianism, in
spite of some few superficial similarities, might lead
us to expect. It is generally
reported that His Excellency, A
Pavloff, Russian minister to Korea, will shortly be
transferred to Peking, a
post that will give full scope to his eminent
abilities. The intimate knowledge
which he must have acquired of Korean affairs, will
doubtless be of marked
advantage to him in his new post. The scholars of
Korea are agitating the question of
erecting on the top of O-da mountain in Kang-wun
Province, a tablet
commemorative of the distinguished achievements of the
present reign. Cho
Pyung-sik is the prime mover in the affair and he has
memorialized the Emperor,
asking for Imperial sanction for the undertaking.
Comparing the Korea of today
with the Korea of 1863 it becomes plain that the
erection of such a monument is
not out of place. This period has seen profound
changes in this peninsula, not
the least of which is the attainment of complete
political autonomy and the
consequent metamorphosis of the Kingdom of Cho-sun
into the Empire of Ta-han.
Outside influences may have had much to do with these
changes but they are none
the less real. We shall have occasion later to give
particulars as to the
inscription on this commemorative tablet. The
recrudescence of brigandage in Korea is
assuming [page
309]
serious proportions. The prefectures of Ch’ang-yung,
Kim-ha and Ch’il-wun in the south are so overrun by
robbers that the local
authorities are quite at a loss to deal with them.
Even in open day bands of
thieves enter the market-towns and plunder right and
left. A curious case
of blackmail is charged against
Messrs. Pang and An who entered the house of Min
Sung-sik, an official of the
highest grade, and, representing that they were Roman
Catholics, demanded a
handsome sum of money from him! The reasons for this
demand would carry us back
some years and open up a subject that is best left
untouched. There are more
things in heaven and earth than are comprehended in
occidental philosophy. Suffice
to say that Pang, An & Co. were promptly lodged in
jail. The Chinese
Acting Minister has asked an indemnity
of $6000 for the loss sustained by his countrymen in
the riot of last month. As
the trouble was caused by the Chinese we fail to see
why the Korean government
should pay for their losses. It should teach these
overbearing shopkeepers that
common politeness is necessary to a successful
business career in Seoul.
On June 25th the
town was thrown into a ferment of
excitement over the fact that the wife of one Yang
Yong-suk presented him with
—what shall we say—a pair of triplets? No, that will
hardly do. Well, say a set
of triplets, all boys. Under such circumstances it has
not been infrequent in
the past for the king to send to the proud (?) parents
a bag of pig’s food—a
truly Malthusian argument. Bicycles need
close watching these days. So thought
the Japanese telegraph messenger as he was sending a
message at the Korean
telegraph office. One of the Korean servants was
examining his machine when the
Japanese turned and proceeded to punish him for his
inquisitiveness. The
servant ran away and when the Chusa in charge of the
office said he did not
know the servant’s name the irate son of Ilbon forced
his way into the office
and proceeded to wreak his vengeance on the astonished
Chusa. The Foreign
Office referred the matter to the Japanese Minister
who in turn referred it to
the Japanese Consulate. The Japanese authorities said
the bicycle had been
injured and so the matter was dropped. The question [page 310] still remains
as to why the Chusa should have been
beaten. The argument would seem to be: If you can’t
beat the right man beat the
first one you meet. The Government
seems to have taken the position
that only permission to cultivate the soil on Wul-mi
or Roze Island was sold to
the Japanese. It is said that the Government has
collected the sum of $16,000
from those who wrongfully granted this permission and
sent it to the Japanese
Legation to buy back the barley which the people of
the island raised. As yet there is
nothing definite to report
concerning the French loan. Many believe that the
terms of the loan are not
advantageous enough to attract the requisite capital;
in other words that the
Yunnan Company or syndicate negotiated the terms of
the loan without knowing
before-hand just where the money was to come from.
Others believe that the loan
will be carried through successfully. We can hardly
give credence to the report
that the syndicate has secured $650,000 of the total
amount and that one half
of it goes to the syndicate as commission and the rest
to a few Koreans who
have been active in pushing the matter through. If
true it means of course that
all the money will be forthcoming, for the syndicate
could not receive the
$325,000 commission unless the whole matter were
carried through to a
successful termination. It gives
pleasure to all United States citizens in
Korea to learn that Hon. H. N. Allen has been raised
to the position of Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the
Empire of Ta-han. Some important
changes have been made in the
personnel of the Custom’s staff in the different ports
of Korea. J. L.
Chalmers, Esq., has been appointed to the
Vice-Commissioner-ship at Seoul; E.
Laporte, Esq., to the commissionership at Chemulpo and
W. McC. Osborne, Esq.,
to the commissioner-ship at Fusan. According to a
recent count the Japanese citizens
in Korea number as follows: Chemulpo 4432, Seoul 2366,
Won-san 1482, Mokpo 896，Kunsan 486, Chinnampo 396, Masam-po 251,
Pyeng-yang 170, Sung-jin 51. This
makes 10530 exclusion of Fusan where there are some
6000, making a total of
nearly 17000. [page
311] On July 5th a
telegram from Kang-gye on the Yalu
River announced that a party of 600 Chinese bandits
were crossing the river
into Korean territory and that the border guard and
the tiger hunters were
massing to oppose them. On the following day the
Colonel of the Eui-ju garrison
started for the north with 600 rifles and 50000 rounds
of ammunition. We do not know
where Mr. Yi Yong-ik received his
military training but he is Colonel of the Third Seoul
Regiment. In this
capacity he severely criticised the rifles brought
from Japan last March
stating that they were dangerous for the soldiers. The
local Japanese paper
commented sharply on this action with the result,
apparently, that the rifles
which had been taken away from the troops were given
back into their hands. In answer to the
demand for the Chinese Acting
Minister for an indemnity of $6000 for the losses
sustained by the Chinese
merchants in the recent disturbance near Chong-no the
Government replies that
it sees no reason for paying this money as the
injuries were mutual. It does
not grant that the Koreans caused the disturbance. The lack of
rain in the three central western provinces of Korea
caused great uneasiness.
On the 5th inst. the high officials went to the Ta-myo
or Ancestral Tablet
House and sacrificed for the fifth time and prayed for
rain. Since then this
section has enjoyed moderate showers but not nearly
enough to fill the rice
fields. Min Yong-ju
whose name has been mentioned in
connection with the sale of Roze Island was again
arrested on that same charge
and on the 8th inst. he was confined in the common
prison. Ku Yung-jo, Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, after examining the
prisoner reported that he was
guilty (1) of selling the island without authority (2)
of deceiving His Majesty
(3) of insulting the Judge. He was severely beaten and
confessed his fault and
offered to pay $40,000 to make good the wrong he had
done. For his purpose he
is said to be parting with some of his valuable real
estate. The Koreans are
somewhat disturbed by the rumor
that the Korean political refugees in Japan are
attempting to make their way
back to Korea on Japanese men-of-war. For this cause
an unusual member of
detectives have been employed [page 312] by the
Government to keep an eye on all suspicious
characters. On July 5th
the father of one of these refugees, Sin Eung-heui,
was arrested The reason for
this is not known. Medals have been
presented to the captains of the
two French men-of-war which conveyed the Korean
officers and troops to Quelpart
at the time of the recent disturbance there. On July 11th
telegraphic advices from various parts
of the country showed that in spite of the occasional
showers there was hardly
enough water to “wet the dirt.” The rainy season is
unusually late in breaking
and the signs of the times would indicate a short crop
of rice. On the evening
of the 14th inst. the French
Minister gave a banquet and a reception at the
Legation. The occasion was the
anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. A Korean by the
name of Mr. Ta Wun-il has received
an appointment as professor in the Russian Oriental
Language School in
Vladivostock. He has already started for his new post.
Native papers
state that the Chief Commissioner of Customs
informed the Government that some thirty unlicensed
Chinese have been fishing
in Korean waters adjacent to Chemulpo. Four of their
boats were seized and
their owners mulcted in the sum of $50.00; also fish
to the value of $350.00
which they had caught were confiscated. The Korean
Minister to France, Kim Man-su, arrived
at his post on the 15th of July and presented his
credentials on the following
day. On account of
the continued drought the prospects
for a rice crop are extremely poor. Never during the
past decade and a half has
there been such a lack of water. It seems to be about
the same all over the
country although there are one or two districts where
heavy local showers have
given an excess of water. In view of the assured
scarcity and consequent rise
in price the rice merchants have already begun to
charge famine prices. In a
day or two the price went up over a hundred cash, and
still the retail
merchants are selling enormous quantities. The
Government has interfered and
has arrested some of the retailers of rice.
Consequently the price has fallen a
little. It went up from 400 cash to 700 but has fallen
to 500. [page
313] The report comes
from Ham-gyung province that on
June 17th 100 Chinese bandits crossed the Yalu near
Sam-su each carrying a
sword and a gun. The local authorities immediately
called in all the tiger
hunters that were available to resist the inroad. On
the following day a
written notice came from the Chinese saving “The
Boxers desired to preserve the
integrity of the country, and protect it from
foreigners. They fought with the
foreigners and were beaten and driven back. Now they
are congregating at Kirin
and they ask the people of Sam-su to subscribe 4000
oz. of silver to the cause.” On the 22nd
hundreds of Chinese raided the town of
Po-sung-i blowing trumpets and waving banners. They
burned most of the houses. The Magistrate
of Kap-san heard of these events and
so he gathered what soldiers and hunters he could and
pursued the retreating
raiders, killing thirty of them. The Chinese again
retaliated by crossing the
river at another point and burning seventy-five
houses. According to the
native papers the Russian Minister
has requested the Government to order the magistrates
along the coast in the
north to give all necessary assistance to the Russian
gunboats which are to be
sent to survey the approaches to the Yalu river and
adjacent waters. Sacrifices are
being offered all over the country
for the purpose of bringing rain. Several bags of
nickels and a number of pigs
were thrown into the Han River for this same purpose.
His Majesty has been
assured by the high officials of the land that there
will be no scarcity but
one of them has privately informed him of the
desperate condition of things. As
yet His Majesty has not sacrificed in person. Lady Om, a few
days ago, ordered that ten li square
of land in Chul-la Do be sequestered for the benefit
of a certain monastery. Rev. B.
Scranton, M. D. and Mrs. M. F. Scranton are
leaving Seoul on the 26th bound for the United States.
We hope it is Mrs.
Scranton’s intention to return. She will be missed by
a large circle of friends
who have looked up to her as one of the most energetic
and devoted members of
the missionary community. We wish that she might
remain here [page
314]
many years more. The best wishes of the entire
community go with her. Of course we expect to see them
back in due time. It is reported
that the Chief of Police, Yi Keun-t’ak,
caused the arrest of two men, Han and Pak, the charge
is unspecified; but it
must have been a grave one, for it cost them $50,000
to prove their innocence. On July 24th the
Foreign Office by order of His
Majesty informed the Foreign Representatives that the
Government found it
necessary to prohibit the export of rice for one month
in accordance with the
terms of the treaties and that instructions to this
effect had been sent to the
Superintendents of Trade at the different ports.
According to the present
outlook such action is eminently praiseworthy. Sung Ki-un the
Vice-Minister of the Household
Department and: a Japanese Ta Kang-t’ak have been
appointed superintendents of the
Su-ryun-gwa or “Water-wheel Bureau” or perhaps better
Bureau of Irrigation. A combined
effort it being made by the native
incumbents of all the different Government positions,
to have their salaries
increased, their excuse being that under the changed
conditions and the
enhanced value of rice it is impossible for them to
live on their present
salaries. By order of the
French Government the French
Minister in Seoul has requested the Government to make
out a schedule of Korean
weights and measures and transmit it to him. The
Foreign Office referred the
matter to the Department of Agriculture Commerce and
Public Works. Besides ordering
the rice merchants not to charge
more than twenty-four cents for a measure of rice the
police authorities sent
out inspectors to warn the people not to buy more than
two measures at a time.
Of course if the price is kept down, by pressure there
will be temptation to
buy heavily on speculation. In order to prevent this,
it seems, the people are
warned to buy only two measures at a time. It is said
that the store-houses
near the river are overflowing with last year’s rice
but that the owners are
hoarding it rigorously in view of the expected rise in
price. It will be
interesting to note whether the Government will be
able to cope [page
315] with the natural
cupidity of the average Korean
merchant and make him disgorge at a reasonable rate.
We hope it will succeed.
If it does, it will prove that there are times when
paternalism is of distinct
value. There can he no
fear of an actual famine in Korea
for there is enough rice in the country to tide over
one year’s failure of
crop. Besides which, the enormous barley crop that has
just been harvested
would go far toward preventing any serious shortage.
Of course in such a
country as this there are always some who live on the
verge of starvation.
These will suffer and there will be deaths from
starvation but there appears to
be no danger of a genuine famine. We are informed
that all the difficulties which lay
in the way of carrying out the plan for a public
system of waterworks in the
city of Seoul have been overcome. The finances of the
venture have been
arranged and the workmen are on their way from America
to begin the actual
construction of the works. While it may be true that
money is not always wisely
spent in Korea such a radical innovation as this,
which is to the distinct
advantage of the common people, counterbalances many
minor indiscretions and
indicates that the Government is determined even at
enormous cost to place the
Capital on a sanitary equality with the best regulated
cities of the Far East. The putting in
of electric lights is proceeding
rapidly; 1500 sixteen candle-power lights are being
put into the palace and a
half dozen arc lights. The electric light plant at the
East Gate is completed
and in working order. When this work is finished and
Seoul is supplied with
electricity the Seoul Electric Company, or Colbran,
Bostwick & Co., will
have rendered a great service to the Capital. Good
transportation, good water
supply, good lights—these are achievements that any
company may well be proud
of. We note with
pleasure the arrival, of J. L. Smith,
Esq. the new Secretary of the British Legation. During the mouth
of July the foreign population of
Seoul has been increased by the birth of a son to Mrs.
H. B. Hulbert, a
daughter to Rev. and Mrs. Moore and a son to Dr. and
Mrs. C. C. Vinton. [page
316] The syndicate
that has in hand the building of the
Seoul-Fusan Railway are ready to begin the
construction of the line. According
to the terms of the concession the Korean Government
is to furnish the land
free of cost. It is desired to begin with that section
of the road which lies
between Seoul and Su-wun a matter of twenty miles. But
at present the
Government cannot put down the money to buy the land,
which will cost some
$200,000. For thus reason it is said the Railway Co.
will advance the money and
proceed with the purchase of land and building of the
road-bed. [page
317] KOREAN
HISTORY. While Ko-gu-ryu
was staggering under the terrible
reverses inflicted by the Chinese, events of interest
were taking place in the
south. The kingdom of T’am-na on the island of
Quelpart had always been a
dependency of Pak-je, but now found it necessary to
transfer her allegiance to
Sil-la. The king of T’am-na at that time was To-dong
Eum-yul. The
mischief-maker, Pok-sin, was again in the
field. Now that he was relieved of pressure he came
back to the charge and took
Ung-jin from the Chinese. At the earnest request of
the governor the Emperor
sent Gen. Son In-sa with a small army to aid in
putting down this dangerous
malcontent. Pok-sin was obliged to retire to Chin-hyun
where he fortified
himself strongly. Success seems to have turned his
head for he began to carry
himself so proudly that his followers arose and put
him to death. In 663 the
Emperor conferred upon the king of
Sil-la the title of Ta-do-dok of Kye-rim. It appears that
when the Chinese retired from
before P’yung-yang and left the Sil-la forces in such
a delicate position, some
of the Chinese were allowed to remain there on the
plea that if all were
removed it would invite an outbreak of the Pak-je
revolutionists. Now as the
year 663 opened the Emperor reinforced them by a
powerful army under Gen. Son
In-sa. Sil-la also sent the flower of her army under
command of twenty-eight
generals to join the Chinese before P’yung-yang. But
the plan of operations was
changed. It was decided to move southward and complete
the subjugation of the
troublesome Pak-je patriots and their Japanese allies.
The combined Chinese and
Sil-la armies marched toward Chu-ryu fortress where
the revolutionists were
supposed to be intrenched. On their way they met the
Japanese disembarking, on
the banks of the Pak River. They were put to flight
and their boats were
burned. The march was continued and the fortress was
duly invested. It fell
straightway and the pretender to the Sil-la throne was
captured. This was
followed [page
318]
by the surrender of all the revolutionists and
their Japanese friends. The last fortress to fall was
that of Im-jon, now
Ta-heung, after a desperate struggle. The war was now
at an end. The dead were buried, a
census was taken of the people in the Pak-je capital,
aid was given to the
poor, and the people were encouraged to return at
their peaceful avocations.
Expressions of satisfaction at what seemed to be the
return of peace were heard
on all sides. Gen. Yu In-gwe,
who had been left in charge of the
Chinese troops before P’yung-yang when the Emperor
ordered the retreat, now
sent word to the Chinese capital that as his soldiers
had been in the peninsula
two years without seeing home he feared they might
mutiny. He received orders
to return to China with his men but he decided to wait
till the grain that his
men had sown should ripen. The Emperor then appointed
Pu-yu Yung the brother of
the last king of Pak-je to the position of governor of
all the territory
formerly embraced in Pak-je. He received the title of
Ta-do-dok of Ung-jin, and
was urged by the Emperor to govern well. This was in
664. Sil-la took
advantage of the timely cessation of
hostilities to send to the Chinese camp in Pak-je and
have some of her men take
lessons in music from the musicians there. They also
took copies of the dishes,
clothes and customs of the Chinese. All these were
imitated by the king and his
court. Buddhism received a sudden check in Sil-la at
this time for the king
took the surest way to crush it out, namely, by
forbidding any one to give the
monks either money of rice. In 665 Gen. Yu
In-wun received orders from China to
return to that country but before doing so he
performed a significant act. He
made the king of Sil-la and the new Ta-do-dok of
Ung-jin take an oath in the
blood of a white horse that they would fight no more.
This was done at the
fortress of Ch’i-ri San and the slaughtered animal was
buried there under the
oath altar. A written copy of the oath was placed in
the ancestral temple of
the kings of Sil-la. After Gen. Yu’s return to China
he was followed by Gen. Yu
In-gwe who took with him envoys from Sil-la, Pak-je,
T’am-na and Japan. To
render the compact of peace more binding still the
Emper- [page
319]
of sacrificed to heaven in the presence of these
envoys. It is said, however, that the new ruler in
Pak-je stood in such fear of
Sil-la that he fled back to China soon after this. The last act in
the tragedy of Ko-gu-ryu opens with
the death of her iron chancellor, Hap So-mun. It was
his genius that had kept
the armies in the field; it was his faith in her
ultimate victory that had kept
the general courage up. When he was laid in his grave
the only thing that
Ko-gu-ryu had to fall back upon was the energy of
despair. It was her
misfortune that Hap So-mun left two sons each of whom
possessed a full share of
his father’s ferocity and impatience of restraint,
Nam-sang, the elder, assumed
his father’s position as Prime Minister, but while he
was away in the country
attending to some business his brother, Nam-gun,
seized his place. Nam-sang
fled to the Yalu River and putting himself at the head
of the Mal-gal and Ku-ran
tribes went over with them to the Emperor’s side. Thus
by Nam-gun’s treachery
to his brother, Ko-gu-ryu was deprived of her one
great ally, and gained an
implacable enemy in Nam-sang. The Emperor made the
latter Governor-general of
Liao-tung and he began welding the wild tribes into an
instrument for revenge.
Then the Chinese forces appeared and together they
went to the feast of death;
and even as they were corning news reached them that
the Ko-gu-ryu general, Yun
Chun-t’o, had surrendered to Sil-la and turned over to
her twelve of Ko-gu-ryu’s
border forts. It was not till the next year that the
Chinese crossed the Liao
and fell upon the Ko-gu-ryu outposts. The Chinese
general had told his men that
the strategic point was the fortress Sin-sung and that
its capture meant the
speedy capitulation of all the rest. Sin-sung was
therefore besieged and the
struggle began. The commandant was loyal and wished to
defend it to the death
but his men thought otherwise, and they bound him and
surrendered. Then sixteen
other forts speedily followed the example. Gen. Kogan
hastened forward and engaged the
Kogu-ryu forces at Keum-san and won a decided victory,
while at the same time
Gen. Sul-In gwi was reducing the fortresses of Nam-so,
Mok-ju and Ch’ang-am,
after which he was joined by the Mal-gal forces under
the renegade Nam-sang.
Another Chinese general, Wun Man-gyung, now sent a
boastful letter to the [page
320] Ko-gu-ryu capital saying, “Look out now
for the
defenses of that precious Am-nok River of yours.” The
answer came grimly back, “We
will do so.” And they did it so well that not a
Chinese soldier set foot on the
either side during that yean The Emperor was enraged
at this seeming
incompetence and banished the boastful general to
Yong-nam. A message had
already been sent to Sil-la ordering her to throw her
army into Ko-gu-ryu and
for the Chinese generals Yu In-wun and Kim In-t’a to
meet them before P’yung-yang.
These two generals were in Pak-je at the time. In 668
everything beyond the Yalu had fallen into
the hands of the Chinese; even Pu-yu Fortress of
ancient fame had been taken by
Gen. Sul In-gwi. The Emperor sent a messenger asking
“Can you take Ko-gu-ryu?”
The answer went back, “Yes, we must take her. Prophecy
says that after 700
years Ko-gu-ryu shall fall and that eighty shall cause
her overthrow. The 700
years have passed and now Gen. Yi Jok is eighty years
old. He shall be the one
to fulfill the prophecy.” Terrible omens
had been seen in the Ko-gu-ryu
capital. Earthquakes had been felt; foxes had been
seen running through the
streets; the people were in a state of panic. The end
of Ko-gu-ryu was
manifestly near. So tradition says. Nam-gun had sent
50,000 troops to succor Pu-yu
Fortress but in the battle which ensued 30,000 of
these were killed and the
remainder were scattered. Conformably to China’s
demands, Sil-la in the sixth
moon threw her army into Ko-gu-ryu. The great Sil-la
general, Kim Yu-sin was
ill, and so Gen. Kim In-mun was in command with
twenty-eight generals under,
him. While this army was making its way northward the
Chinese under Gen. Yi Jok
in the north took Ta-hang Fortress and focussed all
the troops in his command
upon the defenses of the Yalu. These defenses were
broken through, the river
was crossed and the Chinese advanced 210 li toward the
capital without
opposition. One by one the Ko-gu-ryu forts surrendered
and at last Gen. Kye-pil
Ha-ryuk arrived before the historic city of
P’yong-yang. Gen. Yi Jok arrived
next and finally Gen. Kim In-mun appeared at the head
of the Sil-la army. After an
uninteresting siege of a month the king
sent out [page
321]
Gen. Chon Nam-san and ninety other nobles with a
flag of truce and offered to surrender. But the
chancellor Nam-gun knew what
fate was in store for him, so he made a bold dash at
the besieging army. The
attempt failed and the miserable man put the sword to
his own throat and
expired. The aged general, Yi Jok, took the king and
his two sons, Pong-nam,
and Tong-nam, a number of the officials, many of
Nam-gun’s relatives and a
large company of the people of P’yung-yang and carried
them back to China,
where he was received with evidences of the utmost
favor by the Emperor. The
whole number of captives in the triumphal return of
Gen. Yi Jok is said to have
been 20,000. Ko-gu-ryu’s
lease of life had been 705 years, from
37 B. C. to 668 A. D., during which time she had been
governed by twenty-eighty
kings. Chapter
XIII. Sil-la’s
captives.... Ko-gu-ryu dismembered.... extent of
Sil-la.... she deceives
China.... her encroachments.... rebellion.... the word
Il-bon (Nippon)
adopted.... Sil-la opposed China.... but is
humbled.... again opposes....
Sil-la a military power.... her policy.... the Emperor
nominates a rival
king.... Sil-la pardoned by China.... again makes
trouble.... the Emperor
establishes two kingdoms in the north.... Sil-la’s
northern capital
cremation.... no mention of
Arabs.... China’s interest in Korea wanes....
redistribution of land....
diacritical points.... philological interest....
Pal-ha founded.... Chinese
customs introduced.... Pal-ha’s rapid growth....
omens.... Sil-la’s northern
limits.... casting of a bell.... names of provinces
changed.... Sil-la’s
weakness.... disorder.... examinations.... Buddhism
interdicted.... no evidence
of Korean origin of Japanese Buddhism.... Japanese
history before the 10th
century.... civil wars.... Ch’oe Ch’i-wun....
tradition.... Queen Man’s
profligacy. Immediately upon
the fall of Ko-gu-ryu the Sil-la
forces retired to their own country carrying 7000
captives with them. The king
gave his generals and the soldiers rich presents of
silks and money. China divided
all Ko-gu-ryu into nine provinces in
which there were forty-two large towns and over a
hundred lesser ones of
prefectural rank. In P’yung-yang Gen. Sul In-gwi [page 322] was stationed
with a garrison of 20,000 men. The
various provinces were governed partly by Chinese
governors and partly by
native prefects. The king of
Sil-la was now the only king in the
peninsula and the presumption was that in view of his
loyalty to the Chinese
his kingdom would extend to the Yalu River if not
beyond, but it probably was
not extended at the time further than the middle of
Whang-ha Province of to-day.
The records say that in 669 the three kingdoms were
all consolidated but it did
not occur immediately. It is affirmed that the Chinese
took 38,000 families
from Ko-gu-ryu and colonized Kang-whe in China and
that some were also sent to
San-nam in western China. That Sil-la was expecting a
large extension of
territory is not explicitly stated but it is implied
in the statement that when
a Sil-la envoy went to the Chinese court the Emperor
accused the king of
wanting to possess himself of the whole peninsula, and
threw the envoy into
prison. At the same time he ordered Sil-la to send
bow-makers to China to make
bows that would shoot 1,000 paces. In due time these
arrived but when the bows
were made it was found that they would shoot but
thirty paces. They gave as a
reason for this that it was necessary to obtain the
wood from Sil-la to make
good bows. This was done and still the bows would
shoot but sixty paces. The
bow-makers declared that they did not know the reason
unless it was because the
wood had been hurt by being brought across the water.
This was the beginning of
an estrangement between the Emperor and the king of
Sil-la which resulted in a
state of actual war between the two. Sil-la was
determined to obtain possession of a
larger portion of Ko-gu-ryu than had as yet fallen to
her lot; so she sent
small bodies of troops here and there to take
possession of any districts that
they could lay their hands on. It is probable that
this meant only such
districts as were under native prefects and not those
under direct Chinese
rule. It is probable that Sil-la had acquired
considerable territory in the
north for we are told that the Mal-gal ravaged her
northern border and she sent
troops to drive them back. If China hoped
to rule any portion of Korea without
trouble she must have been speedily disillusionised
for nor sooner had the new
form of government been put in operation [page 323] than a Sil-la
gentleman, Kom Mo-jam, raised an
insurrection in one of the larger magistracies, put
the Chinese prefect to
death and proclaimed An Seung king. He was a member of
a collateral branch of
the royal family. Sil-la seems to have taken it for
granted that the whole
territory was under her supervision for now she sent
an envoy and gave consent
to the founding of this small state in the north which
she deemed would act as
a barrier to the incursions of the northern
barbarians. The Chinese evidently
did not look upon it in this light and a strong force
was sent against the
nascent state; and to such effect that the newly
appointed king fled to Sil-la
for safety. The wheel of fortune was turning again and
Chinese sympathies were
now rather with Pak-je than with Sil-la. It was at this
time, 671, that the term Il-bun
(Nippon) was first used in Korea in connection with
the kingdom of Japan. The relations
between Sil-la and Pak-je were badly
strained. In the following year the Chinese threw a
powerful army into Pak-je
with the evident intention of opposing Sil-la. So the
latter furbished up her
arms and went into the fray. In the great battle which
ensued at the fortress
of Suk-sung 5,000 of the Chinese were killed. Sil-la
was rather frightened at
her own success and when she was called upon to
explain her hostile attitude
toward China she averred that it was all a mistake and
she did not intend to
give up her allegiance to China. This smoothed the
matter over for the time
being, but when, a little later, the Emperor sent
seventy boat loads of rice
for the garrison at P’yung-yang, Sil-la seized the
rice and drowned the crews
of the boats, thus storing up wrath against herself.
The next year she attacked
the fortress of Ko-sang in Pak-je and 30,000 Chinese
advanced to the support of
the Pak-je forces. A collision took place between them
and the Sil-la army in
which the Chinese were very severely handled. This
made the Emperor seriously
consider the question of subduing Sil-la once for all;
He ordered that the
Mal-gal people be summoned to a joint invasion of the
insolent Sil-la and the
result was that seven Sil-la generals were driven back
in turn and 2,000 troops
made prisoners. In this predicament there was nothing
for the king to do but
play the humble suppliant again. The letter to the
Emperor praying for pardon [page
324]
was written by the celebrated scholar Im Gang-su.
But it was not successful, for we find that in the
following year the Chinese
troops in the north joined with the Mai-gal and Ku-ran
tribes in making
reprisals on Sil-la territory. This time however
Sil-la was on the alert and
drove the enemy back with great loss. She also sent a
hundred war boats up the
western coast to look after her interests in the
north. At the same time she
offered amnesty and official positions to Pak-je
nobles who should come over to
her side. We can scarcely
escape the conviction that Sil-la
had now become a military power of no mean dimensions.
Many citizens of
Ko-gu-ryu had come over to her and some of the Pak-je
element that was
disaffected toward the Chinese. All, in fact, who
wanted to keep Korea for the
Koreans and could put aside small prejudices and
jealousies, gathered under the
Sil-la banners as being the last chance of saving the
peninsula from the
octopus grasp of China. Sil-la was willing to be good
friends with China―on her
own terms; namely that China should let her have her
own way in the peninsula,
and that it should not be overrun by officious
generals who considered
themselves superior to the king of the land and so
brought him into contempt
among the people. At this time
there was at the Chinese court a
Sil-la envoy of high rank named Kim In-mun. The
Emperor offered him the throne
of Sil-la, but loyalty to his king made him refuse the
honor. In spite of this
he was proclaimed King of Sil-la and was sent with
three generals to enforce
the claim. That Sil-la was not without power at this
time is shown by the fact
that she proclaimed An-seung King of Pak-je, an act
that would have been impossible
had she not possessed a strong foothold in that
country. The war began
again in earnest. The Chinese general,
Yi Gon-hong, in two fierce encounters, broke the line
of Sil-la defenses and
brought the time-serving king to his knees again. One
can but wonder at the
patience of the Emperor in listening to the humble
petition of this King Mun-mu
who had made these promises time and again but only to
break them as before. He
was, however, forgiven and confirmed again in his
rule. The unfortunate Kim
In-mun whom the Emperor had proclaimed King of Sil-la
was now in a very
delicate posi- [page 325] tion
and he wisely hastened back to China Where he was
compensated for his
disappointment by being made a high official. Sil-la’s actions
were most inconsistent, for having
just saved herself from condign punishment by abject
submission she
nevertheless kept on absorbing Pak-je territory and
reaching after Ko-gu-ryu
territory as well. In view of this the Emperor ordered
the Chinese troops in
the north to unite with the Malgal and Ku-ran forces
and hold themselves in
readiness to move at an hour’s notice. They began
operations by attacking the
Chon-sung Fortress but there the Sil-la forces were
overwhelmingly successful.
It is said that 6,000 heads fell and that Sil-la
captured 30,000 (?) horses.
This is hard to reconcile with the statement of the
records that in the
following year a Sil-la envoy was received at the
Chinese court and presented
the compliments of the king. It seems sure that Sil-la
had now so grown in the
sinews of war that it was not easy for China to handle
her at such long range.
It may be too that the cloud of Empress Wu’s
usurpation had begun to darken the
horizon of Chinese politics and that events at home
absorbed all the attention
of the courts while the army on the border was working
practically on its own
authority. A new kind of
attempt to solve the border question
was made when in 677 the Emperor sent the son of the
captive king of Ko-gu-ryu
to found a little kingdom on the Yalu River. This
might be called the Latter
Ko-gu-ryu even as the Pak-je of that day was called
the Latter Pak-je. At the
same time a son of the last Pak-je king was sent to
found a little kingdom at
Ta-bang in the north. He lived, however, in fear of
the surrounding tribes and
was glad to retire into the little Ko-gu-ryu kingdom
that lay lower down the
stream. The records call this the “last” end of
Pak-je. In 678 Sil-la
made a northern capital at a place
called Puk-wun-ju the capital of Kang-wun Province.
There a fine palace was
erected. The king enquired of his spiritual adviser
whether he had better
change his residence to the new capital but not
receiving sufficient
encouragement he desisted. This monarch died in 681
but before he expired he
said, “Do not waste the public money in building me a
costly mausoleum. Cremate
my body after the manner of the West. This gives us an
interesting clue to
Sil-la’s knowledge of the [page 326] outside world.
If, as some surmise, Arab traders had commercial
intercourse with the people of Sil-la it must have
been about this time or a
little earlier for this was the period of the greatest
expansion of Arabian
commerce. It is possible that the idea of cremation
may have been received from
them although from first to last there is not the
slightest intimation that
Western traders ever visited the coasts of Sil-la. It
is difficult to believe
that, had there been any considerable dealings with
the Arabs, it should not
have been mentioned in the records. The king’s
directions were carried out and his son, Chong-myung,
burned his body on a
great stone by the Eastern Sea and gave the stone the
name “Great King Stone.”
That the Emperor granted investiture to this new king
shows that all the
troubles had been smoothed over. But from this time on
Chinese interest in the
Korean peninsula seems to have died out altogether.
The little kingdom of
Latter Ko-gu-ryu, which the Emperor had established on
the border, no sooner
got on a sound basis than it revolted and the Emperor
had to stamp it out and
banish its King to a distant Chinese province. This,
according to the records,
was the “last” end of Ko-gu-ryu. It occurred in 682 A.
D. Sil-la now held
all the land south of the Ta-dong
River. North of that the country was nominally under
Chinese control but more
likely was without special government. In 685 Sil-la
took in hand the
redistribution of the land and the formation of
provinces and prefectures for
the purpose of consolidating her power throughout the
peninsula. She divided
the territory into nine provinces, making three of the
original Pak-je and
three of that portion of the original Ko-gu-ryu that
had fallen into her hands.
The three provinces corresponding to the original
Sil-la were (1) Su-bul-ju
(the first step in the transformation of the word
Su-ya-bul to Seoul). (2)
Sam-yang-ju, now Yang-san, (3) Ch’ung-ju now Chin-ju.
Those comprising the
original Pak-je were (1) Ung-ch’un-ju in the the
north, (2) Wan-san-ju in the
south-west, (3) Mu-Jin-ju in the south, now Kwang-ju.
Of that portion of
Ko-gu-ryu which Sil-la had acquired she made the three
provinces (1) Han-san-ju,
now Seoul, (2) Mok-yak-ju, now Ch’un-ch’un, (3)
Ha-sa-ju, now Kang-neung. These
nine names [page
327]
represent rather the provincial capitals than the
provinces themselves. Besides these important centers
there were 450
prefectures. Changes followed each other in quick
succession. Former Ko-gu-ryu
officials were given places of trust and honor; the
former mode of salarying
officials, by giving them tracts of land from whose
produce they obtained their
emoluments, was changed, and each received an
allowance of rice according to
his grade; the administration of the state was put on
a solid basis. One of the most
far-reaching and important events
of this reign was the invention of the yi-du, or set
of terminations used in
the margin of Chinese texts to aid the reader in
Koreanizing the syntax of the
Chinese sentence. We must bear in mind that in those
days reading: was as rare
an accomplishment in Sil-la as it was in England in
the days of Chaucer, All
writing was done by the a-jun, who was the exact
counter pare of the “clerk” of
the Middle Ages. The difficulty of construing the
Chinese sentence and using
the right suffixes was so great that Sul-ch’ong, the
son of the king’s favorite
monk, Wun-hyo, attempted a solution of the difficulty.
Making a list of the
endings in common use in the vernacular of Sil-la he
found Chinese characters
to correspond with the sounds of these endings. The
correspondence was of two
kinds; either the name of the Chinese character was
the same as the Sil-la
ending or the Sil-la meaning of the character was the
same as the ending. To
illustrate this let us take the case of the ending
sal-ji, as in ha-sal-ji,
which has since been shortened to ha-ji. Now, in a
Chinese text nothing but the
root idea of the word ha will be given and the reader
must supply the sal-ji
which is the ending. If then some arbitrary signs
could be made to represent
these endings and could be put in the margin it would
simplify the reading of Chinese
in no small degree. It was done in this way. There is
a Chinese character which
the Koreans call pak, Chinese pa, meaning “white.” One
of the Sil-la
definitions of this character is sal-wi-ta. It was the
first syllable of this
word that was used to represent the first syllable of
the ending sal-ji. Notice
that it was not the name of the character that was
used but the Sil-la
equivalent. For the last syllable of the ending
sal-ji, however, the Chinese
character ji is used without reference to its [page 328] Sil-la
equivalent. We find then in the yi-du as
handed down from father to son by the a-jun’s of Korea
a means for discovering
the connection between the Korean vernacular of today
with that of the Sil-la
people. It was indeed a clumsy method, but the genius
of Sul-ch’ong lay in his
discovery of the need of such a system and of the
possibility of making one. It
was a literary event of the greatest significance. It
was the first outcry
against the absurd primitiveness of the Chinese
ideography, a plea for common
sense. It was the first of three great protests which
Korea has made against
the use of the Chinese character. The other two will
be examined as they come
up. This set of endings which Sul-ch’ong invented
became stereotyped and
through all the changes which the vernacular has
passed the yi-du remains today
what it was twelve hundred years ago. Its quaint
sounds are to the Korean
precisely what the stereotyped clerkly terms of
England are to us, as
illustrated in such legal terms as to wit, escheat and
the like. There is an
important corollary to this fact. The invention of the
yi-du indicates that the
study of Chinese was progressing in the peninsula and
this system was invented
to supply a popular demand. It was in the interests of
general education and as
such marks an era in the literary life of the Korean
people. The name of Sul-ch’ong
is one of the most honored in the list of Korean
literary men. The eighth
century opened with the beginning of a
new and important reign for Sil-la. Sung-duk came to
the throne in 702 and was
destined to hold the reins of power for thirty-five
years. From the first, his
relations with China were pleasant. He received envoys
from Japan and returned
the compliment, and his representatives were
everywhere well received. The
twelfth year of his reign beheld the founding of the
kingdom of Pal-ha in the
north. This was an event of great significance to
Sil-la. The Song-mal family
of the Mal-gal group of tribes, under the leadership
of Kul-gul Chung-sung,
moved southward into the peninsula and settled near
the original Ta-bak
Mountain, now Myo-hyang San. There they gathered
together many of the Ko-gu-ryu
people and founded a kingdom, which they called Chin.
It is said this kingdom
was 5,000 li in circumference and that it contained
200,000 houses., The
remnants of the Pu-yu and Ok-ju tribes [page 329] joined them and
a formidable kingdom arose under
the skillful management of Kul-gul Chung-sung. He sent
his son to China as a
hostage and received imperial recognition and the
title of King of Pal-ha. From
that time the word Mal-gal disappears from Korean
history and Pal-ha takes its
place. During the next
few years Sil-la made steady
advance in civilization of the Chinese type. She
imported from China pictures
of Confucius and paid increased attention to that
cult. The water clock was
introduced, the title Hu was given to the Queen, the
custom of approaching the
throne by means of the sang-so or “memorial” was
introduced. Meanwhile the
kingdom of Pal-ha was rapidly
spreading abroad its arms and grasping at everything
in sight. China began to
grow uneasy on this account and we find that in 734 a
Sil-la general, Kim
Yun-jung went to China and joined a Chinese expedition
against the Pal-ha
forces. The latter had not only absorbed much
territory in the north but had
dared to throw troops across the Yellow Sea and had
gained a foothold on the
Shantung promontory. This attempt to chastise her
failed because the season was
so far advanced that the approach of winter interfered
with the progress of the
campaign. The story of the
next century and a half is the
story of Sil-la’s decline and fall. The following is
the list of omens which
tradition cites as being prophetic of that event. A
white rainbow pierced the
sun; the sea turned to blood; hail fell of the size of
hens’ eggs; a monastery
was shaken sixteen times by an earthquake; a cow
brought forth five calves at a
time; two suns arose together; three stars fell and
fought together in the
palace; a tract of land subsided fifty feet and the
hollow filled with blue
black water; a tiger came into the palace; a black fog
covered the land;
famines and plagues were common; a hurricane blew over
two of the palace gates;
a huge boulder rose on end and stood by itself; two
pagodas at a monastery fought
with each other; snow fell in September; at Han-yang
(Seoul) a boulder moved a
hundred paces all by itself; stones fought with each
other; a shower of worms
fell; apricot trees bloomed twice in a year; a
whirlwind started from the grave
of Kim Yu-sin and stopped at the [page 330] grave of Hyuk
Ku-se. These omens were scattered through a series of
years
but to the Korean they all point toward the coming
catastrophe. It was in 735
that the Emperor formally invested
the king of Sil-la with the right to rule as far north
as the banks of the
Ta-dong River which runs by the wall of P’yung-yang.
It was a right he had long
exercised but which had never before been acquiesced
in by China. The custom of
cremating the royal remains, which had been begun by
King Mun-mu, was continued
by his successors and in each case the ashes were
thrown into the sea. The first
mention of the casting of a bell in Korea
was in the year 754 when a bell one and one third the
height of a man was cast.
The records say it weighed 497,581 pounds, which
illustrates the luxuriance of
the oriental imagination. In 757 the names
of the nine provinces were
changed. Su-bul became Sang-ju, Sam-yang became
Yang-ju, Ch’ung-ju became
Kang-ju, Han-san became Han-ju, Ha-sa became Myung-ju,
Ung-chun became Ung-ju,
Wan-san became Chun-ju, Mu-jin became Mu-ju, and
Su-yak (called Mok-yak in the
other list) was changed to Sak-ju, Following hard upon
this came the change of
the name of government offices. As we saw at the
first, Sil-la never had in her the
making of a first class power, circumstances forced
her into the field and
helped her win, and for a short time the enthusiasm of
success made her believe
that she was a military power; but it was an illusion.
She was one of those
states which would flourish under the fostering wing
of some great patron but
as for standing alone and carving out a career for
herself, that was beyond her
power. Only a few years had passed since she had taken
possession of well-nigh
the whole of the peninsula and now we see her torn by
internal dissentions and
so weak that the first man of power who arose and
shook his sword at her doors
made her fall to pieces like a house of cards. Let us
rapidly bring under
review the events of the next century from 780 to 880
and see whether the facts
bear out the statement. First a
conspiracy was aimed at the king and was
led by a courtier named Kim Chi-jong. Another man,
Yang Sang, learned of it and
promptly seized him and put him to death. [page 331] A very
meritorious act one would say; but he did
it in order to put his foot upon the same ladder, for
he immediately turned
about and killed the king and queen and seated himself
upon the throne. His
reign of fifteen years contains only two important
events, the repeopling of P’yung-yang
with citizens of Han-yang(Seoul), and the institution
of written examinations
after the Chinese plan. In 799 Chun-ong came to the
throne and was followed a
year later by his adopted son Ch’ong-myong. These two
reigns meant nothing to
Sil-la except the reception of a Japanese envoy
bearing gifts and an attempt at
the repression of Buddhism. The building of
monasteries and the making of gold
and silver Buddhas was interdicted. It is well to
remember that in all these
long centuries no mention is made of a Korean envoy to
Japan, though Japanese
envoys came not infrequently to Sil-la. There is no
mention in the records of
any request on the part of the Japanese for Buddhist
books or teachers and
there seems to be no evidence from the Korean
standpoint to believe that Japan
received her Buddhism from Korea. Geographically it
would seem probable that
she might have done so but as a fact there is little
to prove it. It would,
geographically speaking, be probable also that Japan
would get her
pronunciation of the Chinese character by way of Korea
but as a matter of fact
the two methods of the pronunciation of Chinese
ideographs are at the very
antipodes. The probability is that Japan received her
knowledge both of
Buddhism and of the Chinese character direct from
China and not mainly by way
of Korea. The condition of
Sil-la during this period of
decline may be judged from the events which occurred
between the years 836 and
839 inclusive. King Su-jong was on the throne and had
been ruling some eleven
years, when, in 835 he died and his cousin Kyun-jang
succeeded him. Before the
year was out Kim Myung a powerful official put him to
death and put Che Yung on
the throne. The son of the murdered king, Yu-jeung,
fled to Ch’ung-ha Fortress,
whither many loyal soldiers flocked around him and
enabled him to take the
field against the usurper. Kim Myu finding that
affairs did not go to suit him
killed the puppet whom he had put on the throne and
elevated himself to that
position. After Yu-jeung, the rightful heir, had
received large reinforcements
from various [page
332]
sources, he attacked the forces of this parvenu at
Mu-ju and gained a victory. The young prince followed
up this success by a
sharp attack on the self-made king who fled for his
life but was pursued and
captured. Yu-jeung then ascended the throne. This
illustrates the weakness of
the kingdom, in that any adventurer, with only daring
and nerve, could seize
the seat of power and hold it even so long as Kim
Myung did. The outlying
provinces practically governed themselves. There was
no power of direction, no
power to bring swift punishment upon disloyal
adventurers, and the whole
attitude of the kingdom invited insubordination. In
this reign there were two
other rebellions which had to be put down. The year 896
shows a bright spot in a dark picture.
The celebrated scholar Ch’oe Ch’i-wun appeared upon
the scene. He was born in
Sa-ryang. At the age of twelve he went to China to
study; at eighteen he
obtained a high literary degree at the court of China.
He travelled widely and at
last returned to his native land where his erudition
and statesmanship found
instant recognition. He was elevated to a high
position and a splendid career
lay before him; but he was far ahead of his time; one
of those men who seem to
have appeared a century or two before the world was
ready for them. The low
state of affairs at the court of Sil-la is proved by
the intense hatred and
jealousy which he unwittingly aroused. He soon found
it impossible to remain in
office; so he quietly withdrew to a mountain retreat
and spent his time in
literary pursuits. His writings are to be found in the
work entitled Ko-un-jip.
He is enshrined in the memory of Koreans as the very
acme of literary
attainment, the brightest flower of Sil-la
civilization and without a superior
in the annals of all the kingdoms of the peninsula. Tradition
asserts that signs began to appear and
portents of the fall of Sil-la, King Chung-gang made a
journey through the
southern part of the country and returned by boat. A
dense fog arose which hid
the land. Sacrifice was offered to the genius of the
sea, and the fog lifted
and a strange and beautiful apparition of a man
appeared who accompanied the
expedition back to the capital and sang a song whose
burden was that many wise
men would die and that the capital would be changed.
Chung-gang died the next
year and was suc- [page 333] ceeded
by his brother Chin-sung who lived but a year and then
made way for his sister
who became the ruler of the land. Her name was Man.
Under her rule the court
morals fell to about as low a point as was possible.
When her criminal intimacy
with a certain courtier, Eui-hong, was terminated by
the death of the hitter
she took three or four other lovers at once, raising
them to high offices in
the state and caring as little for the real welfare of
the country as she did
for her own fair fame. Things reached such a pass that
the people lost patience
with her and insulting placards were hung in the
streets of the capital calling
attention to the depth of infamy to which the court
had sunk. It was in 892
that the great bandit Yang-gil arose
in the north. His right hand man was Kung-ye, and as
he plays an important part
in the subsequent history of Sil-la we mast stop long
enough to give his
antecedents. The story of his rise is the story of the
inception of the Kingdom
of Ko-ryu. It may be proper to close the ancient
history of Korea at this point
and begin the medieval section with the events which
led up to the founding of
Koryu. END OF PART I. PART
II. MEDIEVAL
KOREAN HISTORY. From
890 to 1392 A. D. Chapter
I. Kung-ye....
antecedents.... revolts.... Ch’oe Ch’i-wun
retires.... Wang-gon.... origin.... Kung-ye
successful.... advances
Wang-gon.... proclaims himself King.... Wang-gon again
promoted.... Sil-la
court corrupt.... Kung-ye proclaims himself a
Buddha.... condition of the
peninsula.... Wang-gon accused.... refuses the
throne.... forced to take it....
Kung-ye killed.... prophecy.... Wang-gon does
justice.... Ko-ryu organized....
Buddhist festival Song-do.... Ko-ryu’s defenses
Kyun-whun becomes Wang-gon’s
enemy.... wild tribes submit.... China upholds
Kyun-whun.... his gift to
Wang-gon.... loots the capital of Sil-la.... Ko-ryu
troops repulsed.... war....
Wang-gon visits Sil-la
improvements....
Kyun-whun ‘s last stand.... imprisoned by his sons....
comes to Song-do....
Sil-la expires.... her last king comes to Song-do....
Wang-gon’s generosity. Kung-ye was the
son of King Hon-gang by a
concubine. He was born on the least auspicious day of
the year, the fifth of
the fifth moon. He had several teeth when he was born
which made his arrival
the less welcome. The King ordered the child to be
destroyed; so it was thrown
out of the window. But the nurse rescued it and
carried it to a place of safety
where she nursed it and provided for its bringing up.
As she was carrying the
child to this place of safety she accidentally put out
one of its eyes. When he
reached man’s estate he became a monk under the name
of Sun-jong. He was by
nature ill fitted for the monastic life and soon found
himself in the camp of
the bandit Ki-whun at Chuk-ju. Soon he began to
consider himself ill-treated by
his new master and deserted him, finding his way later
to the camp of the
bandit Yang-gil at Puk-wun now Wun-ju. A considerable
number of men ac- [page
336]
companied him. Here his talents were better
appreciated and he was put in command of a goodly
force with which he soon
overcame the districts of Ch’un-ch’un, Na-sung, Ul-o
and O-jin. From this time
Kung-ye steadily gained in power until he quite
eclipsed his master. Marching
into the western part of Sil-la he took ten districts
and went into permanent
camp. The following
year another robber, Kyun-whun, made
head against Sil-la in the southern part of what is
now Kyung-sang Province. He
was a Sang-ju man. Having seized the district of Mu-ju
he proclaimed himself
King of Southern Sil-la. His name was originally Yi
but when fifteen years of
age he had changed it to Kyun. He had been connected
with the Sil-la army and
had risen step by step and made himself extremely
useful by his great activity
in the field. When, however, the state of Sil-la
became so corrupt as to be a
by-word among all good men, he threw off his
allegiance to her, gathered about
him a band of desperate criminals, outlaws and other
disaffected persons and
began the conquest of the south and west. In a month
he had a following of
5,000 men. He found he had gone too far in proclaiming
himself King and so
modified his title to that of “Master of Men and
Horses.” It is said of him
that once, while still a small child, his father being
busy in the fields and
his mother at work behind the house, a tiger came
along and the child sucked
milk from its udder. This accounted for his wild and
fierce nature. At this time the
great scholar Ch’oe Ch’i-wun, whom
we have mentioned, was living at of Pu-sung.
Recognizing the abyss of depravity
into which the state was failing he formulated ten
rules for the regulation of
the government and sent them to Queen Man. She read
and praised them but took
no means to put them in force. Ch’oe could no longer
serve a Queen who made
light of the counsels of her most worthy subjects and,
throwing up his
position, retired to Kwang-ju in Nam-san and became a
hermit. After that he
removed to Ping-san in Kang-ju, then to Ch’ung-yang
Monastery in Hyup-ju, then
to Sang-gye Monastery at Ch’i-ri San but finally made
his permanent home at
Ka-ya San where he lived with a few other choice
spirits. It was here that he
wrote his autobiography in thirteen volumes. [page
337] THE
KOREA REVIEW, August 1901 The
Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The publication
of the first volume of the Transactions
of the Korea Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society is an event of prime importance
in the literary history
of Korea. It is the first time that a distinctively
and avowedly critical study
of Korean life and thought has been begun. There have
been several popular
attempts at placing the Korean before the world in his
true colors, but we have
here the first serious attempt to deal with the facts
from a purely critical
standpoint. In the past we have seen in print many
partial discussions and many
exaggerated descriptions of things Korean. They have
been interesting and
entertaining but the object of the society whose
publication we are now
considering is something different from mere
entertainment. The society stands
for a just, balanced, dispassionate discussion of the
many phases of Korean
life. It is not the province of this society to make
facts square with
theories, but to make theories an outgrowth of a
careful and exhaustive study
of the facts. In cases where an inductive method is
necessary an hypothesis
should be adhered to just so long as it affords the
best explanation of what
few, isolated facts there may be in hand, and no
longer. The champion of a
theory is a sorry spectacle to the true scientist.
Facts are hard cash while
theories are mere promissory notes, often discredited. The first work
of this learned society should be to
collect material facts. The subject matter has
heretofore been fur- [page
338]
nished only in scattered and isolated fragments.
No one subject has been exhaustively investigated and
all the facts connected
with it brought together; but many conclusions have
been jumped at after a
merely superficial examination of a few of the more
obvious facts. From a
scientific standpoint it is a rather rash thing to
state dogmatically that this
or that thing has never existed in Korea or that it
has always existed here.
This presupposes more knowledge cm the part of the
writer than any man can
possibly have, and it discredits him just in
proportion as the statement is
manifestly impossible of demonstration. Each man
should confine his testimony
to matters that have come clearly within the radius of
his own experience and
study. And even when the bearing of a certain fact may
seem quite clear to the
individual student he should accept the explanation
only tentatively until it
can be corroborated by the testimony of others. The
first ten years of the
society might well be spent in merely collecting facts
without trying to make
generalizations. In this way the ultimate advance
would be more rapid, for the
destructive criticism which is made necessary by the
propounding of crude and
ill-founded theories takes even more time than the
working out of sound
generalizations. The success of
this society depends upon the
enthusiasm of its members and their willingness to
merge their individual
preconceptions in a single crucible from which shall
finally emerge a product
that shall be authoritative because it is the
consensus of many separate
authorities. This society is not the arena where any
one man can expect to reap
literary or scholastic renown above his fellows or
hope to impose upon others
his own theories. It is distinctly democratic and
whatever of good is
accomplished will receive the superscription not of
any one man but of the
whole body. In the volume
before us there are three papers, (1)
The Influence of China on Korea, by Rev J. S. Gale,
(2) Korean Survivals, by H.
B. Hulbert, Esq., (3) The Colossal Buddha at Eun-jin,
by Rev. G.H. Jones. A
careful perusal of the three will show that the last
one adheres most closely
to the ideal of the society. It is a clear,
straightforward statement of facts
about a specific object. It adds a definite quantity
to our [page
339]
knowledge of Korea and its authority is manifestly
beyond dispute. The subject is worked out carefully
and exhaustively. We are
given the historical, legendary and local setting of
the colossal Buddha in a
way that makes the article of definite use for
comparative purposes. When some
one gets ready to describe some other monument or
monuments as carefully as Mr.
Jones has described this one it will be possible to
enter upon the second
stage—namely, a comparative study of Korean monuments. As for the other
two papers, they are interesting
and readable but it is evident that the time is not
ripe for generalizing over
such an enormous stretch of territory as that
contemplated in these papers.
They are both ex
parte productions,
each writer taking extreme ground and trying to prove
too much. The one argues
that there is nothing in Korea that is of Korean
origin, the other that there
is comparatively little in Korea that is of Chinese
origin. The one overrates
the influence of Confucianism, the other underrates
it. Even a person who knew
nothing about Korea after reading these two papers
would conclude that they
were both exaggerations. We would not, in saying this,
be understood to impugn
the scholarship or the authority of either of the
writers, for they have lived
long enough in Korea to know whereof they speak; but
it is plain that they have
formed theories and then gone to work and collected
every fact that would
support their theories and rejected every other fact.
The first writer had the
more difficult proposition to prove, namely, that
“there is no life, literature
or thought in Korea that is not of Chinese origin,”
for the citation of a
single thing in Korean life, literature or thought
that is of native origin
obviously refutes his contention. The other writer
proposes to show that the
great majority of things Korean, the main things, the
vital things, are purely
Korean. He might have shown a number of things that
are distinctive of Korea
but he proves too much. He tries to make us believe
that Confucianism is of
comparatively little account, that Buddhism is not
really from China, that the
Korean temperament is untouched by Chinese ideals. Now
it is apparent that
there are many points where opinions will clash and
where individual judgment
will have to determine which side to take, but here
each writer takes such ex- [page
340]
treme ground that the “man in the street” humbly
declines to follow either or them. He insists that
there must be some middle
course; and, as usual, he is right. If the first
writer had contended that
there is nothing in Korean life, literature and
thought that has not been
tinged by Chinese influence (instead of saying that
they are of Chinese
origin); and if the second writer had contended that
there is no Chinese
innovation that has not been tinged by Korean
influence they might both have
been accepted; but as they are writers of
approximately equal authority and
their statements are mutually destructive rather than
complementary, we must
conclude that each has tired to prove too much, and
that it remains for someone
to point out the middle course of safety. The value of
these two papers lies
not in their conclusions but in the incidental
statement of facts which the
student can dissociate from the argument and use to
advantage. A second benefit
to be derived from them is that they bring up many
subjects that are well worth
discussing and will set people to thinking and
studying in directions that will
sometime bring the society to a definite goal. Among
other important subjects
suggested we find these. How does Korean Confucianism
differ from Chinese
Confucianism? What part does Buddhism play in the
religious life of the Korean?
To what extent is Korean architecture influenced by
the Chinese? What
similarities exist between Chinese and Korean
Shamanism, folklore, mythology,
music, food, games and artistic products. We want
critical discussions of these
and a hundred other important topics; arguments
founded not or some ex parte
investigation but upon a dispassionate and judicial
sifting of hard facts, and
all the facts. It is always
more interesting to fight than to
arbitrate. It satisfies the natural man far better to
hold his literary
opponent up to contempt by a clever exaggeration of
his faults than to clasp
hands with him and say: Let us sift this matter down
and find what common
ground we can stand on. But no one will doubt as to
which is the sane and
scientific attitude to assume. The object of the
society is mutual support and
help rather than mutual stultification. The reading
public, at least that portion of it
that is interested in Korea, will welcome this
publication not merely on its
own account but because of what it promises for the
future. [page
341] Korean
and Efate. (Concluded). Ko=face.
Korean = K’o, nose (a part for the whole?) lit. the
Ki. Ko means
the part before.] Kori
= dog, Korean dog. [Ma.=kuri, a dog; = kuli; Fut=kuli;
Ta.=kuri;
Epi.=kuli; El.=kuri.] Kota=time.
Korean=got, immediately, instantly. Lu
= rise up. Korean = na, rise. Luaki=utterance,
proverb. Korean=niagi, talk, story. Ma
(dd. nanum, nanu, nanofa) = day. Korean = nal, day. Ma.
=with, and. Korean = myu , verbal-ending of
connection, and. [Ha. =me;
Ma.=me; Mota. = ma, me.] Ma-nia
= to grinds Korean = ma, a mill, mill-stones. Mabe
= chestnut. Korean = pam, chestnut. [Tah. mape; An.
= mop; Malo = mabue.] Mai
or me = rope. Korean = to bind, tie. [Sa. = maea; To.
=maia.] Maler
= transparent. Korean = malk, clear, pure (as clear
water.) Malo
= to be unwilling, averse. Korean mal, denoting
negative command or
prohibition—”don’t.” Manu
= a multitude. Korean —man, many. [Sa. = mano, a great
number.] Manua
= to be finished. Korean = man, only, no more, (as
keu-man-tu =
stop.) Maritan
= to wither. Korean = mal or mar, to be dry, to
wither, thirsty. Ma
= alone, only Korean = man, alone, only. Matu-ki
= to strengthen or support with posts. Korean = put,
to support, to
bolster.] A Matru
= to be thirsty (dd. manru, mandu, maru). Korean =
mal, to be dry,
thirsty, [Ml. = mernh.] [page 342] Ma
= interrogative pronoun used indefinitely. Korean
=muu, the interrogative used also indefinitely.] Man
= very. Korean = mao, very. [Fi. = ban, very; Fut. = ma.] Mauta
= a rising ground. Korean = moi, mountain [Sa. =
inauga, a hill ] Mea-mea
= long. Korean = mor or mol, to be long. Mina
= pleasant, nice. Korean = man, a verbal ending,
meaning pleasant or
nice as pol-man-hata = nice to see. [Tah.
= mona; My. = manis; Mg. = manitura.] Miu
= wet. Korean = mut, to be wet or daubed with
anything. [So the Ef.
mota = dirty.] Uma
== the hole, i. e. the inside of a house. Korean = um,
ancient form of
house made by digging a hole in the ground and
covering with a thatch. Mua
= to flow. Korean = pu, to pour. Na
= adverb of assent. Korean = ne, yes. Nabo
= to smell. Korean = naamsa or na, a smell (especially a
bad smell). [Sa. = namu, bad smell; To. =namu; a good
or bad smell.] Nai
= water. Korean = na, a brook or small stream. Namu
= mosquito. Korean = mogi [Mg. = moka; Ta-sa. = moke;
Malo = rnohe; My. = namok; Bu. = namok.] Ni
= genitve ending. Korean = eui, genitive ending.
[Fi;ni, i or e. of;
Ma. = i, of；Battak = ni, of；Bu. = ri, of;
Tag.= ni,
of; Mg. =ny, of.] Ore=
yes, that’s it. Korean = or, ol, it is true, right. Sa
= negative adv. in prohibitive clauses. Korean = asu,
stop, don’t.] Sai
= to come forth. Korean = sa, new. Sana
= an arrow. Norean = sal, arrow. Sela
= to carry. Korean = sil, to load. Sera-ia
= to sweep. Korean = seur or seul, to sweep. Si
= to blow. Korean = se-ge, violently (to blow) used
only in connection
with the wind. [page 343] Sog
= compulsion, force, constraint. Korean = suk,
suddenly, forcibly, with
a jerk. Tabos
= narrow. Korean = chob or chop, narrow. Tagoto
= axe. Korean = tokeui, axe Taku
= at the back. Korean = tol, or tor, back, turn. [Sa.
= tua; Malo =
tura; Motu = dolu] in same connection.] Talo
= round about. Korean = tol, turn around, to revolve. (Ef. tili-mar
= revolve.) Talu
= a crowd, herd. Korean = teul, the universal ending
of the plural. Tama
(dd. taba) = to cover. Korean = tup, to cover. Tano
(dd: tan) = earth, soil. Korean = tang, the earth,
ground. [Sa. = tanu;
My. = tanem.] Tari-a
= to rub. Korean = tar, to be rubbed, smoothed. [Sa. = tele.] Taru-b
= to fall. Korean = turu-jinta, to fall. Tan
= to abide, be fixed. Korean = tu, more, continually, further.
The Ef. tan is used before any verb to denote
continuous action.
The same is true of the Korean. Tau
= to pluck. Korean = ta, to pluck. Tatu
= a stake. Korean = tari, a stake (used only in
composi- tion as in
ul-tari, a stake fence or paling.) Tiko
or tuba = post in a house. Korean = teulpo, a cross- beam
in a house. Tiko
= staff, walking-stick. Korean = tagi, in composition
as Mak-tagi, a
walkingstick or staff. In this connection the To. =
toko, a post to tie canoes
to is similar to the Korean tuk as in mal-tuk the post
to which a horse or
other animal is tethered. [My. = takan, staff; Mg. =
telaina, staff.] Toki
= axe. Korean = toki, axe. Tok
= violence, force. Korean = tok, poison, but it refers broadly
to any violence. Tu
= to stand. Korean = tu, to place, set. Tuku
= go down, send down. Korean = suk, down, an intensive
adverb used
with verbs denoting motion down [page 344] Turuk
= to permit. Korean = Hurak, to permit, allow. U = we, they.
Korean = we. Ua
(dd.ba) = rain. Korean = pi, rain. Uago
or Uigo = an exclamation. Korean. = ago, a
exclamation.] Ulua
= to grow up. Korean = olla, up. Um
= oven. Korean = um, covered hole in the ground. Uru-uru
= to growl, grumble, murmur. Korean = ururung-
ururung.] Usi
= to hasten. Korean = ussa, hurry！quick! George
C. Foulk. We had occasion,
a short time since, to recall the
work done in the early days of Korea’s foreign
intercourse by Baron von
Mollendorff. Another man who was intimately connected
with some of those events
and who for a time exercised a powerful influence on
Korean affairs was Ensign
Geo. C. Foulk of the U. S. Navy. It will be of
interest to those who desire to
understand the factors which were included in the
problem of Korea’s opening to
review some of the events of the late Mr. Foulk’s
career in Korea. Geo. C. Foulk
was born in Pennsylvania in the early
sixties and at the early age of fourteen entered the
U. S. Naval Academy at
Annapolis. His extreme youthfulness would seem to have
cast some doubt upon the
wisdom of this move but the result justified the
venture, for four years later
he graduated at the head of his class. The ease with
which he mastered every
subject that engaged his serious attention amounted
almost to precocity. Soon after his
graduation he was ordered to the Far
East on the China station. The alertness of his mind
proved not to be confined
to the mere scholastic and technical part of his
profession but in actual
practice he soon brought himself to the favorable
notice of his superiors and
he became, in a sense, a favorite with the Admiral in
whose staff he was acting
[page
345]
as assistant flag-lieutenant. Besides the ordinary
routine of the profession he acquired the Japanese
language with marvelous
rapidity for he was a born linguist. It was while thus
connected with the
Asiatic squadron that he made the acquaintance in
Nagasaki of the young lady, a
Japanese, who later became Mrs. Foulk. Such was his
proficiency in Japanese
that when he returned to Washington in 1883 he was
attached to the Korean
embassy which arrived in Washington in the autumn of
that year headed by Min
Yong-ik. He was detailed by the naval department to
accompany this embassy in a
trip through the country for the purpose of examining
educational and other
institutions. It was under these favorable
circumstances that he became
acquainted with Koreans and began to acquire their
language. Several—in fact at
this time all—of the members of that embassy were
favorably inclined toward a
progressive policy in Korea and a strict limitation of
the Chinese claim of
suzerainty. Mr. Foulk naturally became a warm partisan
of Korea’s independence
and he undoubtedly helped to confirm these men,
especially So Kwang-bom, in
their ambition to see Korea follow the lead of Japan. It was in June
1884 that the embassy arrived in
Seoul accompanied by Mr. Foulk who was of course a
confidential friend of these
progressive men. Mr. Foulk was now attached to the U.
S. Legation as naval
attache and was directed by the government to make an
extended trip through the
four important towns which are supposed to guard the
approaches to Seoul. His
rapid acquisition of the language and his deep
interest in Korea made him an
eminently fit man for this work. The entire success
with which he fulfilled
this mission is shown in the printed report which is
published in the Foreign
Relations of the U.S. It is one of the clearest,
fullest and most readable
articles ever published on Korea. Considering the very
short time he had been
in the country it is rather remarkable that he should
have so fully grasped the
situation and given us an account which even to-day
would gain nothing at the
hand of a reviser. Returning from
this journey he found matters in
Seoul in a very unsettled condition. Some of the
friends of reform had seceded
to the conservative wing and the pro-Chinese element
was in power. The fact is
that some of the liberal [page 346] leaders
described the condition of things accurately when they
told Mr.
Foulk that it was a case of kill or be killed. It is
quite natural that Mr.
Foulk should have underrated the lengths to which
party feeling will go in
Korea, for he evidently thought this was rather wild
talk, but it was not. The
only thing that could have saved those progressive
leaders’ lives was either
flight or fight. They tried the latter first and being
unsuccessful they tried
the former but the fate of Kim Ok-kiun shows that even
flight did not obviate
the peril. Mr. Foulk evidently sympathized most
thoroughly with the
progressives and within proper limits gave them every
encouragement in his
power. He had a wide acquaintance with Korean
officials and exercised a
remarkable degree of influence over them. This can be
accounted for on the
following grounds. His was an eminently sympathetic
nature. You could not sit
down and talk with him without feeling that he was
putting himself in your place,
and that for the time being he was thoroughly
interested in your affairs. His
unassuming manner and hearty, open-handed courtesy won
everybody that came near
him. The abandon with which he threw himself into the
fight for reform shows
the unselfishness of his nature, for he must have seen
from September 1884 that
the cause of the progressionists was a losing one. He was in
frequent communication with the King and
was entrusted with many confidential missions by His
Majesty who at that time
was by no means hostile to the plans of reform which
the progressive leaders
were drawing up. Probably no other foreigner ever
enjoyed so unreservedly the
confidence of His Majesty. Military instructors were
wanted and Mr. Foulk was
entrusted with the work of securing them from America.
School teachers were
wanted and it was through him that they were secured
by the aid of the
Educational Bureau at Washington. A government
stock-farm and breeding station
was contemplated and Mr. Foulk had charge of the
arrangements. Mr. Foulk
clearly foresaw the storm which broke on
December 4th 1884, but he realized neither its
violence nor the nearness of its
approach, for only a month before it happened he
started out on an extended
tour of the country at the order of his chief. If he
had been at all conscious
of the peril that [page 347] was
so imminent he would have postponed or given up this
trip, for as it turned out
his life was in extreme peril after the breaking out
of the emeute. He was far
in the south at the time, and when news came that the
progressive leaders were
killed or had fled to Japan, Mr. Foulk’s prospects
were extremely gloomy. Far
in the interior of the country, surrounded by forces
which he could not
estimate, ignorant of what excesses the people might
run to—the very
uncertainty must have been exceedingly trying. His
verbal description of his
journey toward the capital after the emeute, the
pursuit by enemies, his
wanderings among the mountains from well-founded fear
of following the main
thoroughfares and his final escape will remain for
many a year in the writer’s
memory. It may well be
imagined that after the emeute his
well-known sympathy with the progressives made him an
object of great suspicion
to the officials in power and yet it is remarkable to
see how he was still
trusted and how his advice was still sought after by
Korean officials. The King
seems to have retained much of his liking for the
youthful Naval Attache who
now by the retirement of the U. S. Minister, Gen.
Foote, became Charge d’Affaires
ad interim, an interim that continued for eighteen
months. He is perhaps the
youngest man that was ever entrusted with the duties
of Minister from United
Stales to a foreign country. The plans that
had been laid for advances along
educational lines, both military and linguistic, which
had been frustrated or
held in abeyance by the outbreak of 1884 were again
brought to the fore and
through the efforts of Mr. Foulk were carried to a
successful issue. In the
autumn of 1886 the Government English School was
founded and put in the care of
three men selected by the Educational Bureau at
Washington, and shortly after
three military instructors arrived from America. Stock
was secured for a
government farm and other improvements were
contemplated. On the whole it would
appear that Mr. Foulk, though known to be unalterably
in favor of Korean
independence and a progressive policy, was trusted in
large measure even by
those who disagreed with him as to the wisest course
to pursue. The reason for
this raises one of the most
interesting [page
348]
points in connection with the opening of Korea. It
must be remembered that in the late seventies, when
hostilities of a most
decided nature had been declared between the late
Regent and the Queen’s party,
it was the latter which urged and in 1876 secured the
signing of a treaty with
Japan. It was the Min family and faction that took the
lead in every reform. At
that time the Min family had not adopted the friendly
attitude toward the
Chinese into which events finally forced them. They
favored the foreign
treaties and a progressive policy. But after a
time-and here is the crucial
point—a party sprang up that threatened to take the
leadership in these reforms
out of the hands of the Min faction. These men Kim
Ok-kiun, So Kwang-bom, Pak Yong-hyo
and and the like were men of a different political
party from the Mins. They
were active, intelligent, energetic but it must be
acknowledged that had the
conservatively progressive tendencies of that Min
party in 1880, for instance,
been given free scope and the introduction of reforms
not been taken out of
their hands by extreme radicals like those above named
the progress would have
been much more rapid. The personal element undoubtedly
entered very largely
into the problem that the extremists were trying to
solve. To say that Kim
Ok-kiun and others of his kind were actuated by purely
unselfish and patriotic
motives would be as false as to say that there was no
desire for progress and
no patriotism in the opposing faction. The Mins had
occupied a commanding
position for years, they had broken down the exclusive
policy of the ex-regent
and had opened the country. They were instituting
reforms gradually; when there
arose a clique, (for its numbers would not allow of
its being called a party)
who wanted to hurry the government into changes for
which she was not only not
ready but which the people would have been sure to
reject. This new party
threatened to take everything out of the Mins’ hands
and assume control. It is
not to be wondered at that the Min party immediately
looked about for means of
upholding their prestige. There was one means and only
one. They threw
themselves into the arms of the Chinese, gave up the
reforms, opened up anew
the whole question of Chinese suzerainty and
introduced the era that inevitably
led up to the Japan-China war. No one could blame
them. [page
349]
It was simply a
misfortune. That the Min faction
was not the enemy of reform is evinced by their action
after the emeute in
carrying out some of the progressive plans formulated
by their vanquished
opponents and doing it through a man who was known to
have been in full
sympathy with the radical progressionists. It is thus
that good intentions
some-times bring forth bitter fruit because of the
means that are used for carrying
them out. When we view the change of face of the Min
party between 1878 and
1883 from the view- point here given we see readily
why Min Yong-ik drew back
from the progressionists and lined up with the
pro-Chinese party. He wanted
progress but he wanted it to be instituted and carried
out through his own
family and party. Nothing could be more natural. Had
the Mins been
retrogressive from the start the action of the
radicals would have taken on a
different color, but it became a struggle to see which
side should lead the
reforms. And as has happened so many times in Korean
history this working at
cross-purposes, with the personal equation ever to the
front, made sad work of
reform. Rice
and the Ideograph. Rice and the
Chinese ideograph together form a very
consistent pair, for they are both of them very
difficult to get, and even
after getting they are found to be no better than
other physical and
intellectual pabulum, if as good. Two things must
excite the wonder of the
thoughtful student of the Far East; the one is how
these eastern people, who
are so primitive in most essential things, have
developed the taste for rice
which is the most difficult of ail cereals to raise
and which is, on the whole,
such a poor all-round food; and the second is how
people whose intellectual
attainments are of such mediocre grade should have
adopted the most complicated
and cumbersome of all written symbols for the
expression of their thought. Let
us see if there is not some deeper relationship
between rice and writing in the
Far East than mere coincidence. [page 350] It is generally
supposed that the use of rice for
food originated in the discovery of wild rice. The
people plucked this wild
rice in the swamps and marshes and gradually, as the
demand increased, they got
to making artificial marshes for growing this favorite
grain. The habit once
formed was ineradicable, and from that time to this
they have been compelled by
the very inertia of their minds to turn the face of
the earth into reeking
paddy-fields which require so much care that they
leave the farmer leisure for
nothing else. And they do all this to produce a cereal
that is almost pure
starch and that is sadly lacking in the nitrogenous
elements which go to make
up a proper food for man. It reminds us of Charles
Lamb and his Dissertation on
Roast Pig. It is as sensible to burn your house down
whenever you want roast
pig as to turn the face of God’s earth into a
pestilential swamp in order to
get grain to eat. The farmer instead of taking nature
into his confidence and
allowing her to help him is incessantly fighting
against nature, fighting
gravitation, making water run up hill, electing to
starve unless it happens to
rain at a particular time and neither too little nor
too much. The poverty of
mind that during all these centuries has discovered no
other staple article of
food is appalling. But how is it
with the ideograph? The primitive man
poking with a stick in the sand made a circle and
called it the sun. He put a
straight mark below it to represent the horizon and
called it morning. He made
a two-legged figure to represent a man and then
inclosed it in a square and
called it a prison. He elaborated the man into a woman
by adding the semblance
of a skirt and then put three of them together and
called it gossip; and so on
to the end of the chapter—and a very long chapter too.
It showed the narrowness
of his mental view that a single clumsy solution of
the question completely
blocked up the avenue for new ideas along that line.
The ideographic idea once
implanted in his mind, there was no room for a
phonetic symbol. How should he
ever dream that the sounds of human speech are vastly
fewer than the ideas in
the mind? He tired to make a symbol for each idea, but
the ideas to be
represented were so many that he struck a mean and
made a host of ideograms and
apparently eliminated all the rest of the ideas. Just
as in the discovery of
rice he en- [page
351]
slaved himself to a laughably unnatural
agricultural life, so in letters by the discovery of
his picture-making power
he enslaved himself to an intellectual life that is
dwarfed and stunted. It is
useless to talk about the great works that have been
written in Chinese. Reduce
them to the cold test of translation; strip them of
their rhetoric and the
glamor which antiquity and privilege have cast about
them and we find there
neither credible history, clear logic nor genuine
poetry. The Koreans have made
a partially successful attempt to rid themselves of
this incubus, but we see
what a tremendously conservative power it wields when
five hundred years’ use
still finds the excellent Korean alphabet a sort of
outcast, fit only for women
and coolies. But now,
curiously enough, as the Chinese begin to
import wheat flour in large quantities and to make it
for themselves for a staple
food instead of rice, we also hear of projects being
formed for the making of a
phonetic alphabet for China. The Emperor himself, if
we mistake not, intimated
the need of such an alphabet and others have taken it
up and talked seriously
about it. The rice and the ideograph are evidently
going together, the one an
economic burden, the other an intellectual burden.
They are going hand in
hand-as yet hardly a beginning has been made but the
end is sure. It has
already become a live quest on in Japan whether the
government had not better
discard the Chinese character and adopt the Romanji—so
in time will China and
Korea do. There have been
several suggestions made as to what
sort of phonetic system China should adopt. We beg
leave to enter the company
of those who are giving advice on this subject, and
suggest that Korea should
heap coals of fire on China’s head by giving her an
alphabet that has not its
superior in the world for phonetic power; which, being
a “square” character,
could be most easily adapted to Chinese penmanship,
and which would need to be
remodelled only to the extent of indicating the
Chinese tones. This would be
one of the great compensations of history; for when
Korea was still half savage
and without the civilizing influence of letters the
Chinese character and
literature were introduced, thus opening the way to
whatever can be gotten from
Chinese literature. Now let Korea repay her by giving
her the Korean alphabet.
In all [page
352]
seriousness, we believe this to be the best
solution of the difficulty which is becoming better
and better recognized in
China—the lack of facilities for the education of the
masses. Odds
and Ends. Unwelcome
insects.
Koreans have
curious notions about that most irritating
of insects called in scientific parlance the Cimex Lectularius, but in good
Anglo-Saxon called the bed-bug. They
seem to believe in what we may call epidemics or
recrudescences of bed-bugs.
For instance, the foreign community may not know that
Chong-dong, where
westerners mostly congregate, is to the Korean known
as “Bed-bug Den.” When in
1592 after the Japanese invaded the country and forced
the King to flee
northward they retired to the south and the court
returned to Seoul. As the
Kyong-bok palace was in ashes the King made a
residence of fourteen years at
the place where the court now is in Chong-dong. This
is said to have roused the
bed-bugs and at that time the city was infested with
them. And now again that
the court has taken up this position, the city is
again experiencing a similar
recrudescence of this pest. Death
in the pot.
When there is a
dead body in the house no vendor of
pots or jars dares come near the place; for not only
must not the people of
that house buy a jar but they must smash every jar or
pot that the unlucky vendor
carries. If they do not it means that another member
of the household will
shortly die. The reason for this is somewhat obscure
and we can only conjecture
what it may be. They may have the subconscious notion
that to buy new pots and
jars at such a time implies that their thoughts are
all directed toward their
own continued life and pleasure, in complete
forgetfulness of the dead. We know
that pots and jars form the major portion of the
ordinary Korean’s house
furniture, and to lay in a new stock upon the death of
an inmate of the house
implies that the house-keeping has taken a new lease
of life. We grant that
this notion is painfully [page 353] esoteric and a
clearer and simpler reason would be welcomed from
anyone
who has probed the Korean mind deep enough to
understand all his
idiosyncracies. Question
and Answer. (15)Question.
Why is it that dogs are not fed on
the fifteenth day of the first moon? Answer. The only
answer that comes to hand is that
the Koreans believe that by making the dogs fast on
that day, they (the dogs)
will be comparatively free from vermin during the
coming summer. We must
confess that the remedy does not commend itself by its
results. We would
propose that the dogs fast the whole of the first
month. This would probably be
fairly effective. (16)Question.
When the Manchus conquered Korea the
Koreans were wearing the same style of clothes and the
same coiffure as the
Chinese. How then did it happen that the Manchus did
not compel the Koreans to
adopt the queue as they did the Chinese? Answer. History
gives no specific answer to this
question so far as we are aware. Korea was recognized
to be a vassal to China,
but it is evident that the Manchus perceived a very
great difference between
the two peoples. They never proposed to incorporate
Korea into the home
government as they did the whole of China. They left
the king and court as they
were and continued with Korea the relations formerly
sustained by the Ming
emperors. In spite of superficial resemblances they
never thought of calling
Korea a part of China. Correspondence. To the editor
the Korea Review: DEAR SIR,—Since
you have published a translation of
the report of the Governor of Quelpart upon the
disturbances in that island I
beg to hand you the following for your information. [page 354] To begin with,
the influence which procured his
present position for the gentleman whose report you
quote, was gained in a
manner which left it impossible to be impartial. He is
therefore not the best
of witnesses. The facts of the
matter are that the Catholic
Mission in Quelpart has had an extraordinarily rapid
growth in the past two
years, and, where before that time there was hardly a
Christian in the island,
at the time of the massacre there was hardly a village
which had not a certain
number. The official servants and yamen-runners, who
before had exacted what
they pleased of the people, found that this was no
longer possible with those
who had become Christians. The priests stood between
them and oppression. Add to this the
ill-feeling in official circles: 1.That the
island, which had never been taxed
before, has, during the same period, been subjected to
an exorbitant taxation; 2.That the chief
tax-collector had chosen some of
his assistants from among the Christians; and 3. That his
rival and personal enemy, the most
powerful man in the island, was, at the same time,
strongly opposed to the
spread of Christianity; and the result in so unsettled
a country as Quelpart
was to be expected. It is possible
that many people joined the Mission
who had not its best interests at heart, because of
the protection they
received. This, however, is so common an occurrence in
every mission throughout
the East, and is so well known to you gentlemen in
your mission work that no
comment is necessary. I am, Sir, Faithfully
yours, W. F. SANDS. 25 July, 1901. Editorial
Comment. It is most
unfortunate that there should be a
scarcity of rice both in Japan and in Korea. This
peninsula is becoming more
and more the food supply for Japan and a shortage in [page 355] both countries
at once is a rather serious matter.
All the signs at present indicate that Korea will
produce less than a fourth of
the average crop of rice. Telegrams have come in from
all parts of the country
bewailing the lack of water and the Koreans are busy
turning their rice-fields
to account by hurriedly planting beans and other
things which may possibly
mature before the winter sets in. In view of the
threatened famine the Korean
Government has availed itself of the right, granted by
treaty, of prohibiting
the export of rice after giving one month’s notice.
This course is dictated by
a number of good and sufficient reasons. First, the
general welfare of the
people at large. It is well known that there are large
numbers of people in
Korea who live continually on the verge of want. The
rise in the price of any
staple commodity is sentence of death to thousands.
The bulk of the population
could pull through a single year of scarcity, but the
Government is under
obligation to protect those who are poor as well.
Reason and humanity demand
that what little the land produces this year should he
carefully hoarded and
used exclusively by Koreans. In the second place the
government revenues which
come mainly from the land tax will of course be
severely cut down and the
Government at the same time will be called upon to
extend help to thousands who
are or will be starving. To let rice be exported would
therefore be both
inhumane and financially embarrassing as well. In view
of the situation we have
to confess that the objections raised by the Japanese
against the prohibition
of the export of rice seem to be dictated by purely
selfish motives. It is
natural that the Japanese should deprecate such
prohibition but they must
remember that Korea’s first duty is to Koreans, and,
that however much the
Japanese may need Korean rice, it is beyond the bounds
of reason to object to
an act winch is sanctioned by treaty and rendered
imperative by circumstances.
They tell us that there appears to be no serious
shortage, but the facts do not
bear them out. At this season of the year the old rice
that has been kept over
from last year invariably falls in price if the
prospect for a crop is fair,
but this year rice has gone up nearly 100 per cent
during a single month. Now
the Koreans know what they are about. There could be
no surer indication of
coining famine than [page 356] this
enormous rise. It is an unanswerable argument. It is
difficult to see how the
Japanese can claim that there is no special danger
when all about us the rice
fields lie fallow, and reports from a great majority
of the prefectures show
that the rice crop is a failure. We should like to see
upon what facts they
base their contention. Meanwhile the foreign papers in
Japan voice the
sentiment that Korea should not refuse Japan her due.
One of these papers in a
recent issue gives a most peculiar argument to show
why the export of rice
should not be prohibited. It says in effect that as
imported rice in Korea is
cheaper than the native product the Koreans should not
refuse their rice to
Japanese who need it so much. In other words, let
Koreans sell their dear
product to the Japanese and then go and import from a
cheaper market. This is a
charming commentary on Japanese commercial ability. If
there is a market where
rice is so much cheaper, perhaps our contemporary will
tell us why it is the
Japanese do not buy from it instead of from Korea. No;
the truth is that the
Japanese are pinched as well as the Koreans and are
trying to oppose the
prohibition of export from Korea in order to cover
their own shortage. It is
sincerely to be hoped that the Korean Government will
not give way to the
demand. As the treaties do not state who is to decide
whether there is need for
such prohibition it must be presumed that the
Government which does the
prohibiting is to decide. Could it be reasonably
expected that the Government
would forego the large revenues which come from the
export duties if there were
not pressing need? But not only has Korea done this;
she has opened the ports
of the country to the tree import or rice and other
cereals, thus entailing a
further diminution of the custom’s revenues. Hardly during
the memory of living Koreans has
there been a more discouraging outlook in the way of
food for the people. The
pinch will not come this autumn but next spring, and
it will then be seen
whether those who oppose the prohibition of the export
of rice are right or
wrong. The letter from
W. F. Sands, Adviser to the
Household Department, which we print in this issue,
forms a valuable addition
to our knowledge of the Quelpart trouble. Being from
one who was so intimately
connected with the trouble it is doubly interesting. [page 357]
He makes the frank statement that
the French priests stood between the Christians and
Government oppression. This
is practically what happens in every mission in Korea.
Some may do it more
openly and avowedly than others, but the truth is that
the mere presence of the
foreigner in the country is an effective check on
official oppression. We know of
cases where provincial governors and magistrates have
said that such and such a
tax could not be collected in certain strongly
Protestant Christian centers.
But it must be confessed that there is a difference
between a passive
resistance (if such a paradox may be allowed) and an
aggressive resistance. The
former is merely the moral influence which the
foreigner exerts; the latter is
an active threat of political complications and an
appeal to temporal powers.
How far these two attitudes are descriptive of
Protestant and Roman Catholic
propagandism in Korea it is not our purpose to
discuss. It may be that the more
bitter opposition which Roman Catholicism is receiving
from the people has made
it seem as if the Roman Catholics were making a
greater use of physical
arguments, but in any case it is to be deplored that
the numbers of Christian
adherents, either Protestant or Catholic, should be
swelled by those who are
simply seeking to evade physical oppression. It is a
serious question which the
Church and the Government both have to face and which
requires most delicate
handling. It cannot be questioned that adherence to
Christianity in any form
does to a certain extent take people out of the hands
of the Government, but it
does so only in so far as the Government exceeds a
just limit of taxation or
when there is a gross miscarriage of justice. It
undoubtedly forms a most
subtle temptation to those who find it possible to
train their consciences to a
purely mercenary standard and it forms a most odious
cause of offense to those
who see others relieved of government pressure by
simply adopting the Christian
name. We can see no solution of the difficulty short
of such a fixed rate of
taxation and such a strict justice in its collection
as shall leave no room for
either the Government or the people to complain. [page 358] News
Calendar. F. H. Morsel,
Esq. Correspondent of the Physical
Observatory, St Petersburg, has sent the following
interesting hygrometrical
record for Chemulpo for the years 1887—1901 inclusive,
up to the middle of
1901. He says;— The record given
in the table appended comprises
the years 1887 to 1900 inclusive and the first half of
1901. The quantity of
snow-fall is given in terms of the water which the
melted snow would make. The
figures for 1899, 1900 and part of 1901 are taken from
the customs
meteorological record. All the others are from my own
personal observation. The
figures may not be exact, owing to the fact that the
customs pluviometer is not
so placed as to give the most precise results. But if
the figures are not exact
they are below rather than above the actual amounts. HYGROMETRICAL
RECORD. Years Rainfall Snowfall
Total
Fog
Days
and hours inches
rain
snow 1887 30.86 2.00
32.86
18d 3h 19d
17h
4d 2h 1888 20.91 2.15
23.06
14d 5h 12d
6h 3d 3h 1889 28.18 0.91
29.09
25d 13h
25d
5h 5d 9h 1890 47.00 1.06
48.06
12d 18h
27d
10h
64h 1891 41.04 1.66
41.70
13d 5h 30d
20h
3d 7h 1892 34.04 1.20
35.24
13d 2oh
16d
00h
4d 5h 1893 50.64 3.55
54.19
31d 5h 36d
6h 8d 11h 1894 31.81 0.64
32.45
33d 18h
21d
9h 1d 8h 1895 31.88 2.06
33.94
32d 7h 29d
11h 6d 17h 1896 31.08 5.15
36.23
51d 7h 27d
0h 2d oh 1897 48.35 3.23
51.58
24d 5h 31d
17h
4d 18h 1898 37.8O 4.73
42.53
31d 14h
29d
19h
5d 15h 1899 25.07 2.05
27.12
18d
19h
1d 3h 1900 29.14 0.83
29.97
20d
2h 0d 20h 1901 7.09. 0.06
7.15
7d 5h
3d
7h 2d
00b It will be seen
from this table that the rainfall
for 1899 [page
359]
and 1900 was not much below the average of the
previous years. It is only in the present year that
there has been any
considerable falling off. There have been
many complaints of the scarcity of
water during the past three years, but this is not
upheld by the records until
the present year. People say the wells are dry, but we
must remember that the
population has increased with much greater rapidity,
in proportion, than the
number of wells and that many of the new wells may be
fed from the same springs
as the old ones. The great
increase in shipping and in the number of
rice-fields, all of which demand water, account for
much of the scarcity. It is to be
deplored that observations are not
being kept at other points in Korea. In former years
His Excellency C. Waeber,
kept careful records in Seoul, but at present no one
seems to care for it. The “Independent”
used to give us occasional readings. It would be a
good thing if some one in
each of the ports would keep careful records. But it
must be remembered that it
takes a certain amount of knowledge of the science of
meteorology to keep
correct records. From some records we have seen it
would seem that a washtub
had been used for a rain-gauge. [We would like
to suggest that in estimating what
is or what is not a proper amount of rain we must know
at what time of year the
rain falls. Thirty inches of rain is of less value
than half that amount if it
falls mostly in November rather than June. That is the
difficulty in
cultivating rice, that you must not only have rain
enough but you must have it
at a certain specified time or it is practically
useless. Suppose for instance
that it rain from now till the middle of November. The
record would show a good
total but it would be utterly useless to the Korean.
Ed. K. R.] The audited
census of Seoul, taken this summer,
shows that in the five divisions of the city, namely,
north, south, east, west
and center, there is a total of 193,946 people living
in 42,565 houses. This
does not include the fortune-tellers, exorcists, so
that we may say that Seoul
contains within the wall 200,000 people. It is notable
that all the four
districts, outside the middle one, have lost in
population to [page
360]
the number of 3,393 though the number of houses
has decreased only 29. The middle district increased
in population 139 and the
houses by 96. The enterprising
Seoul Electric Company has
completed the preparations for supplying Seoul with
incandescent and arc
lights. This will be an unspeakable blessing and will
be all the more
appreciated because the change is directly from
kerosene to electricity and not
by way of the intermediate step of gas. Before this
number of the Review is
issued Seoul will be enjoying one of the most striking
products of modern
civilization. Yun Chi-ho, the
popular Superintendent of Trade for
Chinnampo, has been in Seoul recently and has now been
appointed to his old
post at Wunsan. The Government has been besieged with
requests from the Wunsan
people to send Mr. Yun back to them. Meanwhile the
people of Chinnampo and
Sam-wha fearing that they were going to lose him have
been keeping the
telegraph wires hot with messages imploring that he be
not taken away from
them. What better testimonial could a man have as to
his civic virtue and his
fitness for magisterial power than to have the people
clamor to have him put
over them. At the same time it is to be regretted that
one reason for this
insistence is the fear of what may happen to them if
Mr. Yun is not returned to
them. On July 25 there
was a decided tendency on the part
of the large rice owners not to put it on the market.
The retail dealers were
besieged with demands from the people and quarrels
were frequent, but the
police interfered and compelled the dealers to sell
rice in small quantities to
each purchaser. The police authorities went to the
river granaries and
carefully counted the rice bags and locked them up. It
is said that the
Government will buy it all up and sell it out to the
people at retail. We very
much doubt whether this will greatly benefit the
people, but it is to be hoped
that, as there is enough rice near the city to hold
out till another crop can
be harvested in 1902, it will be so handled as to save
he people from as much
suffering as possible. The Chinese
merchants are taking advantage of the
scarcity of rice to send for large consignments from
southern [page
361]
China. In the present critical situation anyone
who helps to solve the problem of food-stuff for Korea
is a public benefactor
and we hope will reap substantial profits. The 26th of
August is the date set for the stopping
of the export of cereals from Korea. The Japanese in
Chemulpo Fusan and Seoul
are making loud complaints against this prohibition as
it naturally eats into
their profits. On July 26th the Japanese Minister
visited the Foreign Office
and represented that it was too early to tell yet
whether there would be a
great enough scarcity to warrant the prohibition. Also
strenuous arguments were
made against the prohibition of the export of beans
and other cereals besides
rice, but the Government seems to have taken a
determined attitude and will not
let any mere technicalities stand in the way of
thoroughly protecting the
people from threatened famine. To say that beans are
not an ordinary article of
food in Korea is a very hollow argument, for in times
of want it becomes the
staple food of the country. Native papers
state that Yi Yong-ik in the name of
the Government contracted with M. Rondon for the
import of 300,000 bags of rice
from Annam, paying down $30,000 on account. This makes
it quite plain that the
Government is quite alive to the pressing danger of
famine. The contract price
is seven yen a bag. On the island of
Na-ju Oe-do there is trouble
between the people and the Roman Catholics. It is the
same charge of compulsion
on the part of the R. C. adherents, coupled this time
with the statement that a
French priest has beaten a Korean at the church on
that island. A very sad
accident occurred at Chemulpo on July
25th. A Japanese gunboat was lying in the outer
harbor. The captain accompanied
by Lieut. Fujiki were coming ashore in the captain’s
gig, when upon rounding
the point of Roze Island they were run into and
capsized by the steamship Kyung-ho which
had just weighed anchor
for China. The officers in the gig were all
precipitated into the water. One of
them succeeded in getting on board the Kyung-ho
where he let down a rope and helped his companions out
of the water, but Lieut.
Fujiki was lost. At present advices the body has not
been found though careful
search has been made. [page 362] It seems that
there is being made a determined
effort to implicate Cho Pyung-sik. On his return from
the mission to Japan he
gave a detailed account of all the moneys sent him
from Seoul, but it is now
charged against him that $16,000 of the money was not
used for government
purposes and the matter of forcing him to refund this
sum to the Finance
Department has been referred to His Majesty. Since last May
the Finance Department has been busy
collecting arrears of taxes throughout the country.
Apparently a clean sweep is
being made and recalcitrants are being brought sharply
to time. The result is
that money is coming into the treasury at the rate of
$50,000 a day. All
arrears of salaries and other running expenses are
paid up to date and $600,000
have been laid away to use in emergencies. Rumor says that
Chemulpo is to have a garrison of
1000 men, but 600 of them will be detailed to Quelpart
for the present. The
Kang-wha garrison is to be increased from 300 to 800.
Three hundred and fifty
rifles and 12,000 rounds of ammunition have already
been sent to Kang-wha. On Saturday the
17th the opening of the Seoul
Electric Company’s electric lighting plant took place
at the powerhouse inside
the East Gate. The company kindly issued car tickets
to a large number of
invited guests and the opening exercises were largely
attended. The machinery
was set in motion by His Excellency, Min Yong-whan, at
9.30 P. M. The selection
of Mr. Min for this leading part was a happy one, for
he is perhaps the most
representative of industrial and economic advancement
of any Korean to day. We
voice the opinion of the whole community when we
express the hope that the
electric works will long continue to shed light on the
Korean question. The Roman
Catholic Church in Ta-ku which was burned
last spring is to be replaced by a much finer one in
foreign style. “The new
structure will be of dark brick with galvanized iron
roof and two spires. It
will seat about two thousand people. Ta-ku is one of
the strongest R. C.
centers. When the outside world comes to see Ta-ku via
the Seoul Fusan Railway
they will find several foreign buildings here, as,
besides the church, there are
several residences of Protestant [page 363] missionaries
going up.” So says our correspondent, and we hope we
shall
soon have the pleasure of viewing that section from
the windows of a railway
carriage. It is with deep
regret that we are obliged to
record the death in America of Mrs. C. F. Reid. The
long and faithful services
of Dr. and Mrs. Reid in China and their subsequent
work in Korea makes their
removal from us a matter of widespread regret. On August 1st
the Superintendent of Trade and the
Commissioner of Customs at Chemulpo sent a note to the
Japanese Consul stating
that on and after Aug. 28 the export of rice, beans,
peas and other grains will
be prohibited. The native press
informs us that on or about Aug.
1st the French Minister in a despatch to the F.O.
stated that the trouble on
Quelpart had done great injury to the reputation of
the two French priests and
that several hundred R.C. adherents had been killed.
Therefore it is right that
the men who have been arrested as leaders in the
trouble, twenty-five in
number, should be punished. He also asks that $6000 be
paid to cover the cost
of property injured and to pension the family of one
of the priest’s servants
who was killed in the riots. Also to excuse the
banished men who came back to
Mokpo and telegraphed the news to Seoul. On July 31 eight
Japanese war vessels cast anchor
in Chemulpo harbor. They were the Shikishima, 15088
tons, Asahi, 15442 tons,
Idzumo, 9996 tons, Hitachi, 9855 tons, Asama 9855
tons, Kasagi 4978 tons,
Yugiri, 249 tons, and the Sasanami, 311 tons, Admiral
Togo was in command of
the fleet. Prince Kwajonomiya accompanied the fleet.
Sung Ki-un, Vice-minister
of the Household Department, with a company of
soldiers went to Chemulpo to
escort His Highness the Prince to Seoul. The Prince,
the Admiral, the different
commanders with a company of marines and a band came
up to the Capital on the
2nd inst. Mr. and Mrs. Hyashi entertained a large and
brilliant company on the
evening of the same day at which the Prince and the
naval officers, many Korean
officials and the diplomatic body were present. On the 3rd inst.
Prince Kwajonomia and his staff
had audience with His Majesty and were entertained at
a banquet [page
364]
in the palace. The Japanese band was present and
rendered some fine selections. A decoration of the
highest order has been
conferred upon the Prince by the Emperor of Korea. On the 4th the
whole company returned to Chemulpo
where they gave a banquet on board ship to the Koreans
who accompanied them to
the port. Early in August
the Japanese Minister requested
that the prohibition of the export of rice be
postponed a month longer than had
been determined upon, stating that this would be more
convenient for all
parties. He also deprecated the prohibition of the
export of other grain
besides rice. Also he called attention to the fact
that the prohibition applied
only to foreign export and not the coastwise trade,
and hoped that nothing
would or done to interfere with the latter. This all must
agree with, but it is to be hoped
that the Government will see to it that none of the
grain shipped from one
Korean port to another finds its way out of the
country. Mr. Yi Cha-jung,
formerly Kamni of Chemulpo, is on
trial for allowing the sale of tidal land near the
mint in Chemulpo. A man by the
name of Yo received permission from the Household
Department to dike the land
and cultivate it but the Kamni opposed it. However,
the Household Dept.
insisted and the work was done. The land was not
granted or sold to this man
and its subsequent sale to Japanese was a grave
misdemeanor. It is stated
that Russians have started a
stock-farm at A-ya-jin on the coast of Kang-wun
Province and that they are
raising cattle and sheep. These are to be worked up
into tinned meats on the
spot to be supplied to men-of-war, and merchant
vessels in the Far East. The
French are said to have taken shares in the venture. A
great deal of land in
Korea that might be used for pasturage annually goes
to waste. The Koreans
would do well to follow this lead and utilize more of
their fine pasture lands. On the afternoon
of the 4th inst. two men were
killed on the electric car line near the bridge
outside the South Gate. It was
getting dark and the two men were lying asleep on the
track. The people
congregated rapidly and assumed a threatening attitude
but the excitement was
soon quelled. [page
365] Gordon Paddock,
Esq. of New York arrived in Seoul
on the 5th inst. and took up his position as Secretary
of the U.S. Legation and
Consul at Seoul. Plans have been
presented for the removal of the
Gov’t engineering works from Seoul to Yong-san. The
expense of removal will be
$6000. The Foreign
Representatives have been informed that
from the 23rd inst. the Foreign Office will be closed
for one month. On the 8th inst.
the price of rice was 34 cents for
a measure of the best quality, but as exchange is now
at $1.45 this means only
about 25 cents in Japanese currency. On the 8th inst.
the four men, Min Kyong-sik, Chu
Sung-myun, Che Kal-hyung and Kim Kyu-heui, whose terms
of banishment were fifteen
years, life, life and ten years respectively, have
been reprieved. Mr. Hsu Fai
Shen, who has been Secretary of the
Chinese Legation, has been promoted to the post of
Minister. His former chief
has been made one of the vice-presidents of the new
Chinese Foreign Office. The F. O. has
requested the Finance Department to
issue $1000 for travelling expenses for the new German
physician for the
Household Department, and $2000 for the purchase of
instruments. The editor of
the local Japanese paper requested to
be allowed to witness the trial of the Quelpart
offenders but his request was
denied. The Japanese Minister asked that it be
permitted but the Supreme Court
asked the Law Department to send to the F. O. to put a
stop to this annoyance. We are told that
in the new government machine
shops to be erected at Yong-san the manufacture of
ammunition will be carried
on. For this purpose fifty French workmen will be
employed at $200 a month. Rev. S. A.
Moffett of P’yung-yang was given the
degree of Doctor of Divinity by Hanover College,
Indiana, at its last
commencement. Telegraphic
advices from North P’yong-yang Province
announce that the river Sin-p’ung at Yang-byun, 11th
and 15th instant,
overflowed its banks because of heavy [page 366] and continuous
rains and swept away over seventy
telegraph poles on both sides of the river. It also
destroyed many of the
native houses. On the Ku-ryong
River not far from the same place
the telegraph line was broken down. The telegraph
poles along the road to
Eui-ju were blown down by the high wind. The services
of three engineers are
urgently requested. We are pleased
to note that J. N. Jordan, Esq. has
been appointed full Minister to Korea. The heavy wind
of the 15th came about as near the
typhoon type as any thing we see in central Korea. It
did great damage to the
small boats in Chemulpo harbor. There are no reports
of serious loss of life or
property. Min Ch’ul-hun,
the Minister to Berlin, announces
his arrival at his post but says he has not presented
his credentials yet, as
the Emperor is travelling. He has engaged the services
of a gentleman named Mr.
Harriman, a German, to act as German secretary to the
legation. Owing to the
entire omission of the usual rainy
season, Seoul has proved a much more comfortable place
than usual at this
trying season. Yet there has been a considerable
exodus of foreigners, some to
Chemulpo, some to Puk-han, some to the river, and
others still to parts at
present unknown. It is our belief that sometime a spot
will be found, not far
from Seoul where a summer retreat will be provided
similar to those in Japan at
Kariazawa, Arima, &c. The vicinity of Seoul
abounds in beautiful and
healthful spots for such a settlement. The Seoul Book
Circle is an organization whose
purpose it is to form a small fund, by assessing each
member, for the purpose
of getting out from America and England the newest
novels as soon as they
appear. The best book of the week is to be sent as
soon as it appears and upon
arriving in Seoul will be circulated among the members
of the circle. The small
sum of five yen a year is insignificant when it helps
to give us the newest and
best things before the reviews have made them stale.
Dr. C. C. Vinton is
custodian of the books and any who wish to join should
correspond with him: Some
of the books have already come and among them are The Crisis by by Winston Churchill, The Helmet of Navarre and others of [page 367] equal interest.
It is intended to get mostly
fiction though occasionally other works of exceptional
merit will be sent. The
choice of the books is in the hands of a competent
agent in New York. The interesting
ceremony attending the breaking of
ground for the Seoul Fusan Railroad took place on
Tuesday the 20th inst. at
Yong-tong-p’o the second station beyond the riven If
this is the real beginning
of the construction of a railway line between Seoul
and Fusan it marks an era
in the history of this country, for it is a work of
such significance,
political, industrial, and commercial that it cannot
but have a very
far-reaching influence upon the destiny of the Korean
people. In the first
place, it forms a new and powerful bond between Korea
and Japan. It commits
Japan to a definite policy in Korea as no other thing
has ever done. Modern
political anchors are the vested interests of
individuals and syndicates, and
the active interest which the Japanese Government has
taken in the inauguration
of this important work argues its belief in the
political as well as economic
value of the undertaking. Just at the present time the
beginning of this work
is of great benefit to Korea, for it is apparent that
with the scarcity of rice
there will be thousands of people of the lower classes
seeking employment in
order to keep body and soul together. The building of
this line, therefore,
partakes of the character of relief-works and will
save many a Korean from
starvation Three hundred years ago the Japanese came
up from Fusan to Seoul
like a devastating typhoon sweeping all before them
and leaving misery and
famine in their wake; but now the larger view of the
twentieth century shows
them coming over the same route bearing with them the
means for relieving
present distress and attempting a material improvement
which by facilitating
intercommunication between the provinces will help to
lessen the dangers of
local famines. There is no well-wisher of Korea but
views this with satisfaction
and trusts that the most progressive of all Korea’s
neighbors will follow up
this work with others of a similarly salutary nature. Meanwhile there
are evidences that a railway north
from Seoul will soon be begun by the French. As the
bulk of Korea’s population
and the richest agricultural territory is in [page 368] the south, the
southern line gives greater hopes
of financial returns, but a line to the north,
especially between Seoul and
Song-do will be of great advantage to Korea and will
help to preserve the
equilibrium. Some day when these lines are completed
and Fusan is in direct
connection with the Siberian Railway the great
transpacific steamship lines
will make Fusan a point off call and the importance of
this peninsula will be
largely enhanced. The question is, what part will
Koreans play in the rapid
developments that are sure to follow. That here will
be found the great test of
Korean stability needs no proof. M. Lefevre,
Secretary of the French Legation, has
been appointed Superintendent of the North Western
Railway. We hope this means
a speedy completion of the work of construction. The Southern
Methodist Mission has purchased the
property occupied by Dr. W. B. McGill in Wunsan. Dr.
C. F. Reid has come back
to Korea temporarily to attend to mission matters. We
wish that he might stay
with us. [page
369] KOREAN
HISTORY. In 896 Kung-ye
began operating in the north on a
larger scale. He took ten districts near Ch’ul-wun and
put them in charge of
his young lieutenant Wang-gon who was destined to
become the founder of a
dynasty. We must now retrace our steps in order to
tell of the origin of this
celebrated man. Wang-yung, a
large-minded and ambitious man, lived
in the town of Song-ak. To him a son was born in the
third year of King
Hon-gang of Sil-la, A. D. 878, The night the boy was
born a luminous cloud
stood above the house and made it as bright as day, so
the story runs. The
child had a very high forehead and a square chin, and
he developed rapidly. His
birth had long since been prophesied by a monk named
To-sun who told Wang-yung,
as he was building his house, that within its walls a
great man would be born.
As the monk turned to go Wang-yung called him back and
received from him a
letter which he was ordered to give to the yet unborn
child when he should be
old enough to read. The contents are unknown but when
the boy reached his
seventeenth year the same monk reappeared and became
his tutor, instructing him
especially in the art of wan He showed him also how to
obtain aid from the
heavenly powers, how to sacrifice to the spirits of
mountain and stream so as
to propitiate them. Such is the tradition that
surrounds the origin of the
youth who now in the troubled days of Sil-la found a
wide field for the display
of his martial skill. Kung-ye’s
continued successes soon began to turn
his head. He styled himself “Prince” and began to
appoint prefects to various
places. He advanced Wang-gon to a high position and
made him governor of
Song-do. This he did at the instigation of Wang-yung
who sent him the following
enigmatical advice: “If you want to become King of
Cho-sun, Suk-sin and
Pyon-han you must build a wall about Song-do and make
my son governor.” It was
immediately done, and in this way Wang-gon was
provided with a place for his
capital. [page
370]
In 897 the
profligate Queen Man of Sil-la handed
the government over to her adopted son Yo and retired.
This change gave
opportunities on every side for the rebels to ply
their trade. Kung-ye
forthwith seized thirty more districts north of the
Han River and Kyun-whun
established his headquarters at Wan-san, now Chun-ju
and called his kingdom New
Pak-je. Wang-gon, in the name of Kung-ye, seized
almost the whole of the territory
included in the present provinces of Kyung-geui and
Ch’ung-ch’ung. Finally in
901 Kung-ye proclaimed himself king and emphasized it
by slashing with a sword
the picture of the king of Sil-la which hung in a
monastery. Two years later
Wang-gon moved southward into what is now Chul-la
Province and soon came in
contact with the forces of Kyun-whun. In these
contests the young Wang-gon was
uniformly successful. In 905 Kung-ye
established his capital at Ch’ul-wun
in the present Kang-wun province and named his kingdom
Ma-jin and the year was
called Mut. Then he distributed the offices among his
followers. By this time
all the north and east had joined the standards of
Kung-ye and Wang-gon even to
within 120 miles of the Sil-la capital. The king and
court of Sil-la were in
despair. There was no army with which to take the
field and all they could do
was to defend the position they had as best they could
and hope that Kyung-ye
and Kyun-whun might destroy each other. In 909 Kung-ye
called Sil-la “The
Kingdom to be Destroyed” and set Wang-gon as military
governor of all the
south-west. Here he pursued an active policy, now
fitting out ships with which
to subjugate the neighboring islands and now leading
the attack on Kyun-whun
who always suffered in the event. His army was a model
of military precision
and order. Volunteers flocked to his standard. He was
recognised as the great
leader of the day. When, at last, Na-ju fell into the
hands of the young
Wang-gon, Kyun-whun decided on a desperate venture and
suddenly appearing
before that town laid siege to it. After ten days of
unsuccessful assault he
retired but Wang-gon followed and forced an engagement
at Mok-p’o, now
Yung-san-p’o, and gave him such a whipping that he was
fain to escape alone and
unattended. Meanwhile
Kung-ye’s character was developing.
Cruelty [page
371]
and capriciousness became more and more his
dominant qualities. Wang-gon never acted more wisely
than in keeping as far as
possible from the court of his master. His rising fame
would have instantly
roused the jealousy of Kung-ye. Sil-la had
apparently adopted the principle “Let us
eat and be merry for to-morrow we die.” Debauchery ran
rife at the court and
sapped what little strength was left. Among the
courtiers was one of the better
stamp and when he found that the king preferred the
counsel of his favorite
concubine to his own, he took occasion to use a
sharper argument in the form of
a dagger, which at a blow brought her down from her
dizzy eminence. In 911 Kung-ye
changed the name of his kingdom to
Ta-bong. It is probable that this was because of a
strong Buddhistic tendency
that had at this time quite absorbed him. He
proclaimed himself a Buddha,
called himself Mi-ryuk-pul, made both his sons
Buddhists, dressed as a high
priest and went nowhere without censers. He pretended
to teach the tenets of
Buddhism. He printed a book, and put a monk to death
because he did not accept
it as canonical. The more Kung-ye dabbled in Buddhism
the more did all military
matters devolve upon Wang-gon, who from a distance
beheld with amazement and
concern the dotage of his master. At his own request
he was always sent to a
post far removed from the court. At last Kung-ye
became so infatuated that he
seemed little better than a madman. He heated an iron
to a white heat and
thrust it into his wife’s womb because she continually
tried to dissuade him
from his Buddhistic notions. He charged her with being
an adultress. He
followed this up by killing both his sons and many
other of the people near his
person. He was hated as thoroughly as he was feared. The year 918 was
one of the epochal years of Korean
history. The state of the peninsula was as follows. In
the southeast, the
reduced kingdom of Sil-la, prostrated by her own
excesses, without an army, and
yet in her very supineness running to excess of riot,
putting off the evil day
and trying to drown regrets in further debauchery. In
the central eastern
portion, the little kingdom of Kung-ye who had now
become a tyrant and a
madman. He had put his whole army under the hand of a
young, skillful,
energetic and popular man who had [page 372] gained the
esteem of all classes. In the
south-west was another sporadic state under Kyun-whun
who was a fierce,
unscrupulous bandit, at swords points with the rising
Wang-gon. Suddenly
Kung-ye awoke to the reality of his position. He knew
he was hated by all and
that Wang-gon was loved by all, and he knew too that
the army was wholly
estranged from himself and that everything depended
upon what course the young
general should pursue. Fear, suspicion and jealousy
mastered him and he
suddenly ordered the young general up to the capital.
Wang-gon boldly complied,
knowing doubtless by how slender a thread hung his
fortunes. When he entered
his master’s presence the latter exclaimed, “You
conspired against me
yesterday.” The young man calmly asked how. Kung-ye
pretended to know it
through the power of his sacred office as Buddha. He
said, “Wait, I will again
consult the inner consciousness.” Bowing his head he
pretended to be communing
with his inner self. At this moment one of the clerks
purposely dropped his
pen, letting it roll near to the prostrate from of
Wang-gon. As the clerk
stooped to pick it up, he whispered in Wang-gon’s ear.
“Confess that you have
conspired.” The young man grasped the situation at
once. When the mad Buddha
raised has head and repeated the accusation Wang-gon
confessed that it was
true. The King was delighted at this, for he deceived
himself into believing
that he actually had acquired the faculty of reading
men’s minds. This pleased
him so greatly that he readily forgave the offence and
merely warned the young
man not to repeat it. After this he gave Wang-gon rich
gifts and had more
confidence in him than ever. But the
officials all besieged the young general
with entreaties to crush the cruel and capricious
monarch and assume the reins
of government himself. This he refused to do, for
through it all, he was
faithful to his master. But they said. “He has killed
his wife and his sons and
we will all fall a prey to his fickle temper unless
you come to our aid. He is
worse than the Emperor Chu.” Wang-gon, however, urged
that it was the worst of
crimes to usurp a throne. “But” said they “is it not
much worse for us all to
perish? If one does not improve the opportunity that
heaven provides it is a
sin.” He was unmoved by this casuistry and stood his
ground firm- [page
373]
ly. At last even his wife joined in urging him to
lay aside his foolish scruples and she told the
officials to take him by force
and carry him to the palace, whether he would or not.
They did so, and bearing
him in their arms they burst through the palace gate
and called upon the wretch
Kung-ye to make room for their chosen king. The
terrified creature fled naked
but was caught at Pu-yang, now P’yung-gang, and
beheaded. Tradition says
that this was all in fulfillment of
a prophecy which was given in the form of an enigma. A
Chinese merchant bought
a mirror of a Sil-la man and in the mirror could be
seen these words: “Between
three waters—God sends his son to Chin and Ma—First
seize a hen and then a
duck—in the year Ki-ja two dragons will arise, one in
a green forest and one
east of black metal.” The merchant presented it to
Kung-ye who prized it highly
and sought everywhere for the solution of the riddle.
At last the scholar Song
Han-hong solved it for him as follows: “The Chin and
Ma mean Chin-han and
Ma-ham The hen is Kye-rim (Sil-la). The duck is the
Am-nok (duck-blue) River.
The green forest is pine tree or Song-do (Pine Tree
Capital) and black metal is
Ch’ul-wun (Ch’ul is metal). So a king in Song-do must
arise (Wang-gon) and a
king in Ch’ul-wun must fall (Kung-ye)”. Wang-gon began
by bringing to summary justice the
creatures of Kung-ye who seconded him in his cruelty;
some of them were killed
and some were imprisoned. Everywhere the people gave
themselves up to
festivities and rejoicings. But the
ambitious general, Whan Son-gil, took
advantage of the unsettled state of affairs to raise
an insurrection. Entering
the palace with a band of desperadoes he suddenly
entered the presence of
Wang-gon who was without a guard. The King rose from
his seat, and looking the
traitor in the face said, “I am not King by my own
desire or request. You all
made me King. It was heaven’s ordinance and you cannot
kill me. Approach and
try.” The traitor thought that the King had a strong
guard secreted nearby and
turning fled from the palace. He was caught and
beheaded. Wang-gon sent
messages to all the bandit chiefs and
invited them to join the new movement, and soon from
all sides they came in and
swore allegiance to the young king. Kyun-whun,
however, held aloof and sought
for means to put down [page 374] the new power.
Wang-gon set to work to establish his kingdom on a
firm
basis. He changed the official system and established
a new set of official
grades. He rewarded those who had been true to him and
remitted three years’
revenues. He altered the revenue laws, requiring the
people to pay much less
than heretofore, manumitted over a thousand slaves and
gave them goods out of
the royal storehouses with which to make a start in
life. As P’yung-yang was
the ancient capital of the country he sent one of the
highest officials there
as governor. And he finished the year with a Buddhist
festival, being himself a
Buddhist of a mild type. This great annual festival is
described as follows:
There was an enormous lantern, hung about with
hundreds of others, under a tent
made of a net-work of silk cords. Music was an
important element. There were
also representations of dragons, birds, elephant,
horses, carts and boats.
Dancing was prominent and there were in all a hundred
forms of entertainment.
Each official wore the long flowing sleeves and each
carried the ivory memo
tablet. The king sat upon a high platform and watched
the entertainment. The next year he
transferred his court to Song-do
which became the permanent capital. There he built his
palace and also the
large merchants’ houses and shops in the center of the
city. This latter act
was in accordance with the ancient custom of granting
a monopoly of certain
kinds of trade and rising the merchants as a source of
revenue when a sudden
need for money arose. He divided the city into five
wards and established seven
military stations. He also established a secondary
capital at Ch’ul-wun, the
present Ch’un-ch’un, and called it Tong-ju. The
pagodas and Buddhas in both the
capitals were regilded and put in good order. The
people looked with some
suspicion upon these Buddhistic tendencies but he told
them that the old
customs must not be changed too rapidly, for the
kingdom had need of the help
of the spirits in order to become thoroughly
established, and that when that
was accomplished they could abandon the religion as
soon as they pleased. Here
was his grand mistake. He riveted upon the state a
baneful influence which was
destined to drag it into the mire and eventually bring
it to ruin. In 920 Sil-la
first recognised Koryu as a kingdom [page
375]
and sent an envoy with presents to the court at
Song-do. Wang-gon looked
out for the interests of the people
in the distant parts of the country as well as for
those near the capital. In
order to break the force of the attacks of the wild
people beyond the Tu-man
River he built a wall across the northern border of
Ham-gyung Province. It is
said to have been 900 li long. But there was a still
stronger enemy on the
south. Kyun-whun had by this time come to see that he
had no hope of overcoming
the young kingdom of Koryu and so he bent his energies
to the securing of his
position against the danger of interferance,
especially in his plans against
Sil-la. For this reason he sent a messenger to Song-do
with presents and tried
to make friends with his old time enemy. His next move
was to attack Sil-la.
Wang-gon took up the cudgels in support of the king of
Sil-la and by so doing
secured the lasting enmity of the bandit who from this
time determined upon war
without quarter against his northern enemy. Wang-gon
said to the Sil-la envoys,
“Sil-la has three treasures; the nine storey pagoda,
the Buddha six times the
height of a man, and the jade belt. As long as these
three remain intact Sil-la
will stand. The first two are in Sil4a. Where is the
jade belt?” The envoy
answered that he did not know, whereupon Wang-gon
blamed him sharply and sent
him home. When Sil-la finally fell, the jade belt
passed into the hands of
Wang-gon. In 921 the
Mal-gal tribe, Heuk-su, made a treaty
with Wang-gon. This bears evidence to the rapidly
growing power of the young
king. The Heuk-su Mal-gal were the most feared of all
the semi-savage tribes of
the north. The following year the Ku-ran, usually
called Kitan in Chinese
histories, followed the example of the Heuk-su people
by sending an envoy with
presents. It was not till 923 that Wang-gon thought
fit to send an envoy to
China to offer his compliments. When the last
king of Sil-la, but one, ascended the
throne in 924 important events were following thick
and fast upon each other.
Sil-la was now so weak that the records say the king
had nothing left but his
genealogy. Kyun-whun sent a force to begin operations
against Koryu, but
without success, and in the following year Wang-gon
retaliated with such good
success that Kyun-whun was fain to send his son to
Song-do as a hostage. He
thus bound himself to keep the [page 376] peace. Having
done this he sent to China desiring to secure backing
against
Koryu, The Emperor so far complied as to confer upon
him the title of King of
Pak-je, thus following the time-honored policy of
pitting one power against
another. The year 926 saw
the first envoy come from the
kingdom of T’am-na on the island of Quelpart. He
arrived at the capital of
Koryu, where he was well received. The fame of
Wang-gon was spreading far and
wide among the northern tribes. The Ku-ran, or Kitan
tribe, having overcome the
Pal-ha tribe, made overtures to Wang-gon relative to
annexation. These advances
were cordially responded to but we are not informed
that the union was actually
effected. Kyun-whun, who
was at this time on the island
Chul-yong-do, sent a present of horses to Wang-gon but
a few days later he
found a book of prophecy which said that in the year
when he should send a gift
of horses to Song-do his power would come to an end.
He therefore sent a swift
messenger begging Wang-gon to return the gift. The
King laughed long and loud
when he saw this message and good-naturedly sent back
the horses. The last King of
Sil-la, Kyung-sun, ascended the
throne in 927. It happened on this wise; Kyun-whun was
keeping up a double
fight, one against Wang-gon and the other, an
offensive one, against Sil-la. He
was badly defeated in an engagement with Koryu forces
but had good success in
his other venture. He burned and pillaged right up to
the gates of Sil-la’s
capital, and, while a Sil-la envoy was posting to
Song-do to ask for aid,
entered the city with a picked band of men. Succor in
the shape of 10,000 Koryu
troops was on its way but came too late. At the hour
when Kyun-whun entered the
city the king, his son, the queen and many of the
courtiers were feasting at
Po-suk summer-house. When the unwelcome news arrived,
there was no time for preparation.
The icing and queen fled south without attendants. The
palace women were seized
and the palace occupied. The king was soon run to
earth and was compelled to
commit suicide. Kyun-whun ravished the queen and
delivered over the palace
women to the soldiery. The palace was looted and the
entire band, sated with
excess and debauchery, and loaded down [page 377] with the
treasures of the palace, started, back on
the home ward road. But not until Kyun-whun had
appointed a relative of the
murdered king to succeed him. When Wang-gon
beard of these atrocities, he
hastened forward his troops and overtook the army of
Kyun-whun in O-dong forest
where a sharp engagement ensued. For some reason,
whether it be because the
soldiers of Kyun-whun were more familiar with the
locality or because the Koryu
soldiers were exhausted by their long forced march,
the assault was
unsuccessful and the Koryu forces withdrew. This was
doubly unfortunate for it
not only did not punish the ruffians for their
atrocities at the Sil-la capital
but it inspired them with confidence in their own
power. Shortly after this
Kyun-whun sent a letter to Wang-gon saying, “I became
Sil-la’s enemy because
she sought aid from you. You have no cause for warring
against me. It is like a
dog chasing a rabbit; both are tired out to no
purpose. It is like a
king-fisher trying to catch a clam; when he thrusts
his bill into the shell the
clam closes it and he finds himself caught”. To this
epistle Wang-gon replied, “Your
actions at the Sil-la capital are so outrageous that I
cannot endure the
thought of any compromise. Your present course will
lead you to speedy ruin”. Elated over His
successful repulse of Wang-gon’s
army, Kyun-whun took the field the following’ year,
with a strong force, and
was prepared to assume the offensive. He assaulted and
took two Koryu
fortresses and even, at one time, surrounded Wang-gon
in Ch’ung-ju and caused
him no little anxiety. In the battle which followed
Kyun-whun lost three
hundred men and was pushed back, thus freeing the king
from an embarrassing
position; but before the campaign was over Kyun-whun
scored another victory by
capturing the district of Ok-ch’un. In his next
campaign he was still
successful, and Eui Fortress fell into his hands and
he killed the general in
charge. Here his successes ended, for Wang-gon awoke
to the necessity of using
strong measures against him. The following year Koryu
forces inflicted a
crushing defeat upon the southern leader, at An-dong.
The fight had lasted all
day and neither side had gained any advantage, but
that night a picked band of
Koryu men ascended Hog’s Head Mountain and made a rush
down upon the unsuspect-
[page
378]
ing camp of the enemy, causing a panic and a
stampede in which eight thousand men were killed.
Kyun-whun himself sought
safety in flight. This seemed conclusive and all the
countryside sent in their
allegiance to the victors. A hundred and ten districts
in eastern Korea came
over to Wang-gon in a body. Dagelet Island, or
Ul-leung as the Koreans call it,
sent presents to Koryu. The next year
after these stirring events, namely
931, Wang-gon made a visit to Sil-la taking with him
an escort of only fifty
soldiers. The king of Sil-la came out to meet him and
they feasted there at the
meeting-place together. The king of Sil-la lamented
the smallness and weakness
of his kingdom and deplored the ravages of Kyun-whun.
The evils, he said, were
beyond estimation; and he broke down and wept. The
courtiers did the same and
even Wang-gon could scarce restrain his tears- After
tins they had a friendly
talk and the king of Koryu remained as a guest for
some twenty days. As he left
the capital of Sil-la the people vied with each other
in doing him honor. Poor
old Sil-la had gone out of fashion and the minds of
all men were turned Koryu-ward.
Wang-gon had a strong predilection for P’yung-yang,
the ancient capital of the
country. He had already established a school there
with professorships of
literature, medicine and incantation. He now in 932
conceived the project of
moving his capital northward to that place. To this
end he erected barracks
there for his troops and was making other preparations
for the change, when he
was dissuaded from it by some evil omens. A great wind
blew down some of the
houses in P’yung-yang and, so the story goes, a hen
became a cock. These
portents made it impossible to carry out the plan. It
was about this time that
he built a guest-house outside the walls of Song-do to
be used as a reception
hall for envoys and messengers from the wild tribes of
the north. Suspicion as
to the object of their coming may have made it seem
undesirable to allow them
to enter the city proper, or it may have been simply
to impress them with the
importance of the place. Kyun-whun’s
right hand man came and swore
allegiance even though, at the time, his two sons and
his daughter were
hostages in the hands of his former master. When
Kyun-whun heard of it he
burned the first son alive and would have [page 379] treated the
second son and the daughter in like
manner had they not effected their escape to a retreat
where they lay in hiding
till his death. This desertion seems to have roused
the old man’s ire, and he
longed for the din of battle once more. He could still
command a considerable
force; so he entered upon another campaign and as
usual was at first
successful. He seized three districts in the east
country and set fire to a
large number of towns. It was not until the next year
that Wang-gon sent an
expedition against him. This was under the command of
Gen- Yu Gon-p’il, whom
the king had banished but had pardoned and recalled
because of his lively
efforts while in exile to raise a company of soldiers.
He never seemed to know
when he was beaten. He routed the forces of Kyun-whun
and returned in triumph
to Song-do, where he was hailed as the savior of the
people. We may judge from
this that Kyun-whun was still considered formidable.
In another fight Gen. Yu
captured seven of Kyun-whun’s captains and one of his
sons as well. As things seemed
quiet now, the king made a royal
progress through the north and west, helping the poor,
inspecting fortresses,
supplanting unpopular prefects; but when he got back
he found his old enemy
still active, and at Un-ju he bad his last great fight
with him. In this
struggle three thousand of the enemy were killed and
thirty-two fortresses were
taken. The year 935 A. D. is another mile-stone in
Korean history. It marks the
end of a dynasty which lacked but eight years of
completing a millennium. But
we must relate the events of the year in order.
Kyun-whun had many concubines
and more than ten sons. Of the latter the fourth named
Keum-gang, was the one
he loved the best, a boy of robust body and great
intelligence. The old man
passed by his other sons and named this one as his
successor. This of course
made trouble at once. The first son, Sin-geum, led a
conspiracy and the old
gentleman was seized and imprisoned in Keum-san
monastery, the young Keum-gang
was put to death and Sin-geum ascended the insecure
throne of his father, now
doubly insecure, since it had lost the masterly genius
which of late years had
been its only support. But old Kyun-whun had not
played his last card. After
three months imprisonment he succeeded in getting his
guards drunk (jolly [page
380]
monks those) and escaped to Ka-ju from which point
he had the colossal impudence to send a letter to
Wang-gon surrendering and
asking for asylum in Koryu against his own son. It was
granted and soon a ship
of war arrived with a high official on board to escort
the grey old wolf of the
south to the Koryu capital, where he was received as a
guest, given a
comfortable house and plenty of servants and the
revenues of Yang-ju
prefecture. From that point we may believe that he
waited patiently to see the
overthrow of his sons. But these are
small events compared with what
followed. The king of Sil-la determined to abdicate
and hand over the remnant
of his kingdom to Wang-gon. When he broached 그 the matter to
his officials no man raised his voice. They could not
assent
and they knew there was no use in demurring. The crown
prince urged his father
to submit the question to the people and to abide by
their decision, but the
king was determined and so sent a letter to Song-do
offering to lay his scepter
at the feet of Wang-gon. The crown prince was in
despair, refused to see his
father, retired to a mountain retreat and ate coarse
food as a token of his
grief. He died there of chagrin and sorrow. Wang-gon
answered by sending one of the highest
officials to escort the ex-king to Song-do. The royal
procession was ten miles
long, as it slowly wound its way out of the deserted
city amidst the clamorous
grief of the people. Wang-gon met him in person at the
gate of Song-do. He did
not want the ex-king to bow to him but the courtiers
had decided that as the
country could have but one king this must be done. So
the new arrival did
obeisance. Wang-gon gave him his daughter to wife and
made him prime minister,
set aside the revenues of an entire district to his
use and conferred high rank
upon the Sil-la courtiers. And so ended
the ancient kingdom of Sil-la which had existed for
992 years, from 57 B. C. to
935 A. D. Her line of kings included fifty-six names,
which gives an average of
about eighteen years to each reign. From that day the
capital of Sil-la was
called simply by the name Kyong-ju. We believe that
history shows few instances
of greater generosity, forbearance, delicacy and tact
than are shadowed forth
in the life of this same Wang-gon. Does history show a
nobler act [page
381]
than that of providing a comfortable home where
his old enemy Kyun-whun might spend his last days in
comfort and ease? Does it
show more delicacy than was shown by Wang-gon when he
took every means to cover
the chagrin of the retiring king of Sil-la by treating
him as a royal guest? Chapter
II. Kyun-whun’s sons
defeated.... Buddhist teachers
from China.... The Emperor recognizes Koryu....
Wang-gon refuses to treat with
the Kitans.... makes ten rules.... king marries his
sister.... plot
detected.... practical Shogunate.... Buddhism
flourishes.... P’yung-yang....
Chinamen take office in Koryu.... slavery....
examinations.... Chinese
favored.... official garments.... incapable king....
retrogression....
reform.... Confucianism.... Kitan growing.... bureau
of history reorganized....
equilibrium between Confucianism and Buddhism.... Uk
is banished.... quarrel
with Kitan.... concession.... dispute.... China
refuses aid.... the
provinces.... the “Emperor’’ of Kitan gives the king
investiture.... first
coinage.... reforms.... conspiracy crushed. Before leaving
the kingdom of Sil-la to be
swallowed up in antiquity we must notice a few
corollaries. We will notice that
Sil-la was the first power to gain the control of the
whole peninsula. It was
the language of Sil-la that became at least the
official language of the entire
country. The yi-t’u, or system of diacritical marks;
tended to stereotype the
agglutinative endings, so that we find to-day the
general characteristics
running through the grammar of Korean are those which
characterized the
language of ancient Sil-la. This fact, clearly
grasped, goes a long way toward
opening a way for the solution of the question of the
origin of the language. As the year 936
opens we see king Wang-gon with his
two former rivals, the peaceful one and the warlike
one, gathered under his
wing, and the only cloud upon his horizon the attitude
of Kyun-whun’s sons in
the south. This was soon settled. The king in company
with Kyun-whun, at the [page
382]
head of an army of 87,000 men, marched southward
and engaged the pitiable force that was all the
malcontents could now muster.
When they saw this tremendous army approaching and
knew that Kyun-whun was
there in person, surrender was immediate. Wang-gon’s
first demand was “where is
Sin-geum?” He was told that he was in a fortress in
the mountains with a small
force and was prepared to fight to a finish. He was
there attacked and 3,200
men were taken and 5,700 killed, which shows now
desperate the battle was,
Sin-geum and his two brothers were captured. The two
other sons of Kyun-whun
were executed, because they had driven their father
away, but Sin-geum in some
way showed that he had not been a principal actor in
that disgraceful scene and
so escaped what we may well believe was merited
punishment. There on the field
the old man Kyun-whun died. It is said that his death
was caused by chagrin
that Sin-geum was not killed with his brothers. It was in 938
that Wang-gon went outside the walls
of the capital to meet a celebrated monk named
Hone-bum, who had come
originally from Ch’un-ch’uk monastery in the land of
Su-yuk. All this time
interesting reforms were in progress.
The names of all the prefectures throughout the
country were changed. This has
always been customary in Korea with a change of
dynasty. The next year, 939,
the new king of Koryu was formally recognized by the
Emperor who sent and
invested him with the insignia of royalty. The crown
prince of T’am-na, on
Quelpart, came and did obeisance at the court of
Koryu. A redistribution of the
farming lands throughout, the country was effected, by
which, the records say,
the worthy received more while others received less.
It would be interesting to
know in what way the test of worthiness was applied. In 942 the Kitan
power in the north tried to make
friendly advances and sent a present of thirty camels.
But Wang-gon remembered
the way in which Kitan had feigned friendship for
Pal-ha and then treacherously
seized her; and for this reason he showed his opinion
of Kitan now by banishing
the thirty men and tying the thirty camels to Man-bu
bridge and starving them
to death. [page
383] King Wang-gon
was now sixty-five years old. His
life had been an active one; first as a warrior and
then as the administrator
of the kingdom which he had founded. Feeling that his
end was approaching, he
set himself to the task of formulating rules for his
successor. As a result he
placed in the hands of his son and heir ten rules
which read as follows: (1)Buddhism is
the state religion. (2)Build no more
monasteries. (3) If the first
son is bad let the second or some
other become king. (4)Do not make
friends with Kitan. (5)Do honor to
P’yung-yang, the ancient capital. (6)Establish an
annual Buddhist festival. (7)Listen to
good men and banish bad ones. (8)As the south
is disaffected towards us do not
marry from among the people of that section. (9)Look after
the interests of the army. (10)Be always
ready for emergencies. After urging his
son to lock all these precepts in
his heart the aged king turned to the wall and died.
These ten laws are typical
of the man. They inculcated reverence for the best
religion that had come under
his notice, but in the same breath forbade the
disproportionate growth of
priest-craft, for he had seen what a seductive
influence lay hidden within the
arcana of this most mystical of all heathen cults. He
advised temperance in
religion. He forbade the throning of a man simply
because he was the king’s
firstborn. By so doing he really proclaimed that the
king was for the people
and not the people for the king. He hated treachery
and forbade making
alliances with the forsworn. He believed in doing
honor to the best of the old
traditions and ordered that the ancient city of
P’yung-yang be remembered. He
believed in loving his friends and hating his enemies
and forbade descendants
taking a wife from among the people of the south who
had so desperately
supported the claims of Kyun-whun, the one-time
bandit. He was a military man
and believed in having a strong army and in treating
it in such a way as to
insure its perfect loyalty. It was in the last
injunction, however, that he
struck the key-note of his character. Be for
emergencies. Reading his character
in the light of his ac- [page 384] tions we can
well imagine one more precept that would have been
characteristic of him; namely, that it is better to
make a friend of an honest
enemy than to kill him. And so in the year 942 the
great general, reformer,
king and administrator was laid to his fathers and his
son Mu reigned in his
stead. The latter’s posthumous title is Hye-jong. The reign of
this second king of Koryu starts with
the statement that the king gave his own sister to his
brother for a wife. It
was one of the peculiar institutions of the dynasty
that whenever possible the
king married his own sister. In this instance he gave
his sister to his
brother, but the king had probably already married
another of his sisters. This
custom, which has prevailed in other countries besides
Korea, notably in
ancient Egypt, rests upon the assumption that by
marrying one’s own sister more
of royalty is preserved in the family and the line is
kept purer, the royal
blood not being mixed with any of baser quality. We
are told that, in order to
make it seem less offensive, the sister, upon marrying
her brother, took her
mother’s family name. This shows that the custom was
looked down upon, else
this device would not have been resorted to. We find
also that the kings of
Koryu were accustomed to have more than one real wife,
contrary to the custom
of the present dynasty. We read that this king, who
had none of the elements of
his father’s greatness, took as His sixteenth wife the
daughter of one Wang-gyu
and by her had a son. Through her influence Wang-gyu
had risen to the position
of prime minister and it was his ambition to see his
daughter’s son ascend the
throne. It had been the king’s plan to give the throne
to his brother Yo and
the prime minister began by plotting against the life
of this possible
successor. The king learned of this and frustrated it
by immediately abdicating
in favor of his brother. Wang-gyu seems to have
possessed considerable power
independently of the king for we learn that he not
only was not punished but
that he continued to plot against Yo even after he had
assumed the reins of
power. An assassin whom he had hired to kill the king
was himself killed by the
king while attempting to carry out the deed. When the
king fell ill he was
advised to move secretly to another palace for safety.
[page
385] THE
KOREA REVIEW, September 1901 The
Seoul Water-works. Now that the
construction of a system of
water-works for the city of Seoul is an assured fact
it is safe to assume that
the readers of the Review will be glad to learn some
of the particulars
regarding this enterprise. Especially will those be
interested who for many
years have been condemned to drink Korean well-water
which, though filtered,
distilled, aerated or what not, still affects the
imagination too vividly and “gets
on the nerves,” however innocuous it may be to the
alimentary stem. So long as
water does not look dirty the Korean takes it straight
and asks no questions. Colbran,
Bostwick & Co., are the firm that have
engaged to work out the system. The water is to be
drawn from the Han River at
the village of Tuk-sum about three miles outside the
East Gate of Seoul. A crib
is to be built in the center of the river, in order to
procure the purest water
possible. This is a mile above the point where the
drainage of the city enters
the river, and as the Han is essentially a mountain
stream it is sure that the
water will be of a high average quality. At least it
will be incomparably
better than any that has ever been used in Seoul
heretofore. The water is to be
pumped into the city by means of two magnificent
vertical, triple-expansion,
high-duty pumping engines each of which has a capacity
of five million gallons
a day. Some estimate can be gotten of their size when
it is said that they are
each forty-nine feet high. The three cylinders are
sixteen, twenty-five and
forty-six inches respectively, with a stroke of
twenty-four inches. [page
386] Ordinarily the
water will be pumped directly into
Seoul from the river, but when high water causes too
much sediment means must
be taken to settle it before passing it through the
pipes. For this purpose
three reservoirs will be built beside the river, the
first to receive the muddy
water from the river. From here it will filter into
the second, and then into
the third from which it will be pumped into the city.
A thirty inch-pipe will
be used to convey the water to the city, but it will
not be distributed
directly to the water-mains of the city. The pipe from
the river will enter the
city at the Su-gu Mun or Water-mouth Gate, commonly
miscalled the Little East
Gate by foreigners, and will run directly to a
reservoir on the slope of
Nam-san not far to the east of the Japanese Legation.
The reservoir will be
located at a place called Chun-nam-ch’ang or “The old
South Storehouse.” This
reservoir will be high enough above the city to secure
a good head of water and
afford the necessary pressure. It will not be a
storage reservoir, for such is
not needed, as the river is always ample for all
purposes and never goes dry.
This reservoir is simply to secure an even and
continuous head of water, even
should the pumps be temporarily stopped. The reservoir
will hold about
10,000,000 gallons. The network of
pipes throughout the city will be
very complete, contemplating the growth of the
population by over a hundred per
cent. In fact the system will be able to supply a
million people, which is
about four times the present population of Seoul. The
extent and thoroughness
of the system can be judged from the fact that there
will be 659 hydrants at an
average of 500 feet apart throughout the city. Each
hydrant will be provided
with two discharge pipes, one for ordinary purposes
and the other, a larger
one, for use in case of fire. As the mains will run
through all the principal
streets of the city, it will be a simple and
inexpensive matter to put water
into private houses. To complete the
whole system will take between two
and three years, but certain parts will be done and in
working order before
that time. There are no
serious engineering difficulties in
the way and as the finances of the undertaking are
assured, the fact that the
work is in the hands of an American firm is sufficient
[page
387]
guarantee that the work will be done promptly and
well. We would draw the attention to the fact that
this work calls for by far
the largest amount ever expended for improvements in
Korea. Indeed it calls for
more than all other improvements put together,
including the Seoul-Chemulpo
Railway; but what is most significant of all is that
this benefits directly the
common people more than any other class. Many of the
wealthier people have
private wells that can be kept comparatively clean,
but the people have only
the neighborhood wells which are insanitary to a
degree. It is a work that
redounds to the credit of the Government, which is too
often charged with
ignoring the needs and interests of the common people.
We dare affirm that such
a scheme as this would have been laughed at ten years
ago. With all her
conservatism Korea is learning things. Some may say
that the work was
inaugurated at the advice of outsiders, but so much
the more credit is due for
the willingness to listen to and profit by such
advice. An
Anglo-Korean Conversation. A young Korean
and a young Englishman happened to
meet on the promenade deck of a P. & O. steamship
bound from Hongkong to
London. The Korean had acquired a fair knowledge of
the English vernacular and
so the two naturally fell into conversation. After
discussing a variety of
general topics the dialogue took the following curious
turn, and in order to
record it we will indicate the Korean by K and the
Englishman by E. K. Yes, we make
use of the Chinese characters in
Korea. When I was a small boy I found it very tiresome
sitting all day long
studying these complicated ideograms and I thought of
giving it up, but my
father said that I was mistaken, for a knowledge of
written Chinese was an
essential qualification for official position of any
kind and that I would find
myself handicapped through life unless I could read
and write it. So I kept on.
[page
388] E. Curious, but
I had a very similar experience.
When I was about ten years old my father set me at
work on a Latin grammar
which seemed to me about the dryest thing I had ever
seen. I complained about
it but my father laughed and said that if I wanted to
become a really educated
man I could not get along without Latin; that it was
very necessary in official
life but doubly so in professional life; that, the
lawyer, the physician, the
clergyman, the journalist, the scientist could hardly
hope to rise to the
height of his profession without a knowledge of Latin,
unless he was possessed
of very exceptional genius; so of course I continued
to study it. K. I suppose in
time you learned to speak Latin. E. O no; no one
ever speaks Latin. It is simply a
literary language today. We learn it so as to be able
to read the ancient
classics in the original. So many of our words are
Latin derivatives that one
needs to study it in order to complete his knowledge
of English etymology. And
besides, our English literature, the best of it, is so
full of allusions to
classical subjects that without reading the classics
themselves we could not
well master the subject of English literature. K. It is the
same with us. No Korean learns to talk
Chinese. It is a purely literary language. All Korean
literature is built on
Chinese models and the Chinese classics themselves
form the major portion of
the reading of the educated classes in Korea. Many of
the stories read in the
native character by the lower classes relate to
classical subjects so that
there is a constant tendency toward the acquisition of
the Chinese character. E. You do not
mean to say that although you have a
native alphabet you still use the Chinese character
for ordinary writing? K. O yes, you
see our native alphabet has never
become popular with the educated classes. I suppose we
look down upon it
because it is used by the lower classes, and the use
of the Chinese marks the
educated man as belonging to a different grade of
society from the one who
knows merely the native alphabet. We rather like to
preserve the distinction. [page
389] E. That is
precisely the position we were in a few
centuries ago. No literary man in those days would
have thought of writing in
anything but Latin. Of course there was a native
written language but it was
looked down upon just as yours seems to be today. K. Then you have
entirely discarded Latin? E. No indeed; we
still have many uses for it. In
the legal profession, for instance, very many terms
and phrases are still pure
Latin. In the natural sciences, too, we still make use
of the Latin for our
terminology to a very great extent. Inscriptions on
monuments are often in
Latin and the diplomas which are given to graduates
from our schools are very
commonly written in Latin. It seems to be the notion
that there is a certain
dignity in the use of Latin in such cases. But for
ordinary literary work we
use English exclusively. If you use only the Chinese
the common people of Korea
have nothing at all to read. K. O that is a
mistake. The native character is in
common use throughout the country. The commonest of
the Chinese classics, which
we call the O-ryun Hang-sil, or “The Five Principles
of Conduct,” is written in
Chinese and Korean both, the Chinese on one page and
the Korean on the other so
that it is available for all classes. While there are
comparatively few who
understand Chinese a great majority of the people read
the native character
quite well. The upper classes pretend they do not know
the native character but
it is mere pretense; for you always find that when it
is to their interests to
read it they can do it well enough. E. But why are
not all the classics translated into
Korean so that the common people can have access to
them, or why do not
educated Koreans begin to write original productions
in Korean? K. Well there
are two great difficulties. In
translating a Chinese work in Korean we find that a
Chinese word, for instance
the word yang has so many and such different meanings
that it is hard to tell
which idea is meant. If we have the Chinese character
before us the shape of it
generally tells us which meaning it is. E. Then there
are several characters that have the
same name? [page
390] K. Precisely. E. But does each
character have only one meaning? K. O no, a
character may have a dozen or more
different meanings. E. In a Chinese
text, then, how can you tell which
meaning to take? K. The context
shows what the meaning is. E. Then in a
Korean sentence why would not the
context tell which meaning to attach to a doubtful
word? For instance, yon say
that yang may mean “sheep” or it may mean “ocean.” If
you say then that the
butcher slaughtered a fat yang no one would suppose
that he slaughtered the
ocean, and if yon say that you crossed the “great
peaceful yang” in a steamship
no one would guess that it was a sheep you crossed! If
it is a mere matter of
context I do not see why it should not work both ways. K. Now you
mention it, there does seem to be about
as much sense in one as the other. To be sure, when we
use Chinese derivatives
in talking, no one mistakes our meaning and I see no
reason why there should be
any greater difficulty when the conversation is
written down phonetically. But
you remember I said there were two difficulties. E. What is the
other one? K. Wait a
minute. If I remember rightly you said a
few moments ago that there are so many Latin
derivatives in English that you
needed to study Latin in order to understand English
etymology, and that a
study of the classics in the original was necessary to
fully understand your
own literature. If so why could you not do all this as
well by translating
those classics into English? E. To tell the
truth that is just what is being
done now-a-days. It is becoming recognized that for
merely literary purposes a
knowledge of the contents of the classics is about the
same whether learned
through the original or through a translation. Of
course more or less of the
original flavor is lost but not enough to compensate
for the loss of time
involved in the acquisition of Latin. So in our
schools the study of Latin is
becoming less and less general while on the whole our
literary standards are as
high as ever. [page
391] K. Much the same
thing is going on in Korea. There
was a time when a thorough knowledge of Chinese was an
essential qualification
for eligibility to official position and frequent
examinations were held to
determine who were the most competent, but these have
been discontinued and
today the literary qualification counts for very
little. In fact some of the
highest government officials can hardly use the
Chinese character at all. Our
people say that the real literati of Korea have
retired to the country and are
not to be found in official circles. Of course the
discontinuance of the great
examinations has done very much to discourage the
study of Chinese. E. Of course
there is always a hard struggle in
changing from one system to another, whatever the
system may be. Changing from
one form of dress to another or from one form of food
to another is not
effected in a year or two. A few centuries ago the
literary language of England
was Latin, but gradually the native language began to
move forward and two or
three bold men broke away from the Latin and wrote
important works in pure
English. Once the ice was broken the change was rapid
and yet it took several
generations to complete the change. The literary
reformers were laughed down but
they kept on and won the day. K. Now that is
the very point. It brings us to the
second difficulty I mentioned. I have no doubt that
the Korean language is
adequate for all literary purposes but the prejudice
in favor of the Chinese is
still so strong that there seems to be no one brave
enough to take the plunge
and begin the good work. E. Well, it is
sure to come- Now that you have
taken away the greatest incentive to the study of
Chinese the natural law of
the survival of the fittest will work out its
legitimate results. As I
understand, you are constantly printing books for your
schools in a mixed
Korean and Chinese script. This is an entering wedge.
The various missions are
placing in the hands of the people Bibles and tracts
in pure Korean which will exert
a powerful influence. The German Bible and the English
Bible exerted an
enormous power in favor of the native language as
against a foreign language.
Of course [page
392] Korea is not prevailingly Christian as
England and
Germany were but the publication of the Bible in pure
Korean shows that
extensive and complicated works can be written in the
native character without
the use of the Chinese ideograph. K. Yes, I
recognize the fact that there can be no
such thing as general education until we discard the
ideograph and we owe a
great deal to the foreigners who are helping to
popularize our own alphabet.
Another generation will see a great change in the
attitude of Koreans towards
their own phonetic system. But there goes the dinner
gong. I will see you again
and talk over some other interesting points in this
same connection. Korean
Proverbs. In the February
issue of the Review we gave a few
of the best known Korean proverbs, but they formed
merely a sample of the whole
mass of Korean proverbial lore. Perhaps nothing is a
better indication of the
temperament of a people than their proverbs. Let us
examine a few of them with
this in mind. 뵙쇠황쇠다라가면되리지어진다 “If the wren
tries to keep step with the stork his
legs will be torn apart.” Here we have
illustrated a prominent phase of
Korean life. Official position is the grand
desideratum. Wealth, influence,
renown, all depend upon it. But if ignorant men aspire
to high position they
generally find that the pace is too much for them. The
proverb refers
especially to men of the common class who by sharp
practice obtain official
position. The history of the last ten years proves the
applicability of this
proverb. 외뫼한득거비돌에친다 “The innocent
toad gets mashed under a stone.” This seems to be
an illustration of the irony of
fate. The harmless toad, a modest and retiring
creature, crawls under a stone
to hide, and some one steps on the stone and crushes
him. It would appear to be
a warning against to much mod- [page 393] esty or
self-effacement. It is quite in accord with the Korean
nature to
believe that if one wants his rights recognized he
must not stay too much in
the background. 배지도못하고밧지도못하다 “It can neither
be pulled out nor driven in.” This is the
Korean way of describing a complete
deadlock. A nail half driven in which can be moved
neither way is not a bad
illustration of this uncomfortable situation. 발업는말이쳔리간다 “The footless
word will go a thousand li. This is a neat
form of the fama volat, and is
particularly applicable to Korea where rumor takes the
place, too often, of genuine
news. 나무오르라고하고흔든다 “He told me to
climb the tree and then he shook it.”
Having used me as a cat’s-paw he deliberately gets me
into trouble over the
business. Unfortunately this proverb grew out of
actual conditions in the
peninsula. The exigencies of official or commercial
life not infrequently
result in this breaking of faith between man and man. 듬은듬은가도황여거름 “Though he goes
slowly it is the pace of a yellow
bullock.” The bullock is
the type of steadiness and power. We
say “slow but sure.” Just why a yellow bullock should
be a more striking figure
than a black or brown one it is hard to say, but so
the proverb runs. 멧두기뛰면망둥이도뛴다 “When the locust
jumps the the mang-dung-i (a fish)
jumps also.” As the fish
cannot jump he foolishly tries to
follow the example of the locust. It illustrates the
folly of trying to ape the
actions of others whose qualifications we do not
possess. 올장이적성각하여라 “Think while you
are a tadpole.” A most amusing
way of advising that one “look
before he leaps.” If we could all think things out
while in the tadpole stage
we would make fewer mistakes later on. [page 394] 송마백열 “If the pine
(song) does well the pine (pak)
rejoices.” These two are different species of the same
family and the proverb
is illustrative of sympathy. 굴먹은벙어리 “The deaf and
dumb man who has eaten honey.” The meaning is a
little obscure but seems to refer
to a man who by keeping still and looking wise gives
the impression that he
knows much more than he really does. The look of
satisfaction in the face of
the dumb man who has been eating honey seems to the
Korean similar to the
knowing look on the face of the man who refuses to
divulge a pretended secret. 벙어리냉가심알듯기 “Like a deaf man
who has a pain in his chest.” The Korean
supposes this to illustrate the actions
of a man who is so ashamed at having been caught in a
fault that he has not a
single word to say in excuse. The Korean who cannot
make excuses must be very
deeply implicated. 남대문입납 “A letter
addressed to the South Gate.” This is a
neat way of describing ambiguousness. It also typifies
a waste of energy. 무리황셔주려죽지 “A flock of
cranes would starve to death.” As
cranes are not gregarious they could not find food if
many of them went
together. This proverb is evidently aimed at trusts.
It inculcates the
principle of individual and personal effort, as
Opposed to combination. 업은아해삼년 “She hunted
three years for the baby that was on
her back.” A terse way of
chiding those who find nothing of
value in their own environment, but are always
complaining that under other
conditions or in another locality they could be
successful. 거지도승지불상하다고 “Even the beggar
says he pities the palace reader.”
[page
395] The duties of
the seung-ji call him to the palace
very early in the morning and require a great deal of
forget fulness of
personal comfort. But as personal comfort is the prime
factor in a happy life
in Korea, it is said that even the beggars pity the
seung-ji where rank, though
high, entails personal discomfort. 무리켱매논이갓다 “Like a man who
flies his falcon at a flock of
pheasants.” This is equivalent to our “too many irons
in the fire.” There are
so many tilings to do that it is impossible to
determine which to begin on.
Falconry is still a favorite pastime of country
gentlemen. 존계관쳥 “A cock in a
government office.” This is like our
“cat in a strange garret” or a “bull
in a china shop.’’ 왕우쟝샹의시가잇다 “Can king,
general or statesmen be raised from
seed?” This is like our “a poet is born, not made.”
And of a like nature is: 소가기운만이면잉금될수가잇나 “Can an ox,
simply because it is strong, become a
king?” 럼갈굴졍 “Being thirsty
he went to work and dug a well.”
Showing the round-about way some people go to work to
obtain the object of
their desire; as if a man should dig a well every time
he is thirsty. 우물파면하나만파 “If you dig a
well, dig only one.” This is a fine
illustration of perseverance. The
man who digs a few feet and, not finding water, begins
in another place will
never have a well. 벌거벗고은칼찬다 “Though naked he
carries a silver knife.” Shows the folly
of those who, though needy in every
way, are extravagant in one direction; like the
starving women who being given
ten dollars bought two canary birds and a picture hat.
[page
396] 눈예안경 “It is
spectacles to me.” One’s own
spectacles fit no one else, so this
expression refers to anything that pleases one’s own
taste whether others like
or not. 거동구경도만자보나 “Do you want to
feel of the procession?” This means “let
well enough alone.” The sight of a
royal procession ought to be enough without wanting to
feel of it. The
expression applies to those who want to get two values
for their money. 국이한강수와갓지하도수갈업시는못먹어 “Even if you
have as much soup as the water at
Han-kang, you can’t eat it without a spoon.” This refers,
evidently, to the uselessness of a superabundance
which cannot be enjoyed. The rich man depends for his
enjoyment upon the same
tastes and the same appetites as the poor man. Some
say it refers to the man
who leaps to a conclusion and wants to enjoy the
fruits without paying
attention to the necessary means for securing them. 잠셔걸내쓰곗다 “He can bridle a
sparrow.” He is so clever
that he can do anything. it is a
term of reproach for the bridling of a sparrow is
quite useless. [page
397] The
Seoul-Fusan Railway. To everyone
interested in the Far East the
construction of a railway between Fusan and Seoul
appeals with special force.
It is not merely that three hundred miles are to be
spanned by a railroad, but
that it forms one link in the chain which will reach
ultimately from Fusan to
Calais and carry a man from Shanghai to London in a
shorter time than he can go
from Calcutta to London. It is a foregone conclusion
that when once the
Seoul-Fusan Railway connects with the Siberian system
via the North-western
Railway from Seoul through to Manchuria the public
will demand that the great
transpacific liners make Fusan a point of call; and in
this way as great a
transformation will be effected in eastern routes of
travel as the union
Pacific Railroad made in the western hemisphere. If
you draw a great circle
between Shanghai and London you will find that it runs
well north of many
points on the Siberian Railway. This route will be
quicker, cheaper and cooler
than any other between the great metropolis of the Far
East and the greatest
metropolis of Europe. Fusan is ideally located for the
terminus of a great
continental thoroughfare. It is about midway between
Shanghai and Kobe and
almost on the direct line between those two commercial
centers. The harbor is
one of the best in the Far East and does not suffer
from the high tides of the
western coast of Korea. To Korea itself
such a road ought to prove of
surpassing value, as we have pointed out in previous
issues of the Review.
Whether it will or not depends very largely upon the
Koreans themselves. There
is little doubt that the building of this road will
necessitate many new
adjustments both commercial, industrial and political.
It will stimulate the
Japanese taste for colonizing and it is difficult to
see how Korea can prevent
the influx of a large, agricultural population from
Japan. It does not require
close reasoning to show that many new questions will
arise, the answer to which
will [page
398]
require the best statesmenship that Korea is able
to produce. Of one thing we may be sure, that nothing,
absolutely nothing, will
stand in the way of the speedy development of the rich
agricultural and mineral
resources which will be made accessible by this
railway. Whoever or whatever
stands in the way of this development will be in the
position of the man who
throws himself before a locomotive running at full
speed. If Korea grasps the
opportunity and handles the reins wisely and properly
her stability will be
insured. She has able advisers who are working for her
good and it is to be
hoped their words will not fall upon deaf ears. This
railway is an enterprise
of such interest to all foreigners in the East that we
do not hesitate to give
space to explain in detail its itinerary—which is as
follows. The road starts
from the station outside the South Gate. The second
stop is at YongSan and the
third at No-dol. From this point it leaves the line of
the Seoul-Chemulpo R. R.
and runs about due south to Si-heung and then turning
slightly eastward it
proceeds to An-yung and Su-wun, twenty-six miles from
Seoul. Then resuming a
southerly direction it passes through Ta-whang-gyo,
O-san, Chin-wi and after
crossing the border of Kyung-geui Province into
Ch’ung-ch’ung Province it
enters the town of P’yung-tak, which is very near the
coast. Thence directly
south to Tun-p’o where it touches tide-water. Then
south again to On-yang
sixty-nine miles from Seoul. From this point it
proceeds South-easterly to
Chun-eui and then turning directly south again it
passes through P’yung-geui
and after crossing the famous Keum River it enters the
important town of
Kong-ju. There is a large river traffic on the Keum
and the point where the
road crosses this river is destined to be an important
distributing center.
From Kong-ju, which is ninety-six miles from Seoul,
the road continues
southward through No-Sung to Sin-gyo which will prove
an important center, for
at this point a branch road will be built toward the
south-west to the town of
Kang-gyung which is a commercial center of prime
importance in the province. It
is 125 miles from Seoul. From Sin-gyo the
main road turns abruptly toward
the east and after passing through Yun-san it crosses
a western spur of the
great mountain chain of the peninsula and enters [page 399] Chin-san.
Thence it runs still eastward to
Keum-san which is in the valley of the southern branch
of the Han River on its
upper waters. Following down the river in a
north-easterly direction and
crossing the line into Kyung-geui Province again, the
road takes advantage of
the gap in the same mountain spur before mentioned, by
which the Han breaks
through it and then turning eastward crosses the river
and pushes directly east
again to Yang-san and the town of Yong-dong 141 miles
from Seoul. Then slightly
north of east to Whang-gan 153 miles from Seoul. This
place is close up under
the great mountain range and a few miles brings us to
the great Ch’u-p’ung Pass
or “Autumn Wind Pass” where great engineering skill is
called for. Crossing the
pass the road enters Kyung-sang Province and reaches
the town of Keum-san. Then
running slightly south of east the road goes down to
the banks of the Nak-tong
River through Keum-ch’un Post and Pu-sang Post.
Arriving at the river it
crosses it immediately at Wa-gwan and from this point
it is but a few miles
south-east to Ta-gu through Sin-dong. Ta-gu is 201
miles from Seoul. From here
the direction is south-easterly all the way to Fu-san.
The road does not follow
the valley of the Nak-tong but passes to the east of
the river through Sam-san,
Ch’ung- do, To-gok, Mi-ryang and Sam-nang-jin where it
strikes the Nak-tong
River again. Passing down along the river through
Mul-geum and Kwi-p’o it
leaves the river at the latter point and strikes
across to the Korean town of
Pu-san leaving Tong-na to the north. From the native
town of Pusan it runs
around the bay to the port of Fusan. The distances
here given for the various towns are
the distances directly to those towns by the Korean
highway and and not by the
railroad. The total length
of the road will be 287 miles and
in that distance there will be some forty stations
including terminals. It is
estimated that the run from Seoul to Fusan will take
twelve hours which is an
average of about twenty-four miles an hour including
stops, and the running
time will consequently be something like thirty miles
an hour. This is the
estimate that is made, but our experience of railways
in the East leads us to
think that this is a somewhat optimistic view. It
takes fifty-five minutes for
the ordinary trains between [page 400] Yokohama and
Tokyo, a distance of eighteen miles and it is hardly
to be
expected that this will be much bettered in Korea. It
is estimated that it will
take about six years to complete the construction of
this road but of course
portions of it will be ready for use much sooner than
that. Work was begun on
the road-bed at both ends, at the Seoul end on August
20th and at the Fusan end
on Sept. 15th or not later than the 20th. A glance at the
map shows that the road taps same
of the richest portions of Korea but it is obvious
that at some future time
there must be an important branch passing down from
the angle which the road
makes at Sin-gyo southward into Chul-la Province the
“Garden of Korea” finding
a terminus perhaps at Mok-po or at the mouth of the
river which separates
Chul-la Province from Kyung-sang Province, but
preferably at Mokpo. Odds
and Ends. A
Snake Story.
As
Kim Cha-hyuk was walking through the woods one
day he saw a snake charming a bird. He rushed forward
and struck the reptile a
heavy blow with his walking-stick. The bird flew away
with a glad cry but the
snake writhed in agony on the ground till night and
then dragged itself away
into the bush to die. A month later
Kim again found himself passing
through the same woods with his fowling-piece over his
shoulder. In the middle
of the forest he was astonished to see a little
thatched shanty with a basket
suspended on a pole in sign that it was a wine-shop.
He approached and found
that it was presided over by a beautiful young woman
who smilingly invited him
to stop and have a cup of wine. But as she spoke he
saw that she had a cloven
tongue. He knew instantly that she was a serpent
turned to human shape to
compass his death. It was the snake he had struck. He
turned and fled but the
woman resuming her serpent form gave chase. Kim was
soon aware that the snake
was gaining on him, so he stopped short, turned around
and met the reptile at
close range with [page 401] a
charge of shot from his gun. The loathsome creature
was nearly torn to pieces
and Kim made his way home. A month later
found Kim again in the woods. In a
shady nook he saw some luscious mushrooms growing. He
took them home and ate
them for supper, but before morning his body began to
swell and swell, while
all through his limbs he felt a crawling sensation.
With great difficulty he
dragged himself out of the house and lay beneath the
shade of a tree. He knew
his last hour had come. In some way the snake had
accomplished its object. As
he lay thus in pain he heard a flutter of a thousand
wings in the air and a
moment later a flock of birds settled down upon him.
They began pecking at his
body. He had no strength to drive them away. The
torture was almost unbearable,
but as soon as a hole had been pecked through his skin
he saw a tiny snake
crawl out and make away. Then he knew that the birds
were rewarding him for
having saved one of their number. They kept pecking
away at him and little
snakes kept coming out of him by the score. At last
they were all gone and the
birds flew away. The swelling
departed with them. He fell asleep and
when he awoke he was a well man again. The
Seventh Daughter.
In
olden times a king of Korea had six daughters
but no son. When a seventh daughter was born he was so
angry that he put her in
a stone chest, locked it tightly and threw it into the
water. But it did not
sink; and after floating about for some days it was
found by a monk. On the
chest were inscribed the words “King’s Daughter.” The
monk took the child to
his retreat and reared her there, telling her that her
father was the bamboo
and her mother the o-dong wood. So she revered them as
though they were her
parents. Years passed by
and at last a time came when the
queen of the country fell ill. The mudang, or female
fortune-teller, said that
if the seventh daughter could be found the queen would
recover. This news
reached the ears of the monk and he sent the girl to
the palace. The doctors
had decided that the only way to save the queen’s life
was to have one of her
daughters bring a certain kind of medicine from India.
The six refused but when
the seventh arrived she consented to undertake the
perilous journey. It took
her two years but [page 402] she was
successful and the queen recovered. When the girl was
asked what reward she
wanted, she replied “I want nothing but the praise of
the mudangs.” So from
that day she became the patron saint of the
fortune-tellers. And this is said
to be the origin of the custom of using a bamboo cane
when one’s father dies
and an O-dong-wood cane where one’s mother dies. Confidence
Restored.
A
time came when the people lost all confidence in
the government officials. A newly appointed governor
of Seoul determined to win
back their confidence. He placed a small stick of wood
at the West Gate and
said “I will give 5000 cash to any one who will carry
this stick to the East
Gate.” The people laughed him to scorn and the stick
remained untouched. He
raised the offer to 6000 cash. At last an old man
seized the stick and carried
it through the city amid the jibes and insults of the
populace. When he arrived
at the East Gate he was met by the governor who handed
him the money while the
people looked on open-eyed and open-mouthed. It turned
the tide of discontent
and confidence was restored. When
Thieves Fall Out. Two
beggars formed a plan to cheat a rich man. They
kept irritating him by requests for money till in his
anger he struck one of
them. The beggar fell to the ground and pretended to
be dead while the other
beggars carried him off the scene. The second beggar
then returned and charged
the rich man with murder and terrified him into
offering 5,000,000 cash to hush
the matter up. The live beggar went to the “dead” one
and said, ‘‘You must
remain as if dead for six or seven days or the plan
will fall through. If you
get too hungry eat these little cakes.” The “dead” man
said to himself, “Five
million cash! I wonder if that other beggar wants it
all.” So he threw one of
the little cakes to a dog. The dog bolted it and then
incontinently turned over
on his back and died. The “dead” beggar sprang to his
feet, rushed to the house
of the rich man and disclosed the plot. He was
rewarded with a handsome sum
while his faithless accomplice was put to death. Tricks
Of The Trade.
A wealthy
gentleman in Ch’ung-ch’ung Province was
told by a fortune-teller that when he was forty years
old he would be in
imminent danger of death but would be saved by a
govern- [page
403]
ment detective. In the third moon of his fortieth
year a mysterious guest appeared and asked for a
night’s lodging. It was
granted. At dusk that evening as the gentleman was
seated in his sarang reading
he heard exclamations of surprise from the women’s
quarters. Hurrying within he
found the ladies looking curiously at a little book.
He took it in his hands
and found it to be a Roman Catholic book. At the same
moment there came a
thundering at his front gate. The yamen-runners of the
neighboring prefecture
burst in and seized him with the damning evidence in
his very hands. He was
haled to prison and tortured but was offered life if
he would give up his
money. At that moment the mysterious guest appeared
before the magistrate and
displayed his badge as government detective with power
of life and death. He
ordered the instant arrest of the magistrate and
compelled him to acknowledge
that he had had the compromising book thrown over the
gentleman’s wall in order
to implicate him and make an excuse for seizing his
property. Bones
Wanted.
Long, long ago the
Chun-chi fish had only a backbone and their flesh was
very fine. For this
reason the people caught and ate them in great
numbers. The Chun-chi fish
therefore, memorialized the Fish King saying “We have
no bones and our flesh is
tender. The people are catching us all. Give us more
bones or we perish.” The
King in anger replied “Truly, you discontented
fellows, I will give you bones
and to spare.” So he put thousands of bones into the
hands of the attendants
and said “Give them 3000 bones apiece.” The attendants
began sticking the sharp
bones into the Chun-chi and they fled in dismay. But
the inexorable law pursued
them. The attendants caught them by the tails as they
fled and stuck them full
of bones; so that to-day the Chun-chi is the boniest
of all fish and the bones
are mostly near the tail. Review. The Transactions
of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol
II, Part I. appeared on
the 13th inst. It contains two papers of unusual
interest. The first is a paper
on [page
404]
Kang-wha by the Rev. M. N. Trollope, M.A., who has
been for some years a resident of that island. It is
one of the most
interesting parts of Korea from an historical
standpoint, for it is the one
spot of land in eastern Asia that the Mongols never
conquered by force. Time
and again they tried to cross the estuary and take the
island but never
succeeded. Mr. Trollope has handled the subject in a
masterly way giving us all
the valuable topographical, historical and antiquarian
points of interest. A
long residence on the island and complete familiarity
with the language make
the writer of this paper the authority on Kang-wha, an
island that contains
more points of historic interest than any other
portion of Korea of equal size.
We have not space enough to go into details but refer
the reader to the
Transactions themselves, assuring him that he will
find very entertaining and
instructive reading. The second paper
is on The Spirit Worship of the
Koreans, by Rev. Geo. Heber Jones, A.M., of Chemulpo.
The writer has gotten at
the root of the matter and gives us a critical review
of the Korean pantheon,
or shall we call it a pan-demonaion? The writer has
made this phase of Korean
life a specialty for many years and is facile
princeps in his department. Of course the whole
field of Korean spirit
worship cannot be completely covered in a single
paper, but Mr. Jones has here
laid the foundation for a series of papers on this and
allied subjects which we
shall look for eagerly in future publications of the
Society. Editorial
Comment. The cowardly and
brutal assault upon the life of
President McKinley comes as a bolt from the blue, for
if there was any single
ruler who might be supposed to be safe from such
attack it was he. The
President of a Republic that stands foremost in the
advocacy of the rights of
the individual and which [page 405] has always
shown the utmost leniency toward those who take
extreme. views
in regard to relations between the individual and the
state, he should have
been sedulously guarded and upheld by the very class
from which his assassin
was chosen. We say chosen, for in spite of the
ruffian’s statement to the
contrary the whole body of so-called anarchists are
accessory to the crime
morally if not physically. What will such
acts accomplish toward the overthrow
of government? Do these men fail to realize that there
are more men in the
United States who would be willing to assume the
presidency, even with the
certainty of assassination, than there are scoundrels
who would risk the
gallows by committing the outrage? Their one argument
seems to be intimidation,
but it is a difficult thing to intimidate such men as
Lincoln, Garfield, or
McKinley; and now that Theodore Roosevelt has become
president the dare-devils
have come not a hair’s breadth nearer the
accomplishment of their purpose. In
fact from their own standpoint they have done
themselves and their own cause
incurable damage; for they have aroused the fighting
spirit of the people of
the United States. They will no longer be able to nest
in safety in our country
and there plot the murder of European monarchs.
Anarchy may be properly defined
as universal treason, and the expression of
anarchistic sentiments should at
least be punished as incendiary. This terrible
fatality is in some sense the result
of our inexcusable negligence in allowing anyone and
everyone to come to our
land to live provided he has a few dollars in his
pocket. The outcome will be a
thorough revision of our immigration laws and a
critical examination of every
person who seeks to settle in the United States. The
numbers are so enormous
and the interests involved so vast that the United
States could well afford to
support a commission in each of the great emigration
centers of Europe, whose
business it should be to receive applications from
proposed immigrants to the
States and examine each case critically and learn the
antecedents and record of
every single person who proposes to become an American
citizen. It would cut
down the figures at first but we should obviate much
of the danger of taking
into out bosom such reptiles as this by which we have
been stung. Meanwhile the
United States citizens in Korea join
in the [page
404]
deep sorrow which enshrouds our dear land. We
sympathise deeply with her who has been bereft of a
husband, with the party
that is bereft of a leader, with a land that is bereft
of its most
distinguished citizen. May God grant that we as a
nation may learn the lesson
which He is teaching us in this hour of our calamity,
and may He bring out of
it a deeper loyalty, a livelier patriotism and a more
steadfast faith in the
principles of democratic government. News
Calendar. The month of
September has seen the arrival of six
new missionaries to join the Presbyterian Mission.
They are Rev. W. M. Barrett
and Rev. and Mrs. W. N. Blair of Kansas; Miss Mattie
Henry of Iowa, Rev. E.
Miller of California and Miss Barrett. We believe that
Rev. E, H. Miller has
come out for the purpose of starting higher
educational work under the mission;
so Seoul will soon be graced with another school. Among those who
have recently returned from
furlough in the United States are Rev. and Miss Tate,
Rev. W. L. Swallen, wife
and family. The Journal of
the Royal Geographical Society for
August contains a note of a journey made by a certain
M. Schmidt, along the
east coast of Korea southward from Wonsan. He was
evidently laboring under the
impression that he is the first foreigner to take that
trip, but in this he is of
course at fault for it has been done more than once.
What strikes us most
forcibly is the remarkable nomenclature which he has
adopted. For instance he
speaks of the Diamond Mountain as Almazinya! We may
only guess that this is the
Russian name for it, but for modern geographical
purposes it is misleading. His
other attempts at naming Korean localities are almost
equally infelicitous. Mr. John Henry
Dye, so well known to many foreign
residents of Seoul, was married on Aug. 1st to Miss
Pearl Walter at Holly
Springs, Miss., U. S. A. [page 407] H. E.
Vice-admiral Sir Cyprian A. G. Bridge, K. C.
B. arrived at Chemulpo on the 6th inst. on board the Alacrity. Commander Erskine, R. N. He
was accompanied to Seoul
Commander S. E. Erskine, R. N., Secretary F. Harrison
Smith R. N., Flag
Lieutenant D. M. Hamilton, N., and Surgeon W. H. S.
Stalkarrt, R. N. They were
present at the audience with His Majesty on the
anniversary of his birthday and
returned to Chemulpo on the 10th. The Alacrity
left for Wei-hei-wei on the 11th. The working
force of the Methodist Mission, South,
has been increased this month by the arrival of Dr.
Ross who will be stationed
at Wonsan. A solemn
memorial service for President McKinley
was held on Thursday the 19th inst. at eleven o’clock
in the First Methodist
Church, Seoul. It consisted simply in the reading of
the Burial Service of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. The church was
appropriately draped in black and
the service was an impressive and memorable one. The
diplomatic body were
present in full force to do honor to the departed
president and the large
auditorium was filled with English, American,
Japanese, Chinese, French,
German, Russian and Korean officials and civilians.
The service was conducted
by Rev. Geo, Heber Jones assisted by Rev. C. F. Reid,
D.D., Rev. S. A. Moffett,
D.D., and Rev. L. B. Tate. We have received
from Holme Ringer & Co. the
report of the seventy-second half-yearly meeting of
the shareholders of the
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, held in
Hongkong on Aug. 17th. The
report shows a very prosperous state of affairs. It is
remarkable that the disturbances
in China have affected this institution so little. The
ability to lay aside
$750,000 to add to the reserve fund certainly argues
great prosperity. An Engineer
connected with the North Western Bureau
started out Aug. 22nd on a tour of inspection along
the proposed line and he
will probably examine the approaches to the Ta-tong
River near P’yung-yang with
a view to the building of a bridge. Whang-sung
Sin-mun. Because of the
strong attitude taken by the
Japanese authorities the Korean government has decided
to raise the embargo on
all cereals excepting rice. This is a concession [page 408] forced from the
government in the face of all the
needs and requirements of the Korean people. The
export of these cheaper grains
means more harm to the common people of Korea this
year than the export of rice
would do, for it is the cheap grains that they must
depend upon. It is proposed
to levy an extra tax on wine shops
and to tax the fuel merchants and to farm out the
collection of these taxes to
a company. The amount of the proposed taxes are ninety
cents, seventy cents,
and fifty cents a month on first, second and third
class wine shops
respectively, and seventy cents, fifty cents and
thirty cents upon fuel
merchants according to the size of their business. Whang-sung Sin-mun. The North
Western Railway will start from outside
the West Gate, proceed southwest to Yang-wha-chin
where the foreign cemetery is
situated, thence through the district of Hang-ju and
the western portion of
Koyang; then across the Im-jin river, through
Chang-dan to Song-do. The
distance by rail will be longer than by road but many
engineering difficulties
will be avoided. Han-sung Sin-mun. On Aug. 25th the
Minister Yun Yong-sun resigned and
Sim Sun-t’ak was appointed to the place. At the same
time Cho Pyung-sik was
appointed to fill the place made vacant on the council
by the resignation Sim
Sang-hun. A movement is on
foot for the elevation of Lady Om
to the position of imperial concubine of the first
rank. Cho Pyung-sik is one
of the prime movers in the matter. It is evident
that the matter of Roze Island is
still on the tapis. The Japanese seem to be willing to
part with their rights
in the premises for the modest consideration of
$30,000 which is not yet
forthcoming. Meanwhile the people of the island keep
appealing to the Foreign
Office to prevent them from being driven from their
homes. This raises an
interesting question. These Koreans have acquired
title to properties on the
island and of course would expect the government to
reimburse them if their
property was sold over their heads. Was this fact
taken into consideration when
the island was feloniously made over to the Japanese?
We fear very much that in
any case the Korean claims in equity will receive but
scant attention. The prohibition
of the export of rice has resulted
in stop- [page
409]
ping the rise in the market price of that
commodity. The Han-sung
Sin-mun says
that the rice which Yi Yong-ik is importing from Annam
will be higher in price
than the native rice. It is said that it was his plan
to pay out this imported
rice to the soldiers and the police in lieu of salary.
The department of war
does not acquiesce in this arrangement. Song Chung-sup
and Kang Myun-heui who were
condemned to death and to perpetual banishment
respectively, were released on bail
on Aug. 30th, but on Sept. 7th they were again
imprisoned. About the first
of September a band of 100 robbers,
more or less, armed with rifles and swords raided the
market at Su-wun and
seized large quantities of goods. Han-sung
Sin-mun. The Whang-sung
Sin-mun says that one of the Foreign
Representatives has been urging the
government to keep a strict lookout at the treaty
ports for epidemic diseases,
as Newchwang has suffered severely and there is danger
of infection in Korea. The magistrate
of Chi-do, an island of Chul-la
Province, reports that the tax-collectors are being
hindered in their work by
Roman Catholic adherents, especially by a native
priest named Kim Wun-yung who
imprisoned one of the tax collectors. The magistrate
asks for instructions. The Korean
Government has secured a loan of
$500,000 from the First National Bank. It is generally
understood that this sum
goes largely toward footing the bills in connection
with the celebration of the
Emperor’s fiftieth birthday. The Foreign
Office has advised the Law Department
in regard to the Quelpart trouble as follows: (1) to
pay immediately the sum
necessary for indemnifying the two French priests for
their losses, (2) to
condemn the men implicated in the riot, (3) to pardon
the three banished men
who brought the news to Mokpo, (4) to instruct the
magistrate to take pains to
smooth matters over between the people and the R.C.
adherents on Quelpart. Sim Sang-hun,
the President of the Railroad Bureau,
and Yi Cha-wun left Seoul on the 13th inst to be
present in Fusan at the
ceremony in connection with the beginning of work on
the Seoul-Fusan R.R. The people on
Dagelet Island, or Matsushima as the [page
410]
Japanese call it, are complaining bitterly to the
Home Department of the action of the Japanese who have
come by hundreds this
year and settled on the island, and who forbid the
people to cut a single tree
or even cut the grass on the mountains, claiming that
it all belongs to them.
Now there is no doubt whatever that this island is a
part of the Korean Empire
and should be safe from such freebooting expeditions
as those by which the
Japanese have denuded it of its fine timber. We
believe that Japan is Korea’s
best friend, but we should be pleased to see that
friendship expressed in terms
of a sharp injunction against the injustice with which
Japanese subjects treat
Koreans in just such instances. It is reported
that a fine vein of coal has been
located near the port of Mokpo. If it falls into the
same hands as those which
have practically locked up the P’yung-yang mines it
will be of as little value
to the general public as to the Korean government. The foreign
population of Masanpo is given as follows
by the Whang-sung
Sin-mun: Japanese
male
150
female
78 Russian
,,
8
,,
10 German
,,
1
,,
1 Chinese
,,
33 ,,
8 The government
looks with disfavor upon the
slowness with which the country people take to the new
form of money, namely,
the nickels and cents. They circulate only in the
vicinity of the Capital and
the open ports. For this reason the Finance Department
has ordered all
governors and prefects to collect the taxes in nickels
and cents and not in
cash. A small part of
the rice ordered from An nam has
arrived. His Majesty has inspected a sample of it and
it will be used in part
to pay the salaries of officials. According to the
Han-sung Sin-mun this rice
comes to only twenty cents a measure. A good deal of
work has been quietly done on the
public park in the center of the city near the pagoda.
The space has been
cleared and walled in, and handsome gates are being
built on the north and
south sides. We hope that before long the two top
stories of the pagoda will be
restored to their [page 411] position
from which they were taken down by the Japanese at the
time of the great
invasion. The Seoul
Electric Company is to be congratulated
upon the completion of their substantial building at
Chong-no. It is surmounted
by a round tower in which is placed an electric clock
which will prove a great
convenience in a city where we have no standard of
time. The Japanese
Government has erected in Seoul, in a
most convenient location, a handsome post-office
building. In spite of the
requests of the government it appears that the
Japanese are not going out of
the postal business in Korea. Considering the large
commercial interests of the
Japanese and their numbers in Korea we are not
surprised at this decision,
however anomalous it may be when viewed in the light
of international usage. Of
course the Japanese have nothing to do with the
domestic post excepting in the
open ports. The opening of the new building took place
0n Saturday, September
1st, and was accompanied by a fitting ceremony. A
large number of native and
foreign guests were present. Addresses were made by
the Postmaster, Mr. Tanaka,
and by other gentlemen. The British Minister, Mr.
Gubbins, spoke in behalf of
the occidental portion of the public who owe much to
Japanese postal
facilities. The banzai was led off by the well-known
and highly esteemed Kim
Ka-jin, one of the few Korean officials who were
present. A collation was
served and the guests were treated to some clever
Japanese dancing under
awnings in the adjoining compound. As is eminently
fitting, the fiftieth birthday of
His Majesty the Emperor of Korea has been celebrated
with unwonted festivities.
It completes a half century of remarkable progress in
Korea. This nation has
received a greater impetus during this period than
during any subsequent period
of like duration in its history. The attempts of rapid
reformers have almost
all failed, the prestidigitators have retired, and
things have taken their
normal course. It was not to be expected that the
ancient customs and
prejudices of Korea could be overcome in the same way
that they were in Japan.
Korea has imbibed too much of the Chinese conservatism
for that; and yet we see
today a striking advance as compared with that of
twenty years ago. The change
is inevitable, though slow. [page 412] Elaborate
festivities were arranged for both within
and without the palace. The sum of $200,000 was
appropriated for this purpose
and the occasion was signalized by sufficient eclat.
To the foreigners who
congratulated His Majesty at the palace on the morning
of the 7th, the most
memorable part of the entertainment was the first
appearance of the new
military band which has been under the tutelage of Dr.
Franz Eckert. The band
consisted of twenty-seven pieces, well balanced and
handled in a manner which
caused astonishment that such music could be rendered
by Koreans on foreign
instruments after only four months’ practice. The
greatest credit is due both
to Dr. Eckert and to the Korean musicians, for the
result attained must have
called for unremitted work on the part of the director
and close and faithful
application on the part of the Koreans. Handsome
uniforms, polished
instruments, perfect time, smoothness of rhythm and
harmony, all combined to
give an effect that was wholly unexpected and
delightful to the audience. The
repeated applause gave evidence of the pleasure which
the music afforded. At
this rate Seoul will soon have a band that can compete
successfully with
anything in the Far East. This anniversary
was signalized by the casting of a
commemorative medal in silver, bearing on one side the
picture of a crown and
on the other the legend, “A silver medal in honor of
the fiftieth birthday of
His Majesty the Emperor of Ta-han. The fifth year of
Kwang-mu, the ninth moon,
the seventh day.” This is written not in Chinese but
in the native alphabet,
which is a very plain indication that the native
character is not held in
actual disrepute; and it is a happy promise that the
time will come when the
Korean alphabet will be the sole literary medium of
Korean A thousand of these
were struck off and were presented to the higher
officials in the government
and to the foreigners in the diplomatic circle and in
the government employ. It need hardly
he said that all the foreign
community joins heartily in wishing long life and
prosperity to the Emperor of
Korea, and continued and increasing happiness to the
people of whom he is the
sovereign. M. Tremouille,
Adviser to the Mining Bureau, is
fitting up a building in Mi-dong, Seoul, for the
purpose of establish- [page
413]
ing a school of mines, for which pupils will be
chosen by the government. Han-sung
Sin-mun. The Educational
Department has requested the Law
Department to call up all students of the foreign
language and military
schools, who have absented themselves without excuse
and fine them $2.00 apiece
for each month of absence. This is a most laudable
move. Korean students when
they, enter these schools, engage to study a certain
specified time, but as
soon as the novelty wears off they want to make a
change or give up altogether,
It is a most vicious practice and strict measures
should be adopted to keep
them to the mark. On the 18th
inst. the Board of Ceremonies was
instructed by Imperial decree to raise the late Tai
Wun-kun to the rank of Wang
or King. Preparations are being made for the ceremony.
At the same time it was
decided to raise Lady Om to the position of concubine
of first grade. Of late there
has been a recrudescence of highway
robbery in Seoul. A few nights ago Mr. Yi P’il-gyun,
the director of the Middle
School was set upon by foot-pads and as he did not
willingly hand over his
money and clothes he was severely beaten about the
head, but fortunately was
not dangerously wounded. About 28,000
bags of the Annam rice have arrived
and have been stored in the go-downs inside the South
Gate. Koreans say that
the rice is of excellent quality though the kernels
are smaller than the Korean
or Japanese rice. The authorities
of the Bureau of Surveying has been
busy making a thorough enumeration of the houses of
the city and the size of
each. This is with a view to a system of house tax
which is contemplated by the
Government. There will be three classes of houses, the
best tiled houses
constituting the first class, the poorer tiled houses
and the better thatched
ones the second, and the poorer thatched houses the
third. The tax will be a
certain amount per kan, the amount not being vet
determined upon. Never before
in the history of the dynasty have the citizens of
Seoul been called upon for a
general tax. For some time
the people of Roze Island both men
and women have been besieging the Foreign Office with
entreaties to have the
matter settled promptly as the Japanese are pulling [page 414] down the houses
and levelling the graves. They
claim that when they sought to secure the bones of
those who had been buried
they were prevented by the Japanese who broke the
bones and piled them
indiscriminately together. The Foreign
Office has received a request from the
German Consulate that soldiers be despatched to the
German mines at Keum-sung
to protect the mines from the depredations of robbers
and other lawless
characters who have assumed a very threatening
attitude. Regular troops were
not sent but a body of policemen will probably be
despatched to preserve quiet
in that neighborhood. Mr. A. A. Syke’s
of the British and Foreign Bible
Society has been transferred to Shanghai. He left
Seoul on the 25th for his new
post. Mr. Hugh Miller has been appointed to the place
thus made vacant in
Seoul. Rev. A. G.
Welbon of Seoul and Miss S. Nourse,
lately of Ta-gu, were married on the 24th inst. at the
residence of Miss
Katherine Wambold. The officiating clergyman was Rev.
J. E. Adams. It was a
very quiet affair, only a few of the more intimate
friends being present. The
Review wishes them all kinds of happiness and
prosperity. Hon, H. N. Allen
the United States Minister to
Korea has received leave of absence and starts with
Mrs. Allen for the United
States in a few days. The Seoul
Chemulpo Railway Co. have purchased two
new locomotive engines from the Baldwin Locomotive
Works of Philadelphia, Mr.
Gregg of Toronto, an agent of the company has been
busy for some weeks in
Chemulpo putting the engines together. They are much
more powerful than the old
engines and we trust that the result will be a cutting
down of the time between
the two termini of the road. On the 15th
instant the motormen and conductors of
the Seoul Electric Railroad went out 0n strike. There
were about fifty men in
all of whom seven took a leading part. Their claim was
that the company has cut
off certain extras in the way of uniforms that were
formerly given. The seven
leaders were arrested and lodged in jail. The company
ran the cars for a day or
two by means of its foreign employees to show that
they were not dependent upon
the Koreans. The [page 415] strike
was a failure and the men came back with a few
exceptions. The leading strikers
were discharged. The ceremonies
in connection with the beginning of
work at the southern end of the Seoul-Fusan R.R. took
place on the 21st inst in
the presence of Yi Cha-wun the Minister of the
Household Department and Sim
Sang-hun the Director of the Railroad Bureau. According to the
Whang-sung Sin-mun the Russian
Minister has written urging the government to erect
lighthouses and other helps
to navigation in the vicinity of the treaty ports. It is reported
that $25000 have been paid toward
the repurchase of Roze Island and that the remaining
$15000 will be forthcoming
shortly. The threat to dig open the graves on the
island seems to have pushed
the matter to a conclusion. The fourth day
of the ninth moon has been set as
the date for the ceremony whereby lady Om is to be
raised one step nearer the
position of Empress, which is presumably the height of
her ambition. For some time
the Russian Government has been
negotiating for the connection of the Korean telegraph
line in eastern Korea
with Vladivostock, offering to run a line down from
Vladivostock to the Tuman
River if the Koreans will construct a line north from
Wonsan to that same
point. After this is completed a convention will be
arranged between the two
interested governments in regard to the transmission
of international
telegrams. The present Korean line runs as far north
is Kyong-sung which is,
roughly speaking about one hundred miles from the
Tuman River. The Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Pak Che-sun
refuses to sign the agreement between the government
and the First National
Bank of Japan relative to a loan of $500,000, at 10%
interest. He says he was
not informed in regard to the matter and that the
authorities of the Finance
Department cannot conclude such an arrangement on
their own authority. Whang-
sung Sin-mun. It is rumored
that when Prince Kwajonomiya and the
Japanese Minister to China were in Seoul lately they
made strong
representations to the Government in favor of the Ko-
[page
416]
rean refugees in Japan. This caused considerable
solicitude in high Government circles and the
festivities which were to have
continued uninterrupted till the ninth moon were
discontinued for some days.
But Yi Yong-ik, Min Kyung-sik and Yi In-yung have
assured the Emperor that
Russia and France will uphold the Korean Government in
ignoring the suggestion
of Japan in this regard. This like all oriental rumors
is worth what it is
worth. As we go to
press the Annual Meeting of the Presbyterian Mission
is in session. A report of
the proceedings must be reserved for the October
number. This meeting was
preceded by a meeting of the Council of the four
Presbyterian Missions in
Korea, at which were discussed several important
subjects such as the marriage
relation and the division of work in Kyung-sang
Province. Alex Kenmure
Esq. the Agent of the British and
Foreign Bible Society leaves Seoul shortly on furlough
to England. [page
417] KOREAN
HISTORY. He did so and
that very night the myrmidons of
Wang-gyu broke into the palace that he had left, but
found that their bird had
flown. In spite of all this the king did not proceed
against his minister but
went about with an armed escort. This signal failure
to punish a traitor is
said to have been the reason why, during the whole
dynasty, the officials
overruled the king and made a puppet of him. In fact
many times during the
dynasty we find the condition of affairs somewhat like
those in Japan where the
emperor himself had little practical power but the
government was carried on by
a shogun. But at last this Wang-gyu met his deserts
for he was banished to
Kap-whan and there executed, and with him 300 men who
had been in his pay. It is
interesting to notice how soon after the
death of Wang-gon his ill-considered advice about
Buddhism was to bear its
legitimate fruit. The third king of Koryu was
thoroughly in the hands of the
sacerdotal power. He favored the monks in every way
and thus added one more blow
to the wedge which ultimately split the land, and
brought the dynasty to a
close. Following the
directions of Wang-gon in regard to
the city of P’yung-yang, he decided to make this town
a secondary capital. In
the prosecution of this work many people were
compelled to give their time and
labor, and great suffering was the natural result.
Many of the people of
Song-do were compelled to move to the northern
capital. This was very
distasteful to them, and, joined with the king’s blind
adherence to Buddhism,
made it easy for the people to rejoice when in 970 he
died and his younger
brother So became king. When in 953 the
emperor sent an envoy to. the court
of Koryu approving of the coronation of the new king,
he was accompanied by a
great scholar, Sang Geui, who found such favor in the
eyes of the king that he
remained and took office under the governments It is
said that this caused a
serious set-back to the fortunes of Buddhism. Well
would it have [page
418]
been could he have seen that insidious power crushed
and driven from the country. But it had gained too
strong a foothold to be
overcome by the teaching or example of a single man or
coterie of men. It is
not unlikely that it was at the suggestion of this man
that the king changed
the law concerning slavery. Heretofore slavery had
been the punishment for
comparatively venial offences and the country was
overrun with slaves. The king
manumitted many of these and by so doing gained the
enmity of many who thus
lost valuable property. It also resulted in outbreaks
among slaves, incipient
riots, because this humane tendency in the king
emboldened them to claim more
than he had intended. It showed that sometimes the
indiscriminate franchisement
of slaves may be a dangerous thing. The most radical
reform instituted at the advice of
this Sang Geui was the establishment of a national
competitive examination
similar to those held in China. In Korea it is called
the kwaga. The
examination was a six-fold one; (1) heptameter verse,
(2) hexameter verse, (3)
commentary, (4) historic citation, (5) medicine, (6)
divination. Communication
with China seems to have become more
frequent and close, for we find that in 960 an envoy
went to China carrying as
gifts 50,000 pounds of copper and 4,000 pieces of rock
crystal used in making
spectacles. This was likewise a period of Chinese
immigration, encouraged
without doubt by the flattering reception given to
Sang Geui. The king gave the
visitors a hearty welcome, provided them with houses,
gave them office and even
secured them wives. So far did he go in the way of
providing houses that he
incurred the resentment of some of his highest
officials, one of whom, So P’il,
asked the king to take his fine residence from him as
a gift. In surprise the
king asked him why he wanted to give it up. The answer
was, “It will be seized
anyway when I die and I would rather give it up now
and spend the rest of my
days preparing a little home somewhere for my
children.” This threw the king
into a rage; but the shot told, for he stopped the
form of injustice from that
very day. The following
year, 961, a sweeping change was made
in the style and color of official garments. This was
also under [page
419]
the direction of Sang Geui. For the highest rank
purple was used, and for the second rank red, for the
third rank deep red, and
for the fourth rank blue. How far this
king had degenerated from the standard set by the
founder of the kingdom, less
than fifty years before, is apparent from the fact
that he was the pliant
instrument of anyone who had access to his ear. He
believed anybody and
everybody. Enemies accused each other before him and
he accepted every
statement as true. The result was that the prisons
were simply bursting with
inmates and the executioner’s axe was busy night and
day. Hundreds of men were
executed whose only crime was that they had been
accused before the king. Added
to this was a prodigal waste of treasure in the
building of palaces, the
assumption throughout of Chinese clothes and the
entertainment of countless “friends”
who came from across the border, on the principle, no
doubt, that where the
carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together.
This state of things
continued up to 969, going from bad to worse. That
year the king took to
himself two Buddhist monks as mentors. He suddenly
awoke to the fact that many
murders lay at his door and he began to have twinges
of conscience. He thought
to make it right by a wholesale favoring of Buddhism.
He put himself entirely
into the hands of the monks and let them manage all
the affairs of state to
suit themselves. But this, while it may have eased his
conscience, brought no
betterment to the state. He was imposed upon in the
grossest manner and never
once guessed it. He lost the respect of all men of
sense and reason. His
useless reign dragged on till 976 when the country was
relieved of the mighty
incubus by his death. The prisons were overrun with
innocent men, priestcraft
had wound its octopus tentacles about every branch of
the government. Energy
and patriotism had been eradicated; for, the moment a
man possessing these
traits appeared, jealousy caused him to be accused to
the credulous king and he
was thrown into prison. But now his son,
Chu, came to the throne. His
posthumous title is Kyong-jong. His first act was to
open the prison doors and
liberate all who were not condemned felons. This act
of mere justice was
greeted by applause from the people. It was the signal
for a general reform in
the meth- [page
420]
ods of administration. The monks were sent back to
their monasteries. The competitive examinations were
renewed and an impetus was
given to the study of the classics. The king in person
examined the papers of
the candidates. But death put an end to his promising
career after six short
years and in 982 his younger brother, Ch’i, posthumous
title Song-jong,
ascended the throne. Fortunately he was of the same
mind as his deceased
brother and the good work went on unchecked. He first
did away with the
senseless festivals described under the reign of
Wang-gon, at which all manner
of animals were represented. He changed the names of
official grades to
correspond with those of the Tang dynasty in China.
Intercourse with China was
revived and frequent envoys passed back and forth. It
was in the second year of
his reign, namely 983, that the time-honored custom
was instituted of the king
plowing a piece of land in person each year. This too
was borrowed from China.
Confucianism received a great impetus during these
days; an envoy to China
brought back a picture of the emperor’s shrine, of the
patron genius of China,
of Confucius’ shrine, and a history of the seventy-two
disciples of the great
sage. Financial affairs engaged his attention too, for
we find that in this
year 984 the legal rate of interest on money was set
at ten per cent per
mensem. The defenses of the country
were not neglected. A fortress was begun on the banks
of the Yalu River but the
people of the Yu-jin tribe caused the work to be
suspended. The Kitan tribe
were still in the ascendant and so
ominous was the growth of their power that the envoy
from China who came to
perform the ceremony of investiture of the new king,
intimated that China would
be glad to join the forces of Koryu in an invasion of
the Kitan territory. We
are not told what reply was given but nothing seems to
have come of it.
Buddhistic encroachments were checked and a stop was
put to the seizure of
houses for the purpose of erecting monasteries.
Mourning customs were changed;
the three years’ limit was shortened to one hundred
days, the one year limit to
thirty days, the nine months’ limit to twenty days,
the six months’ limit to
fifteen days and the three months’ limit to seven
days. Special instructions
were given to the governors of the provinces to foster
agriculture, and prizes [page
421]
were offered for superior excellence in
agricultural methods as proved by their results. The
governors were allowed to
take their families with them to the provincial
capitals. This marks a long
step in advance, for it would seem that heretofore the
families of provincial
governors had been held at the national capital as a
guarantee of good behavior
on the part of the governors while in the country. The king caused
the erection of great store-houses
in the various parts of the country for the storage of
rice to be used in time
of famine. The students in the Confucian school were
encouraged by gifts of
clothes and food, and several were sent to China to
prosecute their studies. In
987 the soldiers’ implements of war were beaten into
agricultural implements,
especially in the country districts, A second trial
was made of liberating
slaves but without satisfactory results. It made those
that were not freed so
arrogant that the attempt was given up. A further
invasion was made into the.
territory of priest-craft by the discontinuance of
certain important festivals,
but the fact that the law against the killing of any
animal in the first, fifth
or ninth moons was still in active force shows that
Buddhism was still a
powerful factor in the national life. Kyong-ju, the
ancient capital of Sil-la,
was made the eastern capital of the kingdom, a merely
honorary distinction. The annals state
that this reign beheld the
inauguration of the humane custom of remitting the
revenues, in part or in
whole, in times of famine, also the custom of the king
sending medicine to
courtiers who might be ill. The growing
power of Kitan in the north was a cause
of uneasiness for we find that in 989 the whole
north-east border was
thoroughly garrisoned. The time was approaching when
this half-savage tribe
would add another proof that conquest is usually from
the cooler to the warmer
climate. During the
commotion incident upon the founding of
the dynasty and the extinction of the kingdom of
Sil-la, the bureau of history
had been largely neglected. Now it was reorganized and
the annals of the
kingdom were put in proper shape. The king was
apparently trying to steer a middle
course between Buddhism and Confucianism, for the pen
of the an- [page
422]
nalist records that no animals were to be killed
on the king’s birthday, and in the next stroke that
wives were to be rewarded
for unusual virtue, and again that the king went out
of the city to meet an
envoy bringing the great Buddhistic work,
Ta-jang-gyung, from China, and still
again that the first ancestral temple was erected.
Well would it have been
could this equilibrium have been maintained. One of the sons
of Wang-gon was still living. His
name was Uk. He was the author of a court scandal
which illustrates the lax
morals of the time. He formed a liaison with the widow
of his younger brother.
The king learned of it and visited his anger upon the
offender by banishing
him. The woman bore a son and then went forth and
hanged herself on a willow
tree. The nurse brought up the child and taught it the
word father. One day the
child was brought into the presence of the king, when
it rushed forward, caught
the king by the garments and cried father. The king
was deeply moved and sent
the child to its father in banishment. When Uk died
the boy was brought back to
the capital and given office. He eventually became
king. In 993 the cloud
in the north began to assume a
threatening aspect. A feeble attempt was made to stem
the march of the now
powerful Kitan tribe, but without avail. The Kitan
general, So Son-ryung, made this
a casus belli, and, mustering a strong force, pushed
down into Koryu territory.
The king put Gen. Pak Yang-yu at the head of the Koryu
forces and himself went
with the army as far as P’yung-yang. At that point
news came that the enemy was
going around the flank and had already taken one
important fortress there. The
king hurried back to Song-do. Gen. So Son-ryung sent a
curt message saying “Ko-gu-ryu
once belonged to Kitan. We have come to claim only our
own. It remains
therefore only for you to surrender and become our
vassals.” In answer the king
sent Yi Mong-jun to negotiate a peace on the best
possible terms. Arriving at
the camp of Gen. So he boldly demanded why the
northern tribe had presumed to
break across the boundary. Gen. So replied that the
land was the property of
his master and the sooner the king acknowledged it and
accepted Kitan as his
suzerain the better for all parties. The envoy
returned to the capital and a
great council of war was [page 423] held. Some
advised to surrender, but some said, “Offer them all
the
territory north of the Ta-dong River as a compromise
measure.” The king chose
the latter alternative and began by having the people
there throw into the
river all grain that they could not carry away, so
that it might not fall into
the hands of the enemy. The Kitan general was highly
pleased with this
concession but his pride had a fall when, a few days
later, he was defeated by
the Koryu forces under Gen. Yu Bang. Thereupon he
modified his demands to the
mere recognition of the suzerainty of Kitan; but this
the king was unwilling,
under the circumstances, to agree to. Gen. So was not
satisfied with the grade
of the general sent to negotiate the treaty and
demanded that the prime
minister of Koryu be sent to do it. A high official
was therefore sent but he
refused to bow before the Kitan general. The latter
said, “You are from Sil-la
and we are from Ko-gu-ryu. You are trespassing on our
territory. We are your
neighbors. Why do you persist in sending envoys to the
court of China? That is
the reason we are now at war with you. Restore our
land, become our vassals and
all will go well.” The envoy refused to agree to this.
He said “We are
Ko-gu-ryu people. How else could our land be Koryu?
The capital of Ko-gu-ryu
was at P’yung-yang and you formed a small part of that
kingdom; so why do you
claim that we have usurped the power? Our territory
extended far beyond the
Yalu River, but the Yu-jin people stole it from us.
You had better first go and
recover that part of Ko-gu-ryu which the Yu-jin stole
and then we will gladly
bow to you as suzerain.” What there was in this
argument that convinced the
hardy warrior of the north we cannot say, but it
served its purpose, for he
first spread a great feast and afterwards broke camp
and marched back to his
own country without obtaining the coveted surrender.
The king, in order to
maintain the semblance of good faith, adopted the
Kitan calendar. The next
step, however, showed the true bent of his mind, for
he sent a swift messenger
to the court of China with an urgent request for aid
against the arrogant
people of the north. But the Sung emperor apparently
thought he had his own
hands full in watching his own borders and declined to
send the aid requested.
This put an end to the friendship between Koryu and
the Chinese court, [page
424]
and all communication was broken off. The king of
Kitan sent a commissioner to Koryu to look after his
interests there and when
he returned to the north he took a large number of
women as a gift from the
Koryu king to his master. It was now, near
the end of the tenth century, that
Ko-ryu was first regularly divided into provinces.
There were ten of them.
Their names and positions were as follows. Kwan-na,
the present Kyung-geui;
Chung-wun, now Chung-ju; Ha-nam, now Kong-ju;
Yong-nam, now Sang-ju; Kang-nam,
now Chun-ju; San-nam, now Chin-ju; Ha-yang, now Na-ju;
Sak-pang, now Ch’un-ch’un,
Kang-neung and An-byun; P’a-su, now P’yung-yang; and
Xa-sung, another name for
Song-do. These were rather the provincial centers than
the provinces
themselves. In pursuance of
the policy adopted in reference to
the kingdom of Kitan, ten boys were sent northward to
that country to learn its
language and marry among its people. The final act of
suzerainty was played
when in 996 the “emperor” of Kitan invested the king
of Koryu with the royal
insignia. The end of the reign was approaching, but
before it was reached one
of the most important events of that century
transpired. It occupies little
space on the page of history. Many a court intrigue or
senseless page ant bulks
larger in the annals, but it was one of the most
far-reaching in its effects.
It was the first coining of money. It was in this same
year, 996. These coins
were of iron but without the hole which so generally
characterizes the “cash”
of to-day. In 998 the king
died and his nephew, Song,
posthumous title Mok-jong, ascended the throne. His
first act was to revise the
system of taxation, probably by causing a
remeasurement of arable land.
Officials received their salaries not in money nor in
rice, but to each one was
assigned a certain tract of land and his salary was
the produce from that
particular tract. In the third year of his reign, 1000
A. D., he received
investiture from the Kitan emperor. His fifth year was
signalized by a five days’
eruption of a volcano on the island of Quelpart. This
reign was destined to end
in disaster. The widow of the late king formed a
criminal intimacy with one Kim
Ji-yang, whom she raised to a high official position.
The whole kingdom was
scandalized. She had the walls of [page 425] her palace
decorated with sentiments expressive of
the epicurean dictum “Eat, drink and be merry”; and
curiously enough expressed
the belief that after enjoying all this world had to
give they would all become
Buddhas in the next. This is probably a fair sample of
the Buddhistic teaching
of the times, at least this was its legitimate fruit.
She and her lover soon
began to plot against the young king. The latter was
ill at the time but knew
well what was going on. He sent for Sun, the
illegitimate son of Uk, of whom we
spoke in the last chapter, with the intention of
nominating him as his
successor. At the same time he sent post-haste to the
country and summoned Gen.
Kang Cho, a faithful and upright man. On his way up to
the capital the general
was falsely told that it was not the king who had
summoned him but the queen
dowager’s lover. Enraged at being thus played upon,
the stern old general
marched into the capital and seized the lecherous
traitor and gave him his
quietus. He then turned upon the king and put him to
death as well. He had not
looked carefully into the case, but he deemed that the
whole court needed a
thorough cleaning out. He completed the work by
driving out the queen dowager
who deserved the block more than any other; and then
he seated, the
above-mentioned Sun on the throne. His posthumous
title is Hyon-jong, This was
in 1010 A.D. Chapter
III. Reforms....
eclipses.... Kitan declares war....
Koryu on guard.... Kitan troops cross the Yalu....
diplomacy.... Gen. Kang Cho
taken.... before the emperor.... P’yung-yang
besieged.... the king submits....
siege of P’yung-yang raised.... king moves south....
Kitan deceived.... Song-do
taken.... a rebel governor.... Koryu’s victories....
Kitan forces retreat
across the Yalu.... king returns to Song-do.... Gen.
Ha Kong-jin executed....
reconstruction.... military and civil factions....
king overthrows the military
faction.... Kitan invasion.... overwhelming defeat....
envoys.... Buddhism
versus Confucianism.... Koryu on the increase.... the
“Great Wall” of Koryu....
Buddhism flourishes.... primogeniture.... the disputed
bridge.... Japanese
envoys.... Buddhism rampant.... new laws.... progress
of Buddhism. The first act of
king Hyon-jong after announcing to
Kitan his accession to the throne was to raze to the
ground the [page
426]
palace or the queen dowager who had dragged the
fair fame of Koryu in the mire. His next move was to
build a double wall about
his capital. Evidently coming events were casting
ominous shadows before, and
he saw the storm brewing. We should say at
this point that during all these
reigns the annals make careful note of every eclipse.
This is brought
prominently to our notice by the statement in the
annals that in the sixteenth
year of this reign there should have been an eclipse
but that it did not take
place. This throws some light upon the science of
astronomy as practiced in
those dark days. The common people looked upon an
eclipse as an omen of evil,
but this would indicate that among the educated
people, then as to-day, they
were understood to be mere natural phenomena. In 1010
the storm, which had
already given sharp premonitions of its coming, broke
in all its fury. It must
have come sooner or later in any event, but the
immediate pretext for it was as
follows: Two Koryu generals, Ha Kong-jin and Yu Chung,
who had been placed in
charge of the forces in the north, when. Gen. Kang-cho
was recalled to the
capital, took matters into their own hands arid looked
for no orders from
headquarters. The desperate state of things at the
capital partly warranted
them in this, but they carried it too far. Of their
own accord they attacked
the eastern Yu-jin tribe and though they did not
succeed in the attempt they
impressed those people so strongly that an embassy
came bringing the submission
of that tribe. The two generals who seem to have
partially lost their balance
with the increase of their importance, wantonly killed
every member of tins
embassy. As soon as the young king heard of this he
promptly stripped them of
their honors and banished them. This, however, did not
mend matters with the
outraged Yu-jin people, and they hastened to inform
the Kitan emperor of the
whole matter. Thereupon the proclamation went out from
the Kitan capital, “Gen.
Kang-cho has killed the king of Koryu. We will go and
inquire into it.” As a
preliminary, a messenger was sent to Song-do
to demand why the king had been put to death. The
officials were thrown into a
panic and hastened to send an envoy to Kitan to
explain matters. He was held a
prisoner by the emperor. The king sent again and
again, ten envoys in all, [page
427]
but an ominous silence was the only answer. It
appeared that something serious was about to happen,
but just what it was could
not be surmised. In order to be ready for any
emergency, the king sent Generals
Kang Cho and Yi Hyun-un to T’ong-ju (now Sun-ch’un) in
the north to guard
against a sudden surprise. Early in
December the spell was broken and the
watchers by the Yalu hurried in with the news that a
cloud of Kitan warriors
was already crossing the stream. The invading army
400,000 strong, so say the
records, pushed forward and surrounded the Koryu
forces at Heung-wha camp. When
it was found, however, that they would stand their
ground and fight, the
invaders sent presents of silk and other valuables and
advised them to
surrender, and said, “We liked the king whom Kang Cho
killed, and we are
determined to overthrow the murderer. You assist us in
this. If not we will
destroy you root and branch.” The reply was “We prefer
to die rather than
surrender.” Thereupon the enemy sent more costly
presents still but the answer
was the same. When it became plain that there was to
be bloodshed before Koryu
would come to terms, the Kitan emperor divided his
immense army into two
divisions, sending 200,000 men to the vicinity of
Eui-ju and 200,000 to T’ong-ju.
Gen. Kang Cho cunningly disposed his little army
between two creeks where he
was protected on either flank. It is said that he had
a species of battle
chariot with swords attached to the axles of the
wheels so that when they
charged among the ranks of the enemy the latter were
mown down. On this account
the little Koryu army was at first successful. Then
Gen. Kang Cho was seized by
that common infatuation of fancied security and in the
midst of the fighting he
sat down in his pride and began playing a game of
go-bang. A messenger hurried
up with the news that the line of battle had been
broken on the west and that
the enemy were pouring in. Gen. Kang Cho laughed and
said “Do not come to me
with suck an insignificant piece of news. Wait till
they come in numbers worthy
of my sword; then come and tell me.” Soon a messenger
came saying that the
Kitan forces were approaching in full column.
Thereupon Gen. Kang arose and
prepared for battle. While doing so the annals say
that the spirit of the
murdered king appeared before [page 428] him and chided
him for scorning the power of Kitan. He took off his
helmet, and, bowing before the apparition, said “I
have committed an offence
worthy of death.” The Kitan soldiery rushed in and
seized him. They bound him
in a cart and took him away. Nothing now lay
between the invading army and
universal rapine. The army penetrated far into the
territory of Koryu, cut off
30,000 heads and ravaged right and left. When Gen. Kang
Cho and Gen. Yi Hyun-un were brought
before the Kitan emperor the bonds of the former were
cut and he was bidden to
stand forth. “Will you become my subject?” “I am a
Koryu man. How can I be your
subject?” They cut his flesh with knives but he
remained firm. When the same
question was put to Gen. Yi Hyun-un he replied, “As I
now look upon the sun and
moon, how can I remember any lesser light?” Such were
the words of his
apostacy. Kang Cho cried out upon him as a traitor,
and then bowed his head to
the axe. The Kitan army
was now in full march on P’yung-yang,
but the broken remnants of the Koryu army united at
‘‘Long Neck Pass” and
successfully opposed the progress of the invaders. A
little diplomacy was now
made use of by the Kitan general. He sent a letter to
Heung-wha camp,
purporting to be from Kang Cho, ordering them to
surrender, but the commander,
Yang Kyu, replied, “I listen only to the king.” Kwak-ju (now
Kwak-san) and Suk-ju (now Suk ch’un)
fell in quick succession and soon the victorious army
of Kitan was thundering
at the gates of P’yung-yang. The general in command
was Wun Chong-suk and his
two lieutenants were Chi Ch’oa-mun and Ch’oe Ch’ang.
The commander was willing
to surrender without a fight and went so far as to
write out the surrender, but
the other two prevented this by seizing the paper,
tearing it up and putting
the Kitan messenger to death. The camp of these
generals was without the city,
but the panic of the people inside increased to such
an extent that all the
forces entered the city to insure quiet. The Kitan
general-in-chief now received from the
king an offer of surrender. It caused the greatest
satisfaction in the Kitan
camp and orders were given that the soldiers should
cease ravaging the
surrounding country. Ma Po-u was sent [page 429] as Kitan
commissioner in Song -do and was
accompanied by an escort of a thousand men under the
command of Gen. Eul Neum. We can see how
little connection there was between
the capital and the army in the field by the fact that
this submission on the
part of the king did not lead to the surrender of
P’yung-yang nor to a
cessation of hostilities by the generals who commanded
the forces there. When a
second messenger was sent into the city to ask why the
former one did not return
he too was put to death. Gen, Eul Neum
was ordered to reduce P’yung-yang and
he approached to attack it but was driven back with a
loss of 3,000 men. This
attempt failing, the conquerors decided to lay siege
to the town. When the
inmates saw this they knew that the end was near. A
plain was made whereby a
part of the troops should make a sally from the West
Gate and another part from
the East Gate and together they hoped to dislodge the
enemy. But one of the
generals, instead of following out the plan, improved
the opportunity to make
good his escape. The other party was therefore in a
trap and had to surrender.
But still two generals held the city. Meanwhile a band
of 1,000 soldiers under Gen. Yang
Kyu attacked Kwak-ju by night, and put the Kitan
garrison to the sword, and
took seven thousand people away to Tong-bu for safety. When the Kitan
forces found they were likely to
have difficulty in bringing P’yung-yang to terms they
gave it up and marched
away eastward. Thereupon the general Chi Ch’oa-mun
hastened to Song-do and
announced that he had fled from P’yung-yang. The
“residency” of Ma Po-u seems
to have been a short-lived one and terminated when it
was found that the
submission of the king amounted to little when the
armies would not surrender.
Courtiers urged an immediate surrender but Gen. Kang
Kam-ch’an said “If we
could put them off a while and gain time they would be
gradually worn cut. The
king should move south out of harm’s way for a time.”
So that very night the
king and queen and a large number of officials
together with 5,000 troops moved
southward to Chuk-sung, The king’s southward “flight
was by no means an easy
one. The very first night out from the [page 430] capital the
house where he slept was attacked by a
band of traitors and malcontents. The king escaped to
the mountains where he
was attended by the faithful Gen. Chi. From this
retreat he recalled the two
generals who had been banished for attacking Yu-jin
without orders, and
restored them to their positions. Escorted by Generals
Chi, Ch’o and Chu, the
king slowly retreated toward Wang-ju. All his numerous
escort had left him
excepting his two wives, two palace women and two
intimate friends. Gen. Chi
kept a sharp lookout for the bands of robbers who were
roaming about the
country. Once when hard pressed by these irresponsible
gentry, Gen. Chi
spirited the king away under cover of night and
concealed him in To-bong
monastery in Yang-ju a little to the northeast of the
present Seoul, and the
robbers were thrown completely off the scent. Gen. Ha Kong-jin
told the king that the Kitan
forces had invaded Koryu for the purpose of punishing
Gen. Kang Bho, and as
this had been accomplished all difficulty between
Koryu and Kitan could be
easily settled by a letter from the king to his
northern suzerain. The letter
was written and sent by the hand of a trusty man. It
said that the king had
left Song-do for an expedition into the country to
quell certain disturbances
there. When the messenger was asked how far the king
had gone he answered that
he had gone several thousand li. This seemed plausible
to the Kitan court and
soon its army was working its way slowly back to the
boundary, the first stop
being made at Ch’ang-wha. This retreat was
more with a view to obtaining a
wintering place than with a desire to favor Koryu, for
no sooner had the next
season, 1011, come than the Kitan army marched
straight down through the
peninsula and entered the capital and burned the
palaces and most of the common
houses. The king was in Kwang-ju but, learning of this
disaster, he hurried
still further south with his two wives to Ch’un-an in
the present Ch’ung-ch’ung
Province. From there he continued south to Chun-ju
where he was treated very
cavalierly by the governor who met him in common
clothes and without the ceremony
befitting a royal visitor. In fact this governor had
determined to put the king
out of the way. To this end he hired three men to go
by night and assassinate
him. But [page
431]
the door was guarded by Gen. Chi who bolted it
firmly and then mounted the roof and cried loudly to
all who were loyal to the
king to rally round him. The next day the governor was
summoned before the
king. Some of the generals were clamorous for his
death but Gen. Chi who was as
wise as he was faithful vetoed this, for the king was
not in a position to face
the opposition that the execution of the governor
would arouse in the province.
It will be remembered that Wang-gon had left command
that as the south was
disaffected none of his descendants should marry among
its people. This shows
that the king when he went south found it unwise to
exercise all the
prerogatives of royalty. So the governor was left
intact and the king moved
further south to Na-ju. Meanwhile the
Kitan forces were not having it all
their own way in the north. Gen. Kim Suk-heung of
Kwi-ju attacked a powerful
force of the enemy and secured a signal victory. It is
said that he put 10,000
men to death. Then Gen. Yang Kyu made a dash at the
enemy at Mu-ro-da near
Eui-ju and killed 2,000 and recovered 3,000 prisoners.
Also at Yi-su there was
a battle in which 2,500 Kitan men were killed and
1,000 captives rescued. At
Yori-ch’un also 1,000 more were killed. These three
desperate engagements
occurred on the same day. Gen. Ha Kong-jin
was at this time a hostage in the
Kitan capital, and he managed to send a letter to the
King informing him that
the forces of Kitan were slowly retreating. This made
it possible for the king
to start on his way back to the capital. The first
stage was to Chun-ju. The retreating
forces of Kitan were again engaged
at A-jin but as heavy reinforcements arrived at the
moment, the Koryu generals,
Yang Kyu and Kim Suk-heng, lost the day and fell upon
the field of battle. This
victory, however, did not stop the retreat of the
invading army. There had been
very heavy rains, and many horses had perished and
many soldiers were
practically without arms. Gen. Chon Song, who assumed
command after the death
of the two generals at K-jun, hung on the flanks of
the retreating enemy and
when half of them had crossed the Yalu he fell upon
the remainder and many of
them were cut down and many more were [page 432] drowned in
mid-stream. When it became known that
all the Kitan forces were across the border it took
but a few days to re-man
the fortresses which had been deserted. The king now
hastened northward stopping for a time
at Kong-ju where the governor gave him his three
daughters to wife. By the
first he begat two sons both of whom became kings of
Koryu, and by the second
he begat another who also became king. He was soon on
the road again, and ere
long he reentered the gates of his capital which had
undergone much hardship
during his absence. His first act was to give presents
to all the generals and
to order that all the bones of the soldiers who had
fallen be interred. He
followed this up by dispatching an envoy to the Kitan
thanking them for
recalling their troops. He banished the governor of
Chun-ju who had attempted
his life. He repaired the wall of the capital and
rebuilt the palace. Gen. Ha was
still in. the hands of the Kitan but he
was extremely anxious to return to Koryu. He therefore
feigned to be quite
satisfied there and gradually gained the entire
confidence of his captors. When
he deemed that it was safe he proposed that he be sent
back to Koryu to spy out
the condition of the land and report on the number of
soldiers. The emperor
consented but changed his mind when he heard that the
king had returned to Song-do.
Instead of sending Gen. Ha back to Koryu he sent him
to Yun-gyung to live and
gave him a woman of high position as his wife. Even
then the general did not
give up hope of escaping and was soon busy on a new
plan. He purchased fleet
horses and had them placed at stated intervals along
the road toward Koryu with
trusty grooms in charge of each. Someone, however,
cold the emperor of this
and, calling the exile, he questioned him about it.
Gen. Ha confessed that his
life in exile was intolerable. When the emperor had
offered him every
inducement to transfer his allegiance and all to no
avail, he commanded the
executioner to put an end to the interview. When news
reached Song-do that Gen.
Ha had preferred death to disloyalty, the king
hastened to give office to the
patriot’s son. The work of
reconstruction was now commenced, in
1012. Kyong-ju was no longer called the eastern
capital but was changed back to
a mere prefecture. [page
433] THE
KOREA REVIEW, October 1901. A
Notable Book on China. Among the large
crop of books that have been reaped
from the field of Chinese disturbances not the least
notable is the one written
by K. H. Parker, Esq., sometime British Consul in
Seoul, and an authority on
Chinese matters any time during the last twenty years. It is not a
popular work in the general sense of
that word but it is the work of a specialist and must
command the attention of
all who live in the East or who are conversant with
the East in more than a
superficial way. It is a brilliant work in that it
sums up in a few pagesthe
things one wants to know concerning Chinese geography,
history, trade routes,
European contact, modern trade, government,
population, revenue, likin, army,
personal characteristics. In the last of these he is
the peer of Rev. Arthur
Smith in his best vein. It is manifestly
not the province of the Review to
discuss this book as a whole, but we may without
presumption call attention to
what it has to say about Korea. The quotations here
made are verbatim and their
meaning is in no case modified by the context. The
words in brackets are ours
and are merely explanatory. The conquest of
Korea [by the former Han] led to
the further discovery by land of the Japanese who then
occupied (whether as
immigrants or as aborigines is not yet settled) the tip
of the Korean peninsula
as well as the southern half of the Japanese islands. The author here
touches upon a most interesting
subject. Of course it is a mistake to suppose that the
former Han [page
434]
emperor, Wu Ti, conquered the whole of Korea. It
was only the northern half that was taken and no
soldier of Han ever went
further south than the Han River near the present
Capital. Nor is it probable
that Ma Twan-lin, who is evidently the author’s
authority, learned of the
Japanese in southern Korea through the Han conquest.
It is far more likely that
this rumor came from Chinese refugees who fled to
Korea before the days of the
Han dynasty at the time of the building of of the
Great Wall. Korean records
which, though not thoroughly reliable for those
distant times, yet may well be
said to be superior to the Chinese in matters Korean,
do not mention the
Japanese in southern Korea. Ma Twan-lin does not say
specifically that the
Japanese occupied any part of the mainland of Korea
out only says, after
describing other peoples that “to the south of these
are the Japanese” which
might easily refer to the islands of Tsushima or even
the main island of
southern Japan. Moreover we believe that among the
isolated and autonomous
tribes or communities of southern Korea it would have
been in possible to
designate any particular people as Japanese. They were
all practically savages;
they all tattooed; their languages had a close
affinity. It is impossible to
believe that there was enough contact with Japan at
that time to have made it
possible to thus identify any part of the people of
southern Korea as Japanese.
It is far more probable that there was emigration from
Korea to Japan than vice
versa. There is one statement of Ma Twan-lin’s that
modifies the argument,
namely, that the Japanese had, even at that date, that
remarkable breed of
fowls which can boast of tails fourteen feet long.
This species has only lately
become extinct in Japan, but that they were ever seen
in Korea is more than
doubtful. Ma Twan-lin was apparently speaking of the
Japanese in their own
islands. The Sui dynasty
(581-618) overran Korea as a
punishment for her diplomatic coquetting with their
[Hiung-nu] Khan. At that
time the modern Mukden was the Korean capital and the
old name of Chaosien had
been abandoned m favor of Kaoli (locally pronounced
exactly like our word
Korea.) In this
quotation there are three points that
cannot pass without a mild challenge. In the first
place the Sui army of
1,300,000 men which was landed in Korea in 612 A.D.,
was the first Sui army
that made any show of success. It overran [page 435] Liao Tung even
to the banks of the Yalu. If Dr.
John Ross astounding statement that the history of
Korea is practically the
history of Liao Tung is true, then the author under
review is correct; but we
are obliged to demur. Korea is not Liao Tung.
Geographically and historically
the northern border of Korea is the Yalu River and it
was only occasionally
that any Korean dynasty extended its rule beyond that
line. At the time of the
Sui dynasty in China, Korea contained three
flourishing kingdoms two of which
had no quarrel with the Sui. Only the northern kingdom
of Ko-gu-ryu was
involved. The main portion of Ko-gu-ryu was south of
the Yalu. The trans-Yalu
territory was a mere extension and was not an integral
part of the kingdom.
Tins extension was lopped off by the Sui, but Korea
proper was not overrun. An
army of 300,000 men was sent across the Yalu to attack
P’yung-yang, the
capital, but it was defeated and routed by the
indigenes. The second statement
that requires notice is that Mukden was the capital of
Korea. If so then
Vladivostock is the capital of Russia, and Sitka the
capital of the United
States; for at its very farthest western extension
Ko-gu-ryu only barely
touched the vicinity of Mukden, and that only for a
very short time. The truth
of the case is that during its whole history the
capital of Ko-gu-ryu never
once was moved to the west of the Yalu. To emphasize
this we give the following
list of Ko-gu-ryu capitals with their dates. 37 B.C.
— 2 A.D. Song-ch’un. 2 A.D.
―
242 “ Cho-san. 242 “ ― 341 “
P’yung-yang. 341 “ ― 360 “
Whan-do (near Eui-ju.) 360 “ ― 580 “
P’yung-yang. 580 “ ― 610 “
Whan-do (near Eui-ju.) 610 “ ― 668 “
P’yung-yang. It is difficult
to impugn the Korean records for it
was in 599 A.D. at the very height of the Sui power
that Ko-gu-ryu published
her first great historical work, the Yu-geui ( ) in
one hundred volumes. The third
statement in this quotation that needs
attention is that the name Kaoli had been adopted and
was pronounced like the
word Korea. The word Kaoli, or the Korean Koryu, was
never used in Korea until
the year 918 A.D. when [page 436] Wang-gon
adopted it as the name of his newly established
kingdom. The name
Chaosien or Chosun had indeed been abandoned by
Koreans at the time of the Sui.
It had been abandoned for over seven hundred years,
but the northern kingdom
was known to its own people as Ko-gu-ryu. Dr. Koss
gives it according to the Manchu
pronunciation as Gaogowli which would be entirely
unrecognizable by a modern
Korean. The statement
that the Sin armies overran Korea is
parallel with the amusing fiction that the Japanese
Empress Jingu (if she ever
existed) “Conquered Korea”, when at most her
swashbucklers only harried a strip
of the southern coast. For the first time
in Chinese history the emperor
[first of the Yang dynasty] effectively conquered the
three kingdoms of the
Korean peninsula, which was also for a few generations
governed directly as a
set of provinces. It is difficult
to understand what the writer means
by “effectively conquered.” The Tang emperor had
practically determined to
conquer the northern of the three kingdoms, Ko-gu-ryu.
China and Silla, the
southern Korean kingdom, were close friends and
allies. Silla asked the emperor
to come and help overcome Pak-je, the western Korean
kingdom. This was done in
660 by the allied forces of Silla and China. Pak-je
was put under the care of a
Chinese military governor. This lasted just four years
and then the emperor put
a native on the throne of Pak-je again. Then Ko-gu-ryu
fell before the com
Dined Chinese and Silla forces and the northern part
of the peninsula was put
in charge of Chinese military governors. This was in
668, but within ten years
China practically handed over the whole of Korea,
except a narrow strip in the
north, to Silla. This all occurred between 660 and 678
and China neither
conquered the whole of Korea (for she was the mend and
ally of Silla) nor did
she govern even the conquered portions for a few
generations. China came,
conquered a part of the peninsula and retired, all
within twenty years. During the Mongol
times (12601360) the warlike
spirit of the Tungusic hunting tribes had to be kept up
to the mark by
employment on a large scale in the expeditions against
Quelpart and Japan. [page
437] In the first
place it should be noted that the
first Mongol army of invasion crossed the Yalu in 1231，and by 1238 the
entire peninsula had been ravaged from north to south.
It
is difficult to understand why the author gives the
Mongol dates as 1260-1360
in speaking of Korea, for it was early in the 13th
Century that the Mongols
rose to power and long before 1260 their victorious
hordes had completed the
devastation of the peninsula, and so far as 1360 is
concerned it was not until
1368 that the last Mongol invasion of Korea took
place. The mention of the
Mongol invasions of Japan and of Quelpart in the same
sentence is still less
intelligible, for while over 200,000 men participated
in the former and were
overthrown by a catastrophe so terrible that it
parallels the defeat of the
Persians in the battle of Salamis, the invasion of
Quelpart was a mere nothing.
A few thousand rebellious Koreans had taken refuse on
the island and intrenched
themselves there. The Mongol general detached a few
soldiers to accompany the Korean
troops which were sent to put down the revolt. It was
done in a single
skirmish, for battle it can not be called, and the
total number of Mongols left
on the island as a garrison was a paltry 500. A few
years later the island was
turned over to the Koreans again, although a few
Mongols were left to act as
horse-breeders. It is a most
interesting fact, which seems to have
escaped the notice of the historians of the Mongol
times, that when the last
emperor of the Yuan dynasty saw the inevitable end
approaching he turned his
eyes toward Quelpart as a possible asylum and sent
large amounts of provisions
and of treasure to that place with the consent of the
Korean government, in
anticipation of such an event. As it [Manchuria]
bore the Mongol name Uriangkha,
it seems likely that when the Mongols were driven out of
China they, and more
especially the Uriangkha tribe, etc. etc. The name of
the celebrated Mongol
general Uriangkhdai means simply “Man of Uriangkha. This raises a
nice etymological point. The Korean
language contains the word o-rang-k’a
by which is understood simply “wild” or “savage” It is
without doubt this same Uriangkha
borrowed from the north. The
Korean applies it to all the savages of the north. For
instance the Ku-i or [page
438]
“nine wild tribes” are as often called the a-hop o-rang-k’a
with the same meaning.
The common wild violet is called the o-rang-k’a
kot or “wild flower.” Now the Chinese
for this word is 羌 ch’iang according to the Korean
lexicographers. But this character means “An
ancient tribe in Tangut, shepherd nomads living from
early times west of Sz-ch’uen
an, Kan su. They are commonly known as 戎羌 and 羌胡 but the name
cannot yet be identified with Indian or Scythian
tribes. Some
think it denotes the Ku-rus of Hindu legends.” [*
Williams.] It certainly
looks as if the word Uriangkha
originated far west of China and by the time it worked
its way around to
Manchuria it had lost its signification as a proper
noun and had come to mean
wild or savage men in general. At any rate it came to
mean that in Korea, and
it would be interesting to learn at what approximate
point it lost its specific
meaning and took on a general one. It is
unquestionable that the smoking of opium does
a great deal of physical harm and causes a vast waste of
money and energy * * *
* It is plain that China must spend at the very least
100,000,000 taels a year,
or more than her whole gross revenue from all sources,
on this almost useless
and certainly enervating drug. This of course
has no particular bearing on Korea but
we cannot forbear to quote it as the deliberate
opinion of a man who has lived
many years in China and who cannot be said to be
actuated by any so-called
sentimental objections to opium. He says it does a
great deal of physical harm,
and if so it does mental and moral harm. We cannot
agree with the author that
English responsibility is lessened by the fact that
the Chinese have during
recent years deliberately extended the evil by
allowing the undisguised
cultivation of the poppy on a wholesale scale in China
itself. If the fallacy
of this argument is not apparent at
a glance it can scarcely be made so by discussion. The
author gives prominence
to: a gigantic and
ever increasing import of kerosene *
* * and cheap flour from America for South China. These
two imports have
created as a great social revolution in China as did the
advent of tea and the
introduction of gas into England. Peasants may be met
every evening in Arcadian
[page
439] Hainan carrying home a pound bag of
beautiful white
flour. ****** American flour is so far only wanted in
South China where there
is no wheat to speak of ****** Rice is an uncertain
commodity and depends
entirely upon the weather. The readers of
the Review will note this in
connection with a recent article in our pageson Rice
and the Ideograph. The
good work has begun and the time will come when both
rice and the ideograph
will be relegated to the side dish, instead of forming
the pieces de resistance
of the physical and intellectual menu of the orient. The following is
practically all the author has to
say about the Korea of to-day. Korea, which as a
vassal state was opened to
foreign ships only in 1882, is NOW an independent
“Empire,” but its trade is,
on the west side at least, really part of the China
trade * * * * The Russians
and the Japanese have more interest in the east coast
than the west. In 1880
Korea was as unknown as Thibet except to the Japanese.
***** in 1880 the
Italians, of all people in the world, sent a man-of-war
and first obtained
written replies to their letters. * * * * China, as
Korea’s suzerain, was
somewhat puzzled what to do when in 1876 Japan signed a
treaty with the “Independent
Sovereign State” of Chosen; the matter became more
complicated when the United
States and England did the same thing in 1882-4. The
negotiators of the
American treaty admitted to a share of privileges
obtained China also, who thus
proceeded to conclude a treaty with her own vassal, and
then immediately set to
work to intrigue with a view t substituting her own
active influence in lieu of
that of Japan. This led to sundry revolutions, murders,
kidnappings and
hostilities which lasted over a period of ten years and
finally culminated in
the war of 1894-5 , when China received a thorough
thrashing and lost both
Korea and Formosa ***** The Koreans, though backward,
are a splendid race of
men and would soon sympathize with the freedom of
British rule if brought under
it. The best hope for Korea lies in Mr. McLeavy Brown’s
policy being supported
by the liberal powers; i, e. Great Britain, Japan, the
United States and, it is
hoped, Germany. We do not
understand how the trade of the West
coast of Korea is really part of the China trade.
While Korea was China’s
vassal and Korea’s Customs were under the control of
Sir Robert Hart, it might
have been so called, but as Korea today imports little
or nothing from China
comparatively speaking, and as the Japanese merchants
vastly outnumber and
outweigh the Chinese in Korea, and as almost every ton
of goods comes in
Japanese vessels, we entirely fail to see how any part
of Korean trade can be
called a part of the China trade. The author, at this
point, seems to have lost
sight of the radical changes [page 440] which have
taken place since he was here sixteen years ago. It is a surprise
to learn that the Russians and
Japanese are more interested in the east coast than in
the west. It has been
our fear that they both were desperately interested in
the whole thing—east and
west. So long as Russia touched the Pacific only at
Vladivostock this statement
might have been true, but with Russia predominant on
the Yellow Sea of course
the situation is radically changed. Also the fact that
nearly three-fourths of
the Japanese residents of Korea are on the west coast
and that the vast
majority of their trade is there, since the opening of
Mokpo, Kunsan and
Chinnampo, this statement is also misleading. We doubt
if it was true even at
the time of the author’s residence in Korea. The statement
that in 1880 the Italians were the
first to obtain from the Korean Government written
replies to their letters
would indicate that the author had not read his Dallet
very carefully for in
that admirable work we find that in 1847 the Korean
Government sent a long and
carefully worded letter to the French Government
explaining its position in
regard to Roman Catholic propagandism in Korea, a
letter that for close
reasoning and clear logic would be hard to excel in
the diplomatic
correspondence of any country. To sum up all
that the author has to say about
Korea, it appears that while much of it may have been
true at the time he was
here, yet conditions both political and commercial
have undergone such changes
in the interval that it hardly applies at the present
time. But the book is on
China and as such it is a work that very few men in
the East would be competent
to write. Rear
Admiral Schley in Korea. Not many of the
readers of this Review are probably
aware that Real Admiral Schley, who was a prominent
figure in the naval battle
of Santiago, and whose name is now prominently before
the American public in
connection with that action, played a leading part in
the little war which was
waged in 1871 between the United States and Korea. The
[page
441]
description of this fight has been put before the
public several times and it is our intention to give
here only Schley’s
connection with it, quoting from an article in the Review of Reviews for September, by Park
Benjamin. It will be
necessary to preface this by a sketch of the events
leading up to the fight. On June
14th, 1866, an American sailing vessel, the Surprise,
was wrecked off the coast of Whang-ha Province in
Korea. Her captain and crew
were hospitably treated and conducted to the Chinese
border with great care by
order of the Regent, who thus bore evidence to his
former statement, to the
French, that Korea would do no harm to men who were
shipwrecked on her coasts.
Even in the midst of an anti-foreign demonstration of
the severest type (the
Roman Catholic persecution of 1866) these men were
humanely treated and sent upon
their way. Early in the
following September the American sailing vessel, the General Sherman, entered the mouth of
the Ta-dong river. She
carried five white foreigners and nineteen Asiatics.
From all we can learn, her
purpose was trade, but as the United States had no
treaty with Korea, this
vessel had no business on these coasts. The governor
of P’yung-an Province sent
to ask the reason for her coming and received the
reply that the people on the
ship desired to open up trade with Korea. Though
assured that this was
impossible the ship not only did not leave but even
sailed up the river to a
point opposite Yang-jak Island, not far from the city
of P’yung-yang. It was
only the heavy rains in the interior and exceptionally
high tides that made it
possible for her to ascend the river so far and she
was shortly stuck in the
mud. It was evident that she never could be gotten out
to sea again. This rash
move astonished the Koreans beyond measure. Desperate
indeed must be the
intentions of men who would thus drive their ship on
to certain destruction.
Word came from the Regent to attack her if she did not
leave at once. The story
of how she was destroyed and her crew massacred has
been told in the Korean Repository
and elsewhere and need
not be repeated here. No impartial student of the
question can affirm that the
Koreans were specially blameworthy. The ship had been
warned off but had rashly
[page
442]
ventured where no ship could go, without the
certainty of destruction. The Koreans could not know
that this was a blunder.
They naturally took the vessel to be a hostile one and
acted accordingly. The
difference between the Regent’s treatment of the Surprise and his treatment of the General Sherman shows that the latter
was no mere wanton cruelty
but what he and all Koreans deemed an act of
self-defence. Then followed the
French attack on Kang-wha and their virtual defeat,
which confirmed the Regent
in his notion that, though the allied French and
English had taken Peking and
burned the Summer Palace, they would find little Korea
a tougher customer that
China. Almost five
years passed before the United States
took up the matter seriously. It is evident that the
Government at Washington
was ill-informed as to the facts in the case of the General Sherman. It apparently was
laboring under the idea that she
had been wrecked on the coast and her crew wantonly
murdered, while such was
far from being the case. Early in the spring of 1871
Hon. Frederick F. Low,
United States Minister at Peking, received
instructions from his Government to
go, in company with Rear-admiral Rodgers, to the
shores of Korea and attempt to
conclude a treaty relative to the treatment of
shipwrecked mariners. He was
also instructed to try to make a trade convention with
Korea looking to the
opening of Korea to foreign commerce. Minister Low went to
Nagasaki and there found the American
war vessels Colorado,
Alaska, Benicia,
Monocacy and Palos. On May
16th
the fleet set sail for Korea. Minister Low’s
correspondence with his Government
shows that he had accurately gauged the situation.
Actual acquaintance with
Korea could hardly have rendered his diagnosis more
correct. From the very
first he considered it to be a hopeless case, and he
was right. But this did
not lessen his care in doing everything in his power
to render the expedition a
success. After fourteen
days of struggle against dense fogs,
tortuous channels, and swift tidal currents, the fleet
dropped anchor off the
islands known as the Ferrier group, not far from
Eugenie Island. This was on
May 30. They were soon boarded by some small Korean
officials with whom
Minister Low could not, of course, treat, but through
them he sent a [page
443]
friendly message to Seoul asking that an official
of equal rank be sent to confer with him upon
important matters. The Koreans
had already received through the Chinese an intimation
as to what the Americans
desired, but they argued that as their policy of
carrying shipwrecked people
safely across the border into China was well known
abroad and as they did not
care to open up relations with foreign countries,
there was no use in sending
an envoy to discuss the matter. The Regent shrewdly
guessed that the General Sherman
affair was at the bottom
of this, even as the execution of the French priests
was the occasion of the
French expedition; and so he determined to garrison
Kang-wha and deal with the
Americans as he had with the French. Gen. O Yu-jun
was sent with 3000 troops to Kwang
Fort on Kang-wha. A small part of this force he
stationed as a garrison at
Tok-chin, a little fort at the narrowest part of the
estuary between the island
and the mainland, where the tide runs with tremendous
force and a dangerous
reef adds to the danger of navigation. Thus it was
that when the Monocacy
and Palos steamed slowly up the channel,
making soundings preparatory
to the approach of the larger vessels, they were fired
upon by the guns of this
little fort. No special damage was done and soon the
gunboats opened fire on
the fort and silenced it. The Koreans supposed these
boats were approaching for
the purpose of assault. Indeed no intimation seems to
have been given the
Government that this surveying expedition was planned,
and as this narrow
passage-way was considered the gateway to the
approaches of Seoul the Koreans
argued strictly from the book and the American
contention that the assault was
unprovoked falls to the ground. The approach itself
was abundant provocation. When the fort
had been silenced the two gunboats
steamed back to the main anchorage and reported. It
was immediately decided
that an apology must be forthcoming from the
Government, but as none came,
retaliation was the only thing left whereby to
vindicate the honor of the
United States. The smaller
gunboats were sent forward with a
landing party of 700 men and several pieces of
artillery. Captain Kimberly of
the Benicia,
was in command and
Lieutenant Commander Schley was his adjutant. The
difficulty of getting ashore
and of traversing the country were extreme. [page 444] The men were
compelled d to struggle through deep
morass and dense jungles, and to drag their pieces
through ravines almost
impassable with fallen timber. As the minor
fortifications were encountered
they were carried, the Koreans steadily retreating
until the force reached a
position before the principal citadel where the enemy
had evidently determined
to make a final stand. Our men were now masked by a
low hill, on the other side
of which a deep ravine some eighty feet in descent
separated them from a much
higher declivity, on the summit of which rose the
parapet of the fort. The
artillery was posted to command a road and a bridge
over which the Koreans if
dislodged would have to retreat. To the sailors
the scene in the early morning was a
strange one, and not altogether inspiriting. Behind
them lay the obstacles
surmounted with so much difficulty, and insurmountable
if a rout occurred.
Before them they saw the savage warriors lining the
parapet and chanting a weird
sort of battle-song which to superstitious jack
suggested a league with the
devil. The crucial test of Schley’s plans was now
made. About noon the order to
charge was given, and the men rushed over the
protecting hill-top. In front of
all ran Lieut. Hugh McKee, cheering on his company.
Immediately after him was
Schley. Down they went to the bottom of the ravine,
and then up the slope which
afforded absolutely no cover, amid a hail of bullets
and stones from the fort. McKee,
maintaining his lead, reached the foot of
the parapet first, and was scrambling up the face,
when Schley overtook him,
only to be knocked down by a heavy stone striking him
squarely on the body.
Fortunately no bones were broken and, with very little
breath remaining, he
managed to get up the wall just as McKee who had
reached the top lurched
forward. Schley caught him, and then saw advancing the
great body of the
Koreans, firing their guns and shouting. An instant
later a big savage rushed
upon them with his spear. McKee was then clinging to
Schley’s left side so that
he could not draw his cutlass, but the effort to do so
displaced his body
enough to spoil the Korean’s aim, for his spear passed
under Schley’s arm.
Schley grasped the weapon with one hand, extricated
his pistol with the other
and fired it full in the face of his assailant whose
body went rolling down the
slope. The storming
column had now come up and our men
were pouring into the works from all sides. The
fighting was hand to hand and
Schley was in the thick of it. The Koreans would
neither give nor take quarter.
Finally they ran for their avenue of escape, only to
be mown down by canister
from the howitzer battery and the day was won. The
Koreans lost over 350
killed, our force three killed and nine wounded.
Deeming the punishment
inflicted sufficient, Admiral Rodgers withdrew his
fleet. It will be
noticed that the main body of the Korean
army had not been approached. Only a small fraction of
it, in an outstanding
redoubt, had been defeated. The pickets had been
merely driven in. The fight,
if fight there was to be, was still to come off. But
the Rear Admiral, knowing
nothing of [page
445]
this and realizing that his force was quite
inadequate to carry the matter to the gates of Seoul,
withdrew and sailed away
to China almost precisely as the French had done. The
mistake lay in ignorance
of the Korean character. The government cared little
for the loss of a few
earth-works on Kang-wha. In fact, even if the
Americans had taken half the
peninsula and yet had not unseated the Regent or
endangered the person of the
King their departure would have left the Koreans in
the firm belief that the
foreigner had been defeated. The approach of
United States vessels of war up to
the very gates of the “Gibraltar” of Korea was in
itself, in their eyes, a
deliberate declaration of war and the loss of the
little garrison was a cheap
price to pay for their ultimate triumph in seeing the
American vessels “hull
down” in the Yellow Sea . The
Price of Happiness. It all started
in a dream. No wonder Sundoki fell
asleep with his head against the wall. He had been
shouting Chinese characters
all day long and he was still at it, though it was
long after dark. He rested his
head against the wall for just one minute and that
minute changed him from a
boy into a man. Was it a dream or a vision? He never
could tell, but he saw a
maiden of ravishing beauty come and sit down by his
side. “Don’t you know
who I am?” she said. “I am your
affinity. We were chosen for each other and I have
come to you”. It was his first
lesson in love making and he was
somewhat awkward at it, so he stammered out something
about her being from
heaven and he of earth so that he dared not believe it
could be true. “But you are not
of earth” she cried. “You were
sent from heaven as a gift to your parents. You
committed some little fault in
heaven and so were banished to earth for a time. You
have simply lost the
memory of your former state”. At this moment
the boy awoke, most awkwardly for
all concerned. He was so impressed by the vision that
he spent [page
446]
most of his time thinking about it and wondering
when he should see the maiden again. Like all young
lovers he began to mope and
sulk when the days and weeks passed and still he had
no sign from the maiden of
his dream. At last he began
to droop and pine away and his
parents were in distress over him, wondering what
disease was eating away his
life. But one day as he sat staring out of the door
the maiden suddenly
appeared before him. “Ah, Sundoki”,
she cried, “if heaven had given
consent to our marriage it would have taken place long
ago but it bids us wait.
I must leave you again; but here are my picture and a
golden image carved in
likeness of myself. Look at them and be patient”. And
again she disappeared. For a time he
was content with these remembrancers,
but they had no power to return the caresses which he
bestowed upon them. Again
he began to waste away and was at the point of death
when the fair vision again
appeared. “Alas, I do not
know what to do,” she said; “consent
has not been given yet, but it must come in time. You
must take a wife from
among earthly women. She shall be your second wife;
for as our troth has been
plighted we are already man and wife. Seek out such an
one and try to bear the
separation a little longer”. He followed her
advice and took to wife one Ma-wha,
a maiden of low degree. For a time be bore up, but the
diversion was only
temporary. A few months later he was again in the
depths and his very life was
despaired of. Again the vision appeared. “You must come
and find me where I live, in the
Home of the Jade Lotus. Come quickly and claim me”. This was the
tonic that he needed, and the next
morning he was early on the road, going he knew not
whither except that he
would go to the end of the would before giving up the
quest. He struck into a
by-path which led up among the mountains, knowing that
celestial beings
generally choose such places for their terrestrial
retreats. Up he went and
still up until among the towering peaks he saw a
mighty palace, and when he
arrived before its carved portal, panting, he saw the
name in letters of gold—
The Home of the Jade Lotus. Forgetting all manners he
[page
447]
leaped through the portal and on through
successive courts and gate-ways till he reached the
very central apartments.
With unblushing effrontery he approached a window and
pushed it aside—and there
before him sat the object of his search. If the vision
had been lovely, how
surpassingly lovely was the substance. With maidenly
reserve she turned her
head away and hid her face with her hand. “Who is this
that rudely thrusts his presence upon
me?” The youth believed she knew him but answered: “I lost my way
among the mountains and found this
place by accident.” “But,” said the
girl, “this is not a place where
mortals can come with safety. You had better go away
quickly or it may cost you
your life.” But who ever heard of a lover abandoning
his prize because of a
little danger, or a great one either, for that matter?
So he leaned toward her
and said: “Why is it that
of all beings, you speak to me so
harshly?” At this she
retreated hastily into the inner room
and closed the door. Such language was not to be
misunderstood, so he turned to
go, while he wondered what could be the cause of her
coldness toward him; but
before he reached the gate he heard the window open a
little and a soft voice
call him. In an instant he was by her side again. “Why are you so
hasty?” she said. “The Heavenly
Powers have not yet given their consent, and how rash
it is of you to press
your suit in defiance of their will.” These words, so
far from discouraging the
lover, transported him with delight, for had she not
acknowledged that she knew
him? He leaped impetuously through the window and,
throwing himself at her
feet, almost worshipped her. He poured out before her
his hopes, his longings,
his undying devotion, swearing by all that they both
held sacred that he would
die rather than leave her again. “But it is not
manly to let the thought of a woman
master you so,” urged the maiden. “To tell you the
truth, it is decreed that in
three years we may marry and live happily, but if we
marry now a great evil
will befall us.” “Three years!”
exclaimed the youth; “why, a single
day is three years to me now. If you make me wait
three years I shall die
before I reach my home. It was only the [page 448] thought of
winning you that sustained me on my
journey hither. Alas for the maiden, she allowed her
love and pity to conquer
her judgment and she consented to marry him
immediately. “But,” said she,
“I must leave this place where the
angelic spirits come to sport; I am no longer worthy
of them.” So he took her
to his home, and she made the
customary prostrations before his father and mother.
They were delighted at the
change in their son and at the beauty of his wife, A
son and daughter were born
to them, which added to their happiness. There was
only one difficulty. The
young man was so devoted to his wife that he did
nothing else but sit in the
inner room and talk with her. He neglected his study
of the Confucian classics
and was not a little ridiculed by his acquaintances.
He had failed to put in an
appearance at four or five of the great annual
examinations at the Capital, and
his father was deeply chagrined. As another
examination time came round his
father urged him to go, but he said; “Why should I go?
We have enough money. I
have no need of official position. I am quite
satisfied.” His wife, however,
urged him to go or else he would become the
laughing-stock of his friends and
relatives. So he started off reluctantly toward Seoul
one morning with a
retinue of servants. As evening came
on he stopped at an inn for the
night, but the thought of his home and of his wife
overcame him, and he
secretly mounted his horse and sped back home. He tied
his horse to a tree just
outside the village and made his way to his house on
foot, but the gate was locked;
so, fearing the ridicule of the community if caught in
this predicament, he
scaled the wall and stole quietly to his own room,
where he nearly frightened
his wife out of her wits. She persuaded him to leave
before morning, knowing
how angry his father would be if he learned of his
return. But, as it
happened, the old gentleman, for fear of
robbers in the absence of his son, took upon himself
the duty of patrolling
about the house and grounds several times each night,
and he was making his
round at the very time when his son was in the house.
He saw the light in his
daughter-in-law’s room and a murmur of voices, and
going near was able to
distinguish a man’s voice. He was horrified. Could it
be [page
449]
that she had proved unfaithful? He could not believe
it, and banished the hateful idea from his mind as
best he could. The next day
he asked her whom she had been talking with, and she
to shield her husband
answered, ‘‘Ma-wha,” her husband’s second wife. This
again distressed the good
man, for he knew that it was a man’s voice which he
had heard. He also asked
Ma-wha if she had been in her mistress’s room the
night before, and she
answered no. The second night the poor homesick young
man again came back
secretly, and spent the night at home, but this time
his wife urged him so
strongly that he really set out for Seoul; but not
until the father on his
nightly round had seen the light and heard the voices
again. Much as the old
man hated to expose the woman, he
felt it was his duty to uphold the honour of his son.
He unfortunately let
Ma-wha into the secret. This woman, we can readily
conceive, cherished a bitter
hatred against the woman who had supplanted her in the
affections of Sun-doki,
and she found this an excellent opportunity to carry
out her revenge. Stealing a
considerable amount of money from the
old gentle-man she went out into the town and bribed a
wicked fellow to help
her. He engaged to carry out his part of a plan which
should be the means of
destroying forever the character of Sun-doki’s
beautiful wife. That night the
aged father made his round of
inspection as usual, but as he approached the
apartments of his daughter-
in-law a man leaped, as it appeared, from the window
of that room and, rushing
across the yard, cleared the wall and made off in the
darkness. Here was
conclusive evidence. The old man needed no more. By
morning his sorrow had
turned to deep and fearful anger. He ordered all the
numerous servants to be
called together and addressed them thus: “For three
nights past an unknown villain has
occupied the chamber of my absent son. It could not
have been but for the
connivance of one or more of you, and I will discover
who it is, if I have to
beat you all to death.” As no one volunteered any
information, he had them
bound one after the other to the whipping-bench and
beat them until they were
half dead. Then he sent Ma-wha to bring the delinquent
woman. [page
450] It was a happy
moment for the wretched Ma-wha when
she entered her rival’s chamber and dragged her forth
by the hair, heaping upon
her every curse that her vile nature could invent.
When the innocent woman was
brought into the old man’s presence, he fairly raved
with anger. “You said that
you were talking with Ma-wha the
other night, but she was not in your room. I watched
myself last night, and saw
your fellow-criminal leap from your window and scale
the wall. What have you to
say for yourself?” The poor woman was quite bewildered
by the suddenness and
violence of the accusation and could only murmur it
was false. This increased
the father’s rage. “How is it
possible for a woman to so disgrace my
house! Tell who your paramour was, for I shall surely
hunt him to his death.”
The woman collected her faculties a little and
answered with dignity. “I know not how
it comes about that you charge me
with such a crime. I have lived a pure life and have
never given the slightest
cause for suspicion. The shame and injustice of this
accusation could never be
washed out with all the waters of the sea.” The old
man’s fury augmented at
every word she said, but she added: “It is true that
for two nights there was a man in my
room. My husband came back because he could not bear
to leave me, and I
concealed it from you because you would blame him, but
last night no one
entered my room.” By this time the old man’s rage had
reached a point of
frenzy. He seized her and bound her to the
whipping-bench, and laid the blows
on thick and fast. Her tender skin was bruised and
broken at every stroke. Her
agony was intense. The old man paused to take breath,
and the poor woman as if
inspired put up her hand and drew out her long silver
hairpin, and cried: “I am going to
throw this pin in the air. If I have
committed this crime let it descend and pierce my
head. If not, let it pierce
this rock beside me.” She threw the pin in the air
and, descending, it went
straight to the Head in the granite rock, as a spike
would enter wood under the
blows of the hammer. The aged mother, who was watching
from the door, seeing
this marvelous vindication rushed out, forgetting her
[page
451]
shoes, fell upon her knees, drew her injured
daughter to her breast, and tried to soothe away the
pain. But the daughter
moaned: “It is not the
pain of the body. It is the disgrace
I cannot bear. I wish I were dead.” The old father,
filled with remorse at his
cruel severity, knelt and untied her bonds, and the
two carried her tenderly
into the house. The sufferer kept moaning: “Oh I want to
die before my husband comes back, for
I never could look him in the face with such a
disgrace as this upon me.” But
her little eight-years-old daughter clung sobbing, to
her breast and begged her
not to die. “Oh, what will I
and little brother do without you?
Oh, mother do not die.” But the mother answered: “I shall never
see your father again. Tell him when
he comes that I would have loved to see him and bid
him good-bye. Take care of
your little brother when I am gone.” The little
daughter wept herself to sleep
upon her mother’s breast, and seeing it the woman said
to herself: “I must do it
now, for if she wakes I shall not
have courage to do it.” With this she reached out her
hand and grasped a long
knife lying near her, shut her eyes tight and drove
the knife deep, deep into
her own breast and expired without a sigh. Long the little
daughter slept, unconscious that
her pillow was her mother’s corpse. When at last her
eyes opened, the first
thing that met her eyes was the hilt of that murderous
knife locked in her
mother’s rigid grasp. Scarcely realizing its awful
meaning, yet filled with
nameless dread, she laid her cheek against her
mother’s and cried. “Wake, mother,
wake up. Where have you gone and
left your little ones? What answer shall I make to
little brother when he calls
for you? Oh! mother, mother! Why don’t you wake?” She
seized her mother’s hand
and tried to unlock its grasp upon the knife，but all in vain.
She
could not stir it. Her cries drew the servants to the
room and the sad sight
overcame them all. They tried to draw out the weapon,
but it resisted every
attempt. They tried to move the body to prepare it for
burial, but it was fixed
to the floor in some mysterious manner and all their
efforts were in vain. So
they were obliged to leave it where it was. [page 451] Meanwhile, the
young man was having brilliant
successes in Seoul. He took the first prize in the
examination, and was obliged
to remain at Seoul some time in order to go through
the formalities of being
invested with his official insignia. But he sent a
long and loving letter to
his wife telling her of his success. When the letter
reached its destination it
only added to the sorrow and distress of his parents.
The little girl took the
letter and brought it to where her mother lay and
shook her saying. “Mother, mother,
wake up and read the letter Papa
has sent. He has taken the prize. Oh mother, wake and
read it.” As her pleading
was not heeded she sat down and read aloud the letter
to her dead mother, and
asked her if it was not indeed good news and why she
did not answer. By this time
Sun-doki was on his way home,
rejoicing more in the anticipated meeting with his
wife than in all the honours
that had been showered upon him at the capital. When
he was as yet three
hundred li from home his pleasant anticipations were
changed into dreadful
fear. In a dream his wife appeared to him just as she
appeared after the
beating she had received at the hands of his father.
She came and fell before
him weeping and beating her breast. She told him that
she had found it
impossible to live longer, and that she was dead, and
she entreated him to go
to his home and unravel the mystery and clear her name
from the opprobrium that
had been heaped upon it. He awoke and
knew that what he had heard was true.
In feverish haste he ordered up his horses and his
sedan chair and started on
at midnight. He did not let his men stop to sleep once
until he had covered the
whole three hundred li. His excitement increased as he
approached his native
village. He seemed to be burning up with a fever, and
he urged the jaded
carriers on with cruel persistency. As he entered the
village he met his father
coming out to meet him. In spite of his haste he was
obliged to get out of his
chair and salute his father, and together they went
toward the house. But the
father fearing the consequences to his son that might
follow the loss of his
wife, had in the meantime arranged another marriage
for him with the daughter
of a wealthy gentleman of the place, and as they were
about to pass that house
his [page
453]
father tried to get him to go in and see his
future father-in-law, hoping to divert his mind and
render lighter the blow
that he knew must come But the son would not think of
it, and pressed straight
on home with the dead weight of his presentiment
weighing upon his heart. He went straight
to his wife’s room, and there she
lay just as she was at the moment she died. His soul
was torn by conflicting
emotions, the strongest of which was revenge. There
was no time to weep now. No
time to think of the past. The first thing was to
avenge this noble woman’s
death. He tried, to
draw out the knife but it did not
stir. He whispered in her ear. “Let me pull it
out and I swear that I will avenge
you with it;” again he tried and this time it came out
with the greatest ease,
and from the open wound issued a bird with blue
plumage, and as it flew out of
the window it cried “Ma-wha！ Ma-wha！” It was
followed by another which also cried “Ma-wha! Ma-wha!” “Ah,” cried the
young Sun-doki “I know where to
look for the author of all this. I ought to have known
that Ma-wha’s jealousy
would cause trouble.” He took the knife in his hand
and went out. He called all
the servants together and then ordered Ma-wha to be
brought. He bound her to
the same whipping-bench that had witnessed the
humiliation of his dead wife,
and beat her with his own hand until she confessed the
crime and told the name
of her accomplice. The latter was
banished to a distant island, but
Ma-wha was beheaded with the very knife that had
worked such ruin in the young
man’s hopes. Going back to
the body of his wife he sat down by
it to mourn, but the lack of sleep for so long,
together with exhaustion
resulting from the tension of his nerves, overcame
him, and he sank into a
feverish sleep beside the body. Again the vision came,
this time radiant with
joy and more beautiful than ever. She said: “My spirit came
before the throne of God and he
said to me, ‘This evil came upon you because you did
not wait the allotted
three years before your union.’ ‘Yes,’ I answered ‘we
did wrong, but are we not
punished enough already? If I do not go back to my
husband, be will surely die
and bring [page
454]
sorrow to his aged parents who have done no wrong.’
He answered my prayer, and sent an order to the
wardens of Hades bidding them
let my spirit come back to earth for eighty years.” At this moment
Sun-doki awoke and lo! before him
lay the body of his wife, but it had turned over on to
its side. He seized her
hands and chafed them. The color began to come back
into her face. Soon she
heaved a little sigh and her heavy lashes trembled,
and then her eyes opened
wide, her strength came back and the joyful Sun-doki
with a cry of joy flung
his arms about her and covered her with caresses. But the poor
father was in trouble again, for the
girl with whose father had concluded the engagement on
behalf of his son
refused to marry him now that his wife was restored,
for that would degrade her
to the position of second wife, and yet she refused to
marry any one else, for
when an engagement is once consummated the parties are
supposed to be to all
intents and purposes man and wife, and marriage with
another then is a great
crime. So the father sent a letter to the king
relating the wonderful
circumstance of the wife’s restoration, and the sad
fate of the other girl
condemned to a life of solitude. The king was so
touched by the recital of the tale
that he made out with his own hand a special license
whereby Sun-doki was
allowed to have two first wives. The wedding followed
soon, and they all lived
long lives of happiness and usefulness and left heir
substance to their babes. Odds
and Ends. Why
Morning Calm？ The sages named
this little land Chosun, But they surely
must have done it just for fun. For by strict
interpretation “Morning Calm”
should be a nation Where no
diplomatic clouds obscure the sun. [page
455] Why did the
sages call it that I wonder; For it seems to
me a monumental blunder. To have called
it “Morning Calm” Should have cost
them many a qualm, For by noon they
might have known that it would
thunder. The sages named
this little land Chosun, But it’s hard to
understand why this done; Though ‘twas in
the days primeval, Long before the
late upheaval, When old
Hideyoshi scooped the little bun. The sages named
this little land Chosun. Must have been
before the histories begun. For before the
Christian era In the Kojiki we
hear a- Bout how Empress
Jingu took it on the run. If the sages saw
some ‘‘interested power,” To the
north/east like thunder-clouds begin to
lower, I should like to
ask them whether, Just to suit the
changeful weather. Morning Calm
might not be changed to Evening
Shower. The sages
doubtless thought ‘twould do no harm For the Japanese
to ask her to reform; Yet had they
foreseen M___________ Then of course
they’d have been sure a Morning Calm
might quickly change to Evening Storm. The sages named
this little land Chosun And thus
committed error number one. Did they drink
her health, prophetic? I’d have given
them an emetic, Just to teach
them such a paradox to shun. The sages named
this country Morning Calm, And for
inconsistency they take the palm. With the
soldiers shouting man-se Just at
daybreak, do you fancy To the sages’
sleepy eyelids would be balm? [page
456] Since the sages
with these useless names encumber All the earth,
we should not wake them from their
slumber; ‘Twould be
better far, I deem, To promulgate
some such scheme As to give a
land no name, but just a number. If the sages had
not lit upon Chosun, To my thinking,
golden laurels they’d have won. Some nice name
they ought t’have Chosun, (Surely I could
name a dozen) And so saved the
suffering public from this pun. I don’t see what
made the ancient sages act so; In this case I’m
sure their brains they must have
racked so; That, when
future lands are christened, (If to my advice
they’ve listened) They will wait a
while and name them ex post facto. POLEMICUS. Blue
Tile. Many years ago
there was one man in Korea who knew
how to make blue glazed tile, and only one. He guarded
his secret so carefully
that no one, not even his son, learned it.
Consequently when he died the art
was lost. The blue tile which we occasionally see by
twos and threes on the top
row of government buildings did not come from China as
some suppose but were
made here. After the art was lost the government
thought to secure blue glazed
tile by bringing over a skilled workman from China. He
came but it was found
that his tiles would not stand the weather and soon
cracked and were broken.
That one Korean who was so secretive by temperament as
not to hand down the
secret to his son, has passed into proverb and when a
man is very
uncommunicative he is called Chung ka-wa Chang-su or
“A blue-tile Merchant.” A
Rebellious Mountain. In the town of
Chuk-san about thirty miles to south-east
of Seoul is a mountain called Cho-p’i San. Its shape
is such, and it “faces” in
such a direction, that it is believed to have turned
its back on Seoul and is
considered a rebellious mountain. For this reason,
whenever, in days gone by, a
traitor was executed and his body torn into portions
to be sent about the
country as a [page
457]
warning to all, after the parts were brought back
to the capital they were always carried to this
mountain and thrown upon its
slope. This is not merely a former custom but has
continued up recent times for
it was no longer than twenty- seven years ago that it
was done. Question
and Answer. (17)
Question. The Korean months from the second to the
tenth inclusive are named
from the number of the month, what is the meaning of
the names of the first,
eleventh and twelfth months? Answer. The
first moon is called Chung-wul, or 正月, meaning
literally the “Straight Moon,” which has come to mean
the “Straightway
Moon” or first moon. The eleventh moon is called
Tong-ji Tal or 冬
至
or “Winter arrival” moon which to the Korean means the
month that sees the
end of winter, for it is supposed to end about the
time of the winter solstice
when the days begin to grow longer. In writing, the
Koreans would call it 至月 or Chi-wul. The twelfth moon is called
the Sot-tal of which the sot is a
pure Korean word which is used simply as the name of
this month and has at the
present no other meaning. Its derivation would be an
interesting subject of
enquiry. It is the only month that has a purely Korean
name. This word Sot-tal
is a euphonized form of Sol-tal, the 1 being attracted
into the form t by the
following t. This word sol corresponds to the Chinese
word 臘 which is
pronounced nap by the Koreans. This character means to
sacrifice
to the gods three days after the winter solstice; so
it would seem that the
pure Korean word sol is in some way connected with the
idea of sacrifice but at
the present day it refers only to that particular
festival. Editorial
Comment The Seventeenth
Annual Meeting of the Presbyterian
Mission in Korea was held in Seoul during the last
days of September. [page
458] It appears that
during the past year over eleven
hundred Koreans have been added to the full membership
of the church through
the labors of this mission. As to the nature of the
work and the part the
natives themselves do in it we cannot do better than
quote the summary of the
work done by the northern branch of the Mission with
headquarters at Pyeng-
yang. There is one
central church with eighteen
associated places of meeting. Besides these there are
179 recognized out-stations,
having, from one to six meeting-places in connection
with each. There are
sixteen or more additional groups unrecognized as yet
by a missionary’s visit.
The out-stations are grouped, for administrative
purposes, into six country circuits.
The adult membership numbers 2944 and there are ninety
on the roll of baptized
infants. Seven hundred and eighty-four adults were
baptized, on profession of
faith, during the year. Three thousand eight hundred
and thirty-seven persons
have been publicly recognized as catechumens, or
enquirers, of whom one
thousand five hundred and eighty were received this
year. These all represent a
total of 11,905 adherents who are more or less regular
church attendants. In this field
there are eight ordained foreign
missionaries. There are, as native assistants,
seventy-three unsalaried local
leaders, and nineteen helpers who travel on circuits.
All but six helpers are
supported by the natives. There are a hundred and
fifty-two church and chapel
buildings, forty-six of which have been built during
the past year and all
without foreign aid. And all churches have provided
their own current expenses.
There are forty-one schools, and thirty of the
teachers are supported entirely
by the natives and all the rest are supported by the
natives in large part.
Twenty-one schools have been organized during the past
year. The pupils under
instruction number five hundred and ninety-two. The total amount
contributed by the natives for all
purposes was yen 8648.63. Eighty-four
special classes for Bible study were
held; thirty-one being taught by missionaries and the
rest by native helpers.
Eighty-two of these classes were held entirely at
native expense. Such is the
official statement of the northern
station of [page
459]
this mission. We give prominence to the fact of
self-support because, among a people so mercenary as
the oriental, the
willingness to put his hand into his pocket and pay
for a building to be used
exclusively for Christian purposes is perhaps one of
the surest evidences of
sincerity. There is no
evading the fact, even if we wished to
evade it, that Christianity is becoming firmly
established in certain portions
of this country, especially in the north where the
people are more vigorous and
independent than in most other parts of the country.
But even in other sections
of Korea, notably in the vicinity of the capital and
in Whang-ha Province,
important Christian centers are found which are
growing with great rapidity and
on a basis of native support which promises the very
best results. In regard to the
hospital, for which funds have
been provided through the generosity of friends in
America, it does not seem to
be the general wish of the mission to have a large and
thoroughly equipped
institution even though the funds should by ample. It
is feared by some that if
prominence is given to this work it will give the
impression to the natives
that Christianity is a sort of eleemosynary
institution bent on benevolence and
philanthropic work. With this it is difficult to
agree, for if medical work is
valuable at all from an evangelistic standpoint, as an
entering wedge, then
there should be no fear that the work will be too
large. Every man who seeks
physical aid at the hospital comes in contact with
direct Christian teaching,
entirely outside of the mere medical work. A vast
majority of the people who
apply for medical or surgical aid could be approached
at no other time with
such ease and with such certainty of a thoughtful
hearing. There were towns
where the people would not listen to Christ’s
preaching and we are told that
there He only laid his hands on the sick and healed
them. There was no apparent
fear that his purpose would be misunderstood. A large and
thoroughly equipped hospital would be a
grand object lesson showing the Korean Christian that
the constant pressure in
the direction of self-support is not because the
church in America is not
willing to give the money, but because it is necessary
to the building up of a strong
self-reliant native church. The Presbyterian Hospital
in New [page
460] York City is so far from being
self-supporting that
only the merest fraction of its support comes from the
patients. How much less
then could a hospital in Korea be self-supporting. Such being the
case it affords a splendid
opportunity to prove the generosity of the home church
without in any sense “pauperizing”
the Korean church or, giving the impression that
Christianity is mainly
humanitarian. News
Calendar. The matter of
Roze Island has at last been settled.
Min Yung-ju, on Oct. 3rd, put down $35,000 and so
recovered the island to the
government. The public will probably never learn the
ins and outs of this
curious affair and in truth, it is better left alone.
It is, however,
significant that the Law Department has ordered the
rearrest of Min Yung-ju in
connection with it. The Japanese who had the claim on
the island is to
reimburse the Koreans whose houses he pulled down. Of
course the possession by
a Japanese (or the Japanese) of Roze Island, which
completely dominates the
harbor of Chemulpo, could not be devoid of political
meaning, and for this reason
its acquisition would naturally be an international
event of interest to other
powers besides those immediately concerned. Roze
Island means as much to Chemulpo
as Deer Island does to Fusan or Ko-je Island to
Masanpo. Its alienation would
thus set a very questionable precedent and the
Japanese have acted with great
good sense in handing it back to the Korean
government. In September the
War Office, Foreign Office and
Police Department were the only ones to receive the
regular remittance from the
Finance Department. Many of the officials connected
with the other Departments
are in arrears with their salary. The shortage in the
crops accounts for this,
as the land tax forms the major portion of the
government revenue. [page
461] A Chinese
merchant named Tung Shun-tai built a
three-storey house beside the palace and overlooking
the palace wall. It was
rather evident that its height was intended as an
argument for its sale to the
palace authorities, but the builders overreached
themselves, for the Chinese
Consul with great good sense refused to incur the
ill-will of the Government by
upholding any such imposition. The builders were
summarily ordered to take down
the third storey of the building. Of course everyone
expects that the
Government will pay a good round price for property
that it buys from
foreigners, but that is a different thing from
building in an annoying fashion
for the purpose of forcing a purchase. This looks a
good deal like blackmail. On Oct. 1st, the
Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, Ku Yung-ju, resigned and the Vice-minister of
the Police Department, Yi
Keun-t’ak was appointed to the position thus made
vacant. We are pleased
to learn that early in the current
month M. Clemencet, the efficient manager of the
Korean Post Office, renewed
his contract with the Korean Government. We believe
the time will come when the
Post Office will be not only self-supporting but will
be a source of revenue to
the government. From the Cho-sun
Sin-po, a Japanese daily paper in Chemulpo,
it appears that the Japanese are agitating the
question of securing the
reconsideration of the regulation which permits.
Japanese subjects to come to
Korea only after securing passports from their
government. A united effort is likely
to be made by the Japanese Boards of Trade in the
different open ports of Korea
to secure free entrance to Korea for Japanese. The
Editor of that paper argues
that even if objectionable characters come there is an
efficient Japanese
police which will prevent them from harming the people
and there is always the
possibility of appeal to the Japanese Consul. Now it is well
known how Japanese of the lower
classes treat Koreans of the same class, even under
present conditions. Every
foreigner has seen it and understands very well that
this one thing does more
to prevent cordial relations between Koreans and
Japanese than any other. The
Japanese [page
462]
Government acted with the utmost wisdom in
carefully scrutinizing every Japanese who proposed to
come to Korea, and the removal
of this check would be a severe blow to good order and
a fatal bar to the
growth of friendly relations. An eye-witness of the
events in Song-do two years
ago tells us of how the Japanese went into the ginseng
fields and literally
helped themselves to the valuable roots, and what is
more, the Japanese police
who were sent to that place actually connived with and
protected the Japanese
thieves in this wanton spoliation. No, it is
absolutely necessary that the
Japanese government hold such men in check or the
results will be most
deplorable both for the Koreans and for the Japanese
in this country. We fully
sympathize with Japanese efforts to develop the wealth
of Korea and we believe
that no others are so well prepared to do it as they,
and it is for this very
reason that we strongly favor every regulation which
would tend to prevent
bitter feeling between Koreans and Japanese. On Oct. 2nd a
Japanese fell in front of the
locomotive at the South Gate Station and was instantly
killed. According: to
the native papers a thief entered a
high official’s house a few days ago and stole his
Sin-ju or ancestors’ idol
and held it to ransom. But the official did not see it
in that light and
proceeded to make another idol to fill the accustomed
niche. From the same
source we learn that the magistrate
of Kyo-dong, a district not far from the capital, has
presented a difficult
mathematical problem to the Home Department. In
travelling through his district
he found 496 houses deserted by their occupants on
account of the famine. He
asks how he is to return the customary amount of
revenue from his district. If the native
papers are correct, the Korean
Government has declined an offer made by the Russian
authorities to complete
the Korean telegraph line through to the Tuman River. It is
unfortunate that the Korean Government should
pay $3100 to reimburse the Chinese merchants whose
windows were broken in the
recent incipient riot near the Big Bell Street. The
evidence would show that
the Chinese were [page 463] to
blame for the whole affair and to pay them an amount
of money so far in excess
of the damage puts a premium on riots. We have to
record the execution by decapitation of
nine Koreans who were leaders of a seditious society
called the Whal-pin-dang
or “Society for the Relief of the Poor,” which
operated last year in Kyung-sang
Province. Three others, who were leaders in the attack
on the Roman Catholics
on Quelpart were executed by strangulation. We note the
arrival, about the middle of October,
of M. Cuvellier, Vice-consul for Belgium in Seoul. Mr. Berteux has
been appointed Secretary of the
French Legation in Seoul to fill the vacancy caused by
the transfer of M.
Lefevre from that post to the Directorship of the
“Northwestern Railroad.
A branch of the
Seoul Post Office is to be opened
outside the West Gate on Nov. 1st. The management seem
to be doing every thing
in their power to render the Post Office as convenient
as possible to the
public. From November first the Seoul Electric Company
will put on a large
number of the new cars and instead of running every
twenty minutes there will
be a ten minute service. The public is to be
congratulated. On the 28th
instant, at a meeting of the Council of
the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, J. H.
Gubbins, C. M. G. resigned
the presidency of the Society. The Society has been
very fortunate in enjoying
his services during the initial stages of its
formation; for his long residence
in the East and his close connection with the Asiatic
Society of Japan rendered
his advice and help of inestimable value. As Mr.
Gubbins is leaving Korea the
council, perforce, accepted his resignation.
The rumor is
again abroad that the government
contemplates enlarging the city by building a wall
which shall include most of
the suburbs outside the West, Little West and South
Gates. A work of such
magnitude must be a severe strain on the finances of
the country at the present
stage. October 28 was
the fifth anniversary of the
assumption by the king of Chosun of the Imperial
title, and the change of the
name of this land from Chosun to Ta-han. His Imperial
[page
464] Majesty received in audience the
diplomatic body
and the foreign employees of the government who were
doubtless unanimous in
wishing him and the Empire a long and prosperous
career. On October 23rd
Rev. E. M. Cable of the Methodist
Mission was married to Miss Myrtle. Elliot. The
ceremony was performed at
Chemulpo by Rev. Geo. H. Jones assisted by Rev. W. C.
Swearer. The bride was
given away by Rev. H. G. Appenzeller. Margaret Jones
and Madeleine Hulbert
acted as bridesmaids. The wedding took place at high
noon and was followed by a
wedding breakfast at the residence of Rev. Mr. Jones.
The Review wishes the
bride and groom all happiness and a honey-moon fifty
years long. We are pleased
to record the return to Korea of
Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, from his furlough in America.
We understand that his
family will follow him in the spring. We are sorry to
learn that Dr. A. D. Drew of Kunsan
is leaving for America with his family from
considerations of health. We trust
that their absence will be only temporary. Hon H. N. Allen
and Mrs. Allen left Seoul about the
middle of October for a short furlough in the United
States. During his absence
Mr. Gordon Paddock is Charge d’Affaires. We wish Dr.
And Mrs. Allen a pleasant
journey and a speedy return. A poor man in
the southern part of the city pawned
some goods receiving five thousand cash. A man
loitering near saw him come out
with the money and followed him when he entered a
small side street the robber,
for such he proved to be, drew a revolver and demanded
the money, threatening
to shoot if it was not given up. He secured the money
and the poor gentleman
has nothing but his pawn ticket to show for the
transaction. There are many
parts of the city where Koreans do not care to go at
night, notably the cut
near the Imperial Altar. Another thief pretended to be
a house-broker and asked
to look at a house. He was admitted and at the muzzle
of a revolver looted the
place of all portable valuables. Whang-sung
Sin-mun. Min Pyung-suk
has resigned from the command of the
gendarmes and Min Yung-whi has been appointed to the
place. [page
465] KOREAN
HISTORY. The twelve
provinces were reconstructed into five
and there were seventy-five prefectures in all. This
plan however was abandoned
two years later. Now that Koryu had regained control
of her own territory, the
Yu-jin tribe thought best to cultivate her good will
and so sent frequent
envoys with gifts of horses and other valuables. But
when the Emperor of Kitan,
angry because the King refused on the plea of ill
health to go to Kitan and do
obeisance, sent an army and seized six of the northern
districts this side the
Yalu, the Yu-jin turned about and ravaged the
northeast boundary. The next year
the Yu-jin joined Kitan and crossed the Yalu but were
speedily driven back by
Gen. Kim Sang-wi. In the autumn
the Kitan army was again forced back across
the border. The Koryu army had now grown to such
proportions that the question
of revenue became a very serious one and the officials
found it necessary to
suggest a change. They had been accustomed to
“squeeze” a good proportion of
the soldiers’ pay and now that there was danger of
further change which would
be only in the officials’ favor, the soldiers raised a
disturbance, forced the
palace gates, killed two of the leading officials and
compelled the King to
banish others. They saw to it that the military
officials took precedence of
civil officials. From that time on there was great
friction between the
military and civil factions, each trying to drive the
other to the wall. The next year,
1015, the Kitan people bridged the
Yalu, built a wall at each end and successfully
defended it from capture; but
when they attempted to harry the adjoining country
they were speedily driven
back. The military faction had now obtained complete
control at the capital.
Swarms of incompetent men were foisted into office and
things were going from
bad to worse. The King Was much dissatisfied at this
condition of affairs and
at some-one’s advice decided to sever the knot which
he could not untie. He
summoned all the leaders of the military faction to a
great feast, and, when [page
466]
he had gotten them all intoxicated, had them cut
down by men who had lain concealed in an adjoining
chamber. In this way
nineteen men were put out of the way and the military
faction was driven to the
wall. Year by year the
northern people tried to make
headway against Koryu. The Sung dynasty was again and
again appealed to but
without success. Koryu was advised to make peace with
Kitan on the best terms
possible. The Kitan generals, Yu Pyul, Hang By-un and
Ya-yul Se-chang made raid
after raid into Koryu territory with varying success.
In 1016 Kitan scored a
decisive victory at Kwak-ju where the Koryu forces
were cut to pieces. Winter
however sent them back to their northern haunts. The
next year they came again
and in the following year, 1018, Gen. So Son-ryung
came with 100,000 men. The
Koryu army was by this time in good order again and
showed an aggregate of
200,000 men. They were led by General Kang Kam-ch’an.
When the battle was
fought the latter used a new form of stratagem. He
caused a heavy dam to be
constructed across a wooded valley and when a
considerable body of water had
accumulated behind it he drew the enemy into the
valley below and then had the
dam torn up; the escaping water rushed down the valley
and swept away hundreds
of the enemy and threw the rest into such a panic that
they fell an easy prey
to the superior numbers of the Koryu army. This was
followed by two more
victories for the Koryu arms. The next year,
again, the infatuated north-men
flung themselves against the Koryu rock. Under Gen. So
Son-ryung they advanced
upon Song-do. The Koryu generals went out thirty miles
and brought into the
capital the people in the suburbs. Gen. So tried a
ruse to throw the Koryu
generals off their guard. He sent a letter saying that
he had decided not to
continue the march but to retire to Kitan; but he
secretly threw out a strong
force toward Song-do. They found every point disputed
and were obliged to
withdraw to Yung-byun Like most soldiers the Koryu
forces fought best when on
the offensive and the moment the enemy took this
backward step Gen. Kang Kam-ch’an
was upon them, flank and rear. The invaders were
driven out of Yung-byun but
made a stand at Kwi-ju. At first the fight was an even
one [page
467]
but when a south wind sprang up which lent force
to the Koryu arrows and drove dust into the eyes of
the enemy the latter turned
and fled, with the exulting Koryu troops in full
pursuit. Across the Suk-ch’un
brook they floundered and across the fields which they
left carpeted with Kitan
dead. All their plunder, arms and camp equipage fell
into Koryu hands and Gen.
So Son-ryung with a few thousand weary followers
finally succeeded in getting
across the Yalu. This was the greatest disaster that
Kitan suffered at any time
from her southern neighbor. Gen. So received a cool
welcome from his master,
while Gen. Kang，returning in
triumph to Song-do with Kitan heads
and limitless plunder, was met by the King in person
and given a flattering
ovation. His Majesty with his own hands presented him
with eight golden
flowers. The name of the meeting place was changed to
Heung-eui-yuk, “Place of
Lofty Righteousness.” When Gen. Kang retired the
following year he received six
honorary titles and the revenue from three hundred
houses. He was a man of
small stature and ill-favored and did not dress in a
manner befitting his
position, but he was called the “Pillar of Koryu.” Many towns in
the north had been laid waste during
the war and so the people were moved and given houses
and land. The records say
that an envoy came with greetings from the kingdom of
Ch’ul-ri. One also came
from Ta-sik in western China and another from the
kingdom of Pul-la. Several of
the Mal-gal tribes also sent envoys; the kingdom of
T’am-na was again heard
from and the Kol-bu tribe in the north sent envoys. In
1020 Koryu sent an envoy
to make friends again with her old time enemy Kitan
and was successful. The
ambition of the then Emperor of Kitan had apparently
sought some new channel.
Buddhism, too, came in for its share of attention. We
read that the King sent
to Kyong-ju, the ancient capital of Sil-la, to procure
a bone of Buddha which
was preserved there as a relic. Every important matter
was referred in prayer
to the Buddhistic deities. As yet Confucianism had
succeeded in keeping pace
with Buddhism. In 1024 the King decreed that the
candidates in the national
examinations should come according to population three
men from a
thousand-house town, two from a five hun- red-house
town and one each from
smaller places. Several [page 468] examinations
were held in succession and only those who excelled in
them
all received promotion. The great struggle between
Buddhism and Confucianism,
which now began, arrayed the great class of monks on
the side of the former and
the whole official class on the side of the latter.
The former worked upon the
superstitions of the King and had continual access to
him while the latter
could appeal to him only on the side of general common
sense and reason.
Moreover Buddhism had this in its favor that as a rule
each man worked for the
system rather than for himself, always presenting a
solid front to the
opposition. The other party was itself a conglomerate
of interests, each man
working mainly for himself and joining with others
only when his own interests
demanded. This marked division of parties was
strikingly illustrated when, in
1026, in the face of vehement expostulations on the
part of the officials, the
King spent a large amount of treasure in the repairing
of monasteries. The
kingdom of Kitan received a heavy blow when in 1029
one of her generals, Ta
Yun-im, revolted and formed the sporadic kingdom of
Heung-yo. Having
accomplished this he sent to the King of Koryu saying
“We have founded a new
kingdom and you must send troops to aid us.” The Koryu
officials advised that
advantage be taken of this schism in Kitan to recover
the territory beyond the
Yalu which originally belonged to Ko-gu-ryu and to
which Koryu therefore had
some remote title. Neither plan was
adopted. It seemed good to keep
friendly with Kitan until such time as her power for
taking revenge should be
past, so envoys were sent as usual, but were
intercepted and held by the new
King of Heung-yo. This policy turned out to be a wise
one, for soon the news
came that Kitan had destroyed the parvenu. Now that the
fortunes of Koryu were manifestly in
the ascendant, many people in the north sent and swore
allegiance to her, thus
following the example of a certain Kitan envoy who at
this time transferred his
citizenship voluntarily from Kitan to Koryu. The King died
and his son Heum, posthumous title
Tuk-jong, came to the throne in 1032. He married his
own sister. All friendly
relations with Kitan were broken off, because the
bridge across the Yalu was
not destroyed. It did not seem [page 469] a friendly act
to leave this standing menace to the peace of Koryu.
In
view of this the King ordered a wall to be built
across the entire peninsula
from the Yalu River to the Japan Sea. It was nearly a
thousand li long. This
would seem almost incredible were it not that the
facts are given in such
detail. The wall was twenty-five cha high and the same
in breadth and stretched
from Ko-gung-na Fortress, near Eui-ju on the Yalu, to
Yong-heung near the Japan
Sea. The Kitan people tried to hinder this work but
without avail. This period
marks the acme of Koryu’s power and wealth. She had
reached her zenith within a
century and a quarter of her birth and now for three
centuries she was destined
to decline. The younger
brother, Hyong, of this King Tuk-jong,
succeeded him in 1035, after a short reign of three
years. He continued the
work of making impregnable the defenses of the north.
He built a wall from
Song-ryung Pass in the west to the borders of the
Yu-jin tribe in the
north-east. He also built a Fortress Cha-jun, now
Ch’ang-sung. His reign beheld
the riveting of Buddhistic chains upon the kingdom.
Those who could read the
signs of the times surmised this when, in 1036, the
King decreed that, if a man
had four sons, one of them must become a monk. Because
of the Buddhistic canon
against the spilling of blood the death penalty was
commuted to banishment.
Another Buddhistic anniversary was instituted. The
King also inaugurated the
custom of having boys go about the streets bearing
Buddhistic books upon their
backs from which the monks read aloud as they passed
along. This was for the
purpose of securing blessings for the people. In order to
counteract the tendency toward luxury,
the King forbade the use of silk and gold and went so
far as to burn up the
whole stock of silk held by the merchants. He made a
new law of primogeniture.
The first son is to succeed. If he dies, the son of
the first son succeeds. If
there is no grandson the second son succeeds. It there
is no son by the wife
the son by a concubine succeeds. It there is none then
a daughter succeeds. The
Yu-jin tribe came with rich gifts and promised
faithfully to refrain from
raiding the frontier again. In 1047 the King was
succeeded by his younger
brother, Whi, posthumous title Mun-jong, who was [page 470] destined to sit
upon the throne for thirty-seven
years. After announcing to his suzerain his accession,
he followed the custom
of his house and married his sister. This monarch at
first showed a blending of
Buddhistic and Confucian influences, for the annals
state that in his second
year he fed ten thousand monks in the palace and gave
them lodging there, and
that shortly after this he built a Temple to Heaven
before the palace. The
Yu-jin tribe broke their promise and made a descent
upon the border fortresses
but were driven back; and not only so, but the Koryu
forces followed them to
their haunts and burned their villages to the ground. In 1053 the
system of taxation was overhauled and a
new schedule of weights was made. The King sent a
letter to Kitan complaining
that the bridge across the Yalu still stood, that a
wall had been built to
secure it and that a horse relay system had been
established, with this bridge
as one of its termini. It seemed, in the words of the
letter, that “Kitan was
the silk-worm and Koryu was the mulberry leaf.” The
King was anxious to attempt
an embassy to China and for that purpose suggested
that a boat be built on the
island of Quelpart but the officials dissuaded him
from the attempt. The year 1056
was signalised by the arrival of an
envoy from Japan. It is probable that the strong
Buddhistic tendency which had
developed in Japan had tempted the Japanese to send
and secure further
instruction in that cult and to secure relics and
paraphernalia. The envoy may
have asked that Buddhist teachers be sent, but the
records say nothing to this
effect. Buddhism was
making steady advances. A large
quantity of metal intended for the manufacture of arms
was taken by order of
the King and made into nails for use in building
monasteries. He took away
houses from many wealthy people, among them some of
his own relatives and gave
them to the monks. The law requiring that of four sons
one must become a monk
was now revised so as to read that one of every three
should don the cowl.
Nearly every house furnished its monk. The King said
“From the very first our
Kings have encouraged Buddhism and each generation has
paid attention to the
building of monasteries. By so doing many blessings [page 471] have been
received. Now that I have become King I
find that many evils are oppressing the state because
of the neglect of the
important precept. I will now mend this breach in our
conduct and restore to
the country her former prosperity.” So he built
monasteries in various places.
The officials all used their influence against this
but the monks carried the
day. A Buddhist book called Tal-jang-gyung was sent by
Kitan as a gift to
Koryu. This period was
not without some hopeful signs. A
law was passed that no man should be punished before
being tried before three
judges. The government built a fleet of a hundred and
six sailing vessels to
carry the government rice from one port to another.
The boats made six trips a
year. But the
advances, or rather retrogressions, in a
Buddhistic line were still more marked. In 1065 the
King’s son Ku cut his hair
and became a monk. A law was promulgated that no beast
should be killed in the
land for three years. A monastery was being built in
Song-do containing 2,800
kan, each kan being eight feet square. It took twelve
years to complete it.
When it became ready for occupancy there was a
magnificent festival at which
all monks within a radius of many miles were present.
The feasting lasted five
days. There was an awning of silk, covering a
passage-way from the palace to
this monastery. Mountains and trees were represented
by lanterns massed
together. The King dressed in the robes of a high
priest. In this monastery was
a pagoda on which 140 pounds of gold and 427 pounds of
silver were lavished. Chapter
IV. Revenue. . . .
mathematics. . . . the bridge
removed. . . . friends with China again. . . .
Confucianism wanes. . . .
Buddhist book from Japan. . . . frontier defence. . .
. prophecy. . . .
Han-yang made a secondary capital. . . . new laws. . .
. cash counterfeited. .
. . Yu-jin taken. . . . botany . . . . beginnings of
the Kin power. . . .
between Kitan and Kin. . . . kingdom of Wun. . . .
China allies herself with
Kitan. . . . Kin seeks the good will of Koryu. . . .
dancing-girls and
Buddhism. . . . Kin demands Koryu alliance. . . .
refused. . . . defense of the
north. . . . an am- [Page 472] bitious official. . . .
Kitan falls. . . . Sung
dynasty falls. . . . harbor improvement . . . .
Buddhist trickery. . . .
rebellion quelled. . . . historical work, Sam-guk-sa.
. . . an abject king. . .
. Kin immigrants. . . . a good governor for Quelpart.
. . . military faction
dominant. . . . criminals, houses destroyed. . . .
king banished. . . . a plot
foiled. . . . the emperor suspicious. . . . military
and monastic factions. . .
. attempted revolution. . . . monastic revolt. It is evident
that population and revenue are
proportionate. Not often is the question of population
touched upon in the
Korean annals but some light is thrown upon it by the
statement that at this
time the revenue from the north, from the most distant
places only, was 49,000
bags of rice. From this we must infer that the north
was fairly well populated. An interesting
point in connection with the
mathematical knowledge of the time is brought out in
the statement that the
system of land tax was changed and was collected at a
certain rate per each
square of thirty three paces; but if the field was
large the tax was a certain
amount for each tract forty-seven paces square. The
square of thirty-three is
1089 and the square of forty-seven is 2209, which is
the nearest possible to
twice the square of thirty-three. It would seem then
that they had some notion
of the properties of geometrical figures. It was about
tins time that Kitan changed its name
to Yo. She at once sent an envoy announcing the fact.
These were the golden
days of Koryu’s relations. The Yu-jin tribe of
To-ryung-ko-do-wha came and
swore allegiance as also did the Chang-man and Tu-hul
tribes. A few years later
a Japanese ruler named Sal-ma sent gifts to the Koryu
court as also did the
people of Tsushima. During the
latter years of this reign the Kitan
people were induced to break down the bridge across
the Yalu but it was done
only by sending at abject letter in which the Koryu
king said “As all the world
is yours and all the people in the world belong to
you, you have no need of a
bridge to bind us to you.” In 1077 an envoy
came from the Emperor of China
(Sung dynasty) asking aid against the Kitan. The king
might well have turned
and answered that as the Emperor had remained deaf to
Koryu’s entreaties for
help so now Koryu would decline to respond. But he did
nothing of the kind; [page
473]
this opportunity to reestablish friendly relations
with China was hailed with delight by all classes. The
king, though ill, was
carried on his bed outside the city walls to meet this
welcome messenger. The
Latter was treated royally and was loaded with so many
gifts that he could not
take them back with him. He had no intention, however,
of leaving them
entirely, for he sold them and took the money instead.
This sort of thrift was
something new to the Koreans and they showed their
disgust by ridiculing him;
and when he left they spat upon the ground in token of
their contempt. We are
not told that Koryu gave the aid requested. And yet
the friendly relations were
continued, as is seen from the fact that in 1079 the
emperor sent physicians
and medicines to Koryu We have here the first definite
mention of gold mining
in the statement that the people of Hong-wun dug a
hundred ounces of gold and a
hundred and fifty ounces of silver, which they sent to
the king. He graciously
gave it back to them. In 1084 the king
died and his adopted son Hun,
posthumous title Sun-jong, came to the throne; but he
died almost immediately
and was succeeded the same year by his younger brother
Un, posthumous title
Sun-jong. When the messenger announcing this arrived
at the gates of the Kitan
capital he was refused entrance, for they said there
must be some underlying
cause for the sudden death of king Sun-jong. Under the
new king, Buddhism continued
its rapid advance. In the first year of his reign he
instituted a Buddhist
examination to take the place of the ordinary
examination which was at bottom
Confucian; and so Buddhism scored a decided victory
over her rival. It was a
blow from which Confucianism recovered only by the
extinction of the dynasty.
These examinations the king attended in person, a
Buddhist book being carried
before him. He sent the prince to China to learn more
about the tenets of the
popular faith and when he returned the king went out
to welcome him home. The
young man brought back 1,000 volumes of Buddhistic
books. Later the king
secured 4,000 volumes more from the same source. The
records distinctly state
that he sent also to Japan to secure still other
Buddhistic books. This is a
strong indication that Japan did not obtain her
Buddhism largely [page
474]
from Korea. It proves at least that she had a more
direct channel for the procuring of Buddhist
literature than by way of Korea,
otherwise Koryu would hardly have applied to her for
books. The king married
his own sister. The bridge across the Yalu had been
destroyed but it would seem
that it had been again built, for now in 1088 the
records say it was finally
destroyed. King Sun-jong
could not do enough for Buddhism. A
vast amount of government rice was turned from its
legitimate uses and found
its way into the store-rooms of monasteries. The king
constructed a
thirteen-storey pagoda in the palace. His mother made
frequent visits to one of
the monasteries. The only act of
this king which was not with
special reference to Buddhism was the stationing at
Eui-ju of a large number of
war chariots to be used in defense of the frontier. In 1095 the king
was succeeded by his son Uk,
posthumous title Hon-jong, who was only eleven years
old. His uncle Ong become
regent but proved unfaithful and in the following year
drove the boy from the
throne and proclaimed himself king. His title was
Suk-jong. The most important
events of his reign were in connection with the
founding of a second capital as
Han-yang the present Seoul. The monk To sun who, it
will be remembered, had
taught the young Wang-gon the science of war, had also
left a prophecy to the
effect that after 160 years it would be well for the
kingdom if the site of the
capital be changed. The preliminary arrangements were
made early in this reign
but it was not until the year 1104 that a palace was
actually constructed
there, nor was the royal residence changed either at
this time or at any later
period, for any considerable length of time. A few
important laws were
promulgated; that if relatives intermarried they could
not receive official
position; that the nomination of an heir to the throne
should be made only
after consultation with the court of the northern
suzerain; that candidates who
failed to pass the government examinations should be
solaced by receiving
military rank. It is said that
in 1100 copper cash had begun to
circulate for the first time with freedom among the
people. Buddhism also made
material advances during this reign and riveted its [page 475] fetters more
firmly upon the body politic. On the
whole it was a very clean reign, when we remember that
a usurper was on the
throne. In 1106
Suk-jong’s son U, posthumous title Ye-jong,
came to the throne. At the very first he was
confronted by a new problem. The
people had yet to learn that the coinage of money is a
purely government
monopoly. The readiness with which cash circulated
tempted some to attempt to
counterfeit it. The king consequently promulgated a
law inflicting a heavy
penalty upon this offense and at the same time made a
law against the
adulteration of food. Having, in his
third year, married a near relative
he took as a teacher a monk named Un-jin, another
indication of the steady
progress of that cult. The talk about the change of
site for the capital
resulted in the building of a palace at P’yung-yang
and several royal
progresses to each of the proposed sites. The tribe of
Yu-jin had repeatedly promised to
remain peaceful and had as often broken their word; so
now when they began to
grow restless again, the King decided to make an end
of the matter. He sent a
strong force into their territory, killed 4,800 men
and took several thousand
prisoners. The territory was divided into four
administrative districts. In 1115 the king
developed a fad. He became an
enthusiastic botanist. He ransacked the kingdom for
rare and beautiful plants
and sent them to China in exchange for many kinds that
were not indigenous. We have now
arrived at the threshold of events
which were destined to result in the founding of a
great dynasty. In order to
explain we must go back a few years. Early in this
dynasty a Koryu monk from P’yung-yang,
named Keum-jun, had fled, for some reason not stated,
to the town of A-ji-go
among the Yu-jin tribe. He had there married a Yu-jin
woman and gotten a son
whom he named Ko-eul. He in turn begot Whal-ra, and to
him were born many sons,
the eldest of whom was Hyo-ri-bal and the second
Yong-ga. The latter was
unusually bright and popular and eventually became
chief; but on his death the
son of his brother Hyo-ri-bal, named O-a-sok, took his
place. O-a-sok died and
his younger brother, A-gol-t’a, became chief. Yu-jin
was at this [page
476]
time a small weak tribe under the sway of the
Ki-tan court, but now the masterly genius of A-gol-t’a
had come to her help,
matters were destined to assume a different
complexion. It was now in
1114 that the little tribe of Yu-jin
broke off its allegiance to Kitan and prepared to
carve out a career for
herself under her great leader. Soon an envoy came in
haste from the capital of
Kitan commanding the king to stand ready to drive back
the Yu-jin tribe if they
attempted to escape into his territory, for the
emperor of Kitan was about to
chastise his recalcitrant vassal. The next year
A-gol-t’a with sublime presumption
proclaimed himself emperor and named his kingdom Kin.
At the same time he
changed his own name to Min. The Kitan
emperor sent again demanding a contingent
of Koryu troops. After anxious consultation it was
decided to keep the soldiers
near home and guard the interests of Koryu. In the war
between Kitan and Kin
the former were severely handled and again appealed to
Koryu for help, but now
with no hope of success. The next year,
1116 a Koryu envoy Yun Eun-sun was
sent to the Kitan court but he did not return, so a
second one was dispatched
to learn the cause. The fact is, the first envoy had
fallen into the hands of a
new power named Wun which had been set up in eastern
Kitan by a man named Ko
Yong-ch’ang. War was still raging between Kitan and
Kin and the whole country
was in a state of turmoil and confusion. The second
envoy from Koryu fell into
the hands of the Wun people but got out of the
difficulty by promptly stating
that he was accredited to them by the king of Koryu;
and he forthwith laid out
his present. This made the upstart “emperor” of Wun
wild with delight and,
loading the envoy with rich presents, he sent him back
home. Instead of going
back to the king, however, the envoy returned secretly
to his own home, and it
was only by accident that the king learned of his
return. When he did learn of
it he sent for the man and inflicted summary
punishment. Of course the Wun
people liberated the other envoy and sent him home.
Him also the king punished
for having saved his life by seemingly offering
allegiance to Wun. The emperor of
China sent an envoy to Koryu with
gifts [page
477]
of musical instruments and took advantage of the
occasion to ask the Koryu king about the Kitan people.
The king answered, “Of
all the savage tribes they are the worst.” When this
reply reached the Chinese
court some of the courtiers said that the king of
Koryu was trying to keep
China from knowing Kitan, since there was treasure
there which Koryu wanted to
secure for herself. The emperor therefore sent and
made an alliance with Kitan,
which, as the sequel shows, cost him dear. Kitan was being
hard pressed by Kin, and Gen. Ya
Ryul-lyung wanted to escape and find asylum somewhere,
so the king sent him a
verbal invitation to come to Koryu. He replied that he
could not do so without
a written invitation. The Koryu statesmen feared that
this covered some kind of
trickery and the written invitation was not sent. Koryu desired to
put out a feeler to see how she
stood with the Kin power so she sent a message saying
“The district of Po-ju is
rightfully Koryu territory and we should be pleased to
have it turned over to
us.” The answer was given without an hour’s delay,
“Certainly, take it and do
with it as you wish.” Evidently the great Kin leader
did not intend to let a
single district stand between him and the good-will of
a power which might
cause him serious trouble while he was prosecuting his
designs upon China. The year ended
with a great feast at the capital of
Koryu at which dancing girls from all parts of the
country congregated. The
records say that they came “in clouds’’ which
indicates the social status of
the country. Buddhism had her representative in every
home, but no severe
asceticism would seem to have characterized the
people, if this report is true. The year 1117
beheld repeated triumphs of the Kin
leader over the Kitan forces, the flight of the Kitan
general Ya Ryul-lyung by
boat, the burning of the Kitan fleet and the cession
to Koryu of two more
districts, thus placing her border again at the Yalu
River. But this concession
was of design for it was followed by a letter from the
Kin court which read as
follows: “The elder brother, the Emperor of the Great
Kin, to the younger
brother, the king of Koryu; we were a small, weak
tribe and were badly treated
by the Kitan power but [page 478] now we are
about to destroy it. The King of Koryu must now make
with us a
firm treaty which shall be binding to the ten
thousandth generation.” This met with an
almost universal negative among
the wise-heads of Koryu, but one voice was heard
saying “They may be in a
position to do us great harm and we should comply with
this demand.” The latter
opinion did not prevail. Three years later another
envoy came from the king of
Kin with gifts but the accompanying letter was couched
in low language which
was construed into an insult and was answered in the
same tone. The king then
hastened to repair the fortresses in the north and to
increase the height of
the wall stretching across the country; but the Kin
emperor sent and forbade
it. When he received as answer the question “What
affair is it of yours?” he
kept his temper and did not press the demand for he
was anxious just then to be
on good terms with his southern neighbor. We must not
imagine that these years were barren of
events of importance within the bounds of Koryu
herself. Splendid monasteries
were built, notably the beautiful An-wha monastery;
embassies and gifts were
received from China; the king made trips to
P’yung-yang and Han-yang. In spite
of the height to which Buddhism had climbed, we read
in the annals that the
king frequented the society of dancing girls to such
an extent that he drew
down upon himself the censure of one of his highest
officials, whom he
consequently banished. In 1123 the king’s son Ha,
posthumous title In-jong,
came to the throne. An official, Yi Ja-gyum, who had
risen to the highest
position under the former king seemed to think him
self in a sense on an
equality with the young king now on the throne, and
wanted to have him bow to
him, but the other officials interfered and prevented
it. In order to make his
position the more secure, and to strengthen his
influence over the king, Yi
Ja-gyum bestowed upon him his four daughters to wife.
Naturally he incurred the
bitter enmity of the other officials, who sought means
for destroying him, but
without success. As a last resort they sent a band of
soldiers to the palace to
kill him. But he escaped to his private house, taking
the king with him. From
that place he governed the [page 479] land as he
wished. Finding the king an incumbrance he tried to do
away with
him by the use of poisoned bread, but some-one warned
the king, and instead of
eating the bread he threw it out of the window and the
magpies, which soon
discovered it, fell dead on the spot. Thereupon the
king sent a secret message
to one of his generals and soon the traitor was
travelling southward into exile
and all his connections and followers were put where
they could do no more
harm. It was in the
third year of this King, 1124，that the Kin
armies finally overthrew the Kitan power. The false
report
came to Koryu that China had defeated the Kin forces
and that the leader of the
defeated power was coming to find asylum in Koryu. The
king was advised by some
to take this opportunity of dealing Kin a staggering
blow, but the more
cautious advised delay until the report should be
authenticated. This was
fortunate, for the report proved false. It was in 1126
that the northern Sung dynasty came
to an end at the hands of the all-conquering Kin. The
records state that Kin
leaders carried the last emperor of the Sung dynasty
away and set up one Chang
Pang-ch’ang as king in his stead, and changed the name
of the dynasty to Ch’o. When this had
been effected the Kin emperor sent
Gen. Ya Ryul Ka-geum to Koryu bearing his commands to
the king, but what those
commands were the records do not tell. The influence
which priestcraft had exercised in
Koryu was well illustrated by a monk Myo-chung of
P’yung-yang who told the King
that there was no more “king Spirit” in the soil of
Song-do, but if he should
move the capital to P’yung-yang the Kitan, Kin and
Sung would all become
subject to him. The king believed every word of this
and ordered a palace to be
built there for his occupancy. A year or so later,
after sending the Kin court
his abject submission, he essayed to move to the
northern city by boat, but a
fresh breeze sprang up and he quickly changed ins mind
and hurried back to
Song-do. The coastwise trade must have been of
considerable importance, for we
read that the water on the bar at Hong-ju harbor was
too shallow for boats of
large burden to cross, so the king put several
thousand men to work to deepen
the channel; but to no effect. [page 480] The fight
between Confucianism and Buddhism went
steadily on. The king was the puppet of the latter but
could not always carry
out his plans. He wanted to take away the support of
Confucian schools and turn
over the funds to the monks, but this called out such
a storm of remonstrances
that he hastened to recall the order. He had not
forgotten the flattering words
of the monk Myo-chung, and now in 1130 he took
occasion to visit the city of P’yung-yang.
The tricky monk had made preparation for his coming.
Hollow loaves of bread
were prepared with holes in their sides after the
style of a Jack-o’-lantern.
Oil was placed inside and as the king approached the
town at dusk these were
floated down the stream, and the oil on the water,
shining in the light of the
setting sun, reflected all the hues of the rainbow.
The monk told the king that
this was the dragon’s breath. This was to convince the
king of the truth of his
former statement. But the king’s attendants were
sceptical and sent messengers
who returned with the bread floats, thus unmasking the
trickster. They demanded
the head of the monk but the king did not consent. Foiled in this
the ambitious monk laid new plans.
In 1135 they were ready to be put in execution.
Together with a fellow traitor,
Cho Kwang, he massed soldiers at P’yung-yang and set
up a kingdom of his own
which he named Ta-wi. He called the army the
“Celestial Army,” perhaps to keep
them in good humor. The government forces easily
overcame these insurrectionary
forces and Cho Kwang, finding that the end was
approaching, tried to buy pardon
by cutting off the head of the monk and bringing it to
the capital. The king
forgave him, but no sooner had he re-entered the gates
of Pyung-yang than he
raised the standard of revolt again. The royal forces
laid siege to the city
and having broken down a portion of the wall effected
an entrance. Cho Kwang,
seeing that there was no longer any chance of safety,
set fire to his house and
perished in the flames. We find in the
records the curious statement that
the law against murder was revised, making that crime
a greater one than the
killing of a cow. The following year there was a
Buddhistic festival at which
30,000 monks were present. [page
481] KOREA
REVIEW, November 1901. The
Founding of the Korea Dynasty. Korea, the
English name of this country, is taken
from the name of the country while under the dynasty
(918- 1392, A.D.) prior to
the present one, whose capital was Song-do (1). There
are several books extant,
claiming to be histories of that interesting period.
The following is a literal
translation from the Song-gyung-ji
(2) (5 vols.) and is given as a specimen of what a
student of history has to
wade through and select his data from. An antecedent of
T’a-jo (3) named Ho Gyung (4)
announced that he was the Sun-god Chang-gun (5)
“General of the Fan Ribs” (a
name given to Song-do on account of the peculiar
formation of its mountains).
He and his wife moved from Pak-tu Mountain (6) to
Pu-so Mountain (7) now
Song-ak Mountain (8). He was very rich and took much
delight in shooting with
the bow and in hunting with falcons. One day in
company with nine neighbours he
went out hunting; dusk fell while they were yet a long
way from home and, being
unable to keep the road in the dark, they went into a
cave and slept. Their
slumbers were much disturbed by the roaring of a
tiger. At daybreak they were
horrified to find the tiger crouching at the mouth of
the cave; exit was
impossible. The ten men said to each other, “The tiger
will eat us up!” Many
suggestions were made as to what had best (1)
松都,(2) 松京誌,(3) 太祖, (4) 虎景 (5) 聖骨將軍, (6) 白頭山，(7) 扶蘇, (8) 松岳. [page
482] be
done; it was at last decided that each should throw
his hat at the
tiger, and should the beast take one of the hats, its
owner was to go forward
and engage the tiger whilst the rest escaped. Taking
turn, according to their
rank, each took off his hat and threw it at tiger. Ho
Gyung’s was seized! He
climbed out while the others remained trembling in the
cave. He fought with
the tiger, which lost its footing, fell
into the cave and set upon the nine men. Ho Gyung went
to the town of P’yung-na
(1) to tell the fate of his companions and to get
assistance in burying their
remains. At the time of the burial he gave a great
feast to the Spirit of the
Mountain. The spirit came
out and said: “I am a widow and
will marry the General of the Fan Ribs, whom I will
appoint a great emperor, to
govern the spirits of this mountain.” From that time
the spirit and Ho Gyung
were lost sight of. Though living in a secret place Ho
Gyung did not forget his
former wife; he was continually with her in his
dreams. After a while she had a
son whom she called Chang-ch’ung (2), who when he
became a man was very clever
and had an awe-inspiring presence. He married
Ku-so-eui (3), the daughter of a
rich man who lived near the West River. They made
their home in a defile of the
O-gwan Mountain (4). One day a magician, who was going
by, saw Chang-ch’ung and
said to him: “If you move your house to the south side
of the mountain, plant
pine trees there and cover the rocks, the three
nations will become one.” He
followed this advice, moved his house and planted
trees here, there and
everywhere on the new site. Accordingly the mountain
was called Song-ak or Pine
Tree Peak (5). Chang-ch’ung had two sons. The younger,
Po-yuk (6), while still
quite young, went to Chi-ri (7) Mountain in Chul-la
Province to study. After
his return home he dreamt that he was standing at the
top of the Kok-yung (8)
and saw the three kingdoms spread out before him as
though they were a silver
colored sea. When it was day he told his dream to his
brother, Yi Che-geun, (9)
who said: “You are one to prop up the pillars of
Heaven,” (i.e. Your
descendants (1)
平那, (2) 康忠, (3) 具置義，(4) 五冠山, (5) 松岳, (6) 賓肓, (7) 智異山，(8) 鵠嶺, (9) 伊帝建. [page
483] shall
be kings). Po-yuk married his niece and they went to
Ma-ga-ap to
live. A magician from Sil-la saw him and said: “If you
live here you will
certainly have an emperor of the Great Tang (China) as
your son-in-law. Two
months after this a second daughter was born to them,
and they called her
Chin-eui (1). She was very beautiful, talented and
wise. Before Suk-jong
became king (Tang Dynasty, China, he
reigned 756-763 A.D.) in the Kye-sa (2) year, of a
preceding reign, he went to
see the “famous mountains and streams.” After
travelling several days in a junk
he sailed up a western branch of the Ta-dong (3)
river. When the tide turned he
was stranded on a mud bank, and on attempting to go
ashore he found the mud so
slippery that he could not walk; so he took his money
out of the boat,
scattered it on the mud and thus was able to walk to
dry ground. From that time
on the branch has been called the Ton-ga (4) Money
Stream. After a few days he
went to Song-gol (5) Song-do, and put up at Po-yuk’s
house. He found his
landlord’s daughter Chin-eui was extremely beautiful
and he loved her from the
first. Suk-jong was destined to be one of the “Great
Ones” of Tang (China) and
being of a mind to return thither he one day said to
Chin-eui “I am one of the
precious ones of the Tang (Dynasty), I entrust my bow
and arrow to you,” and
left hen A few days later her son, Chak-che-geun (6)
was born; he grew up to be
clever, able and strong beyond the average. When he
asked of his mother who his
father was, she replied: “He is one of the great ones
of the Tang Country but I
do not know his name.” One day Chak-che-geun said: “I
am sixteen and would like
to learn archery.” His mother gave him the bow and
arrows left by his father; he
was greatly pleased with his new possession and went
out to try it. He shot one
hundred arrows and got one hundred bull’s eyes! Being desirous
of finding his father he took
passage on a merchant vessel; after travelling for
several days they came to a
certain place where the winds and waves were so high
that the boat could go no
further. In their fear of shipwreck the sailors
endeavored to conciliate the
Spirit of the Storm and (1)
辰義, (2) 癸巳, (3) 大同江, (4) 錢浦, (5) 松谷, (6) 作帝建. [page
484] were
told that there was a man from Ko-ryu among the
passengers and that if
they would send him from the boat the storm would
cease. Chak-che-geun took his
bow and arrows, jumped into the sea and swam to a rock
nearby. While sitting
upon the rock an old man appeared to him and said: “I
am the Dragon King of the
Western Sea; every day an old fox comes down from the
sky and as he sits upon
this rock he beats a drum and recites the Ong-jong (1)
classic. My head aches;
I cannot endure it any more. If you see the fox I want
you to take good aim and
kill him.” Chak-ca-geun promised that he would
certainly wait there; before
long he espied the old fox coming from the north-west.
Watching his opportunity
he pulled his bow; the string hummed; the fox was hit
and fell dead. The old
man was immensely pleased; he led Chak-che-geun into
the Water Palace and,
thanking him, said: ‘‘Sir, you nave relieved me of my
great trouble. I will
reward your virtue. Have you a desire to go to the
Tang Country in the West and
seek your father the Emperor? You must take with you
seven precious tilings,
for then you will return East and receive your mother
with honor.”
Chak-che-geun replied: ‘‘I have a desire to be king of
the Eastern Land”
(Ko-ryu). Then said the old man: “Your grandson shall
be king of the Eastern
Land.” Knowing from this that it was not the purpose
of heaven that he should
be king, he said not a word. From behind him an old
woman asked: “Why do you
not marry the old man’s daughter?” He immediately
asked the old man to give him
his daughter, Cho-min-eui (2) to be his wife. He
consented and as a dower gave
her seven kinds of precious things. The dragon’s
daughter said to Chak-che-geun
“Ask my father at once to give you his willow walking
stick and the golden pig.”
On account of these words he begged these two things
of the old man, who said: “These
two things are the most precious of all to me I cannot
give you both, so take
the golden pig.” Chak-che-geun
took the dragon’s daughter, the seven
valuables and the golden pig; departing from the Water
Palace he came to the
North East mountain of Ka-ju (3). One day as he was
digging into the earth with
the silver cover of a (1)
臃腫經, (2) 翥妟義, (3) 開州 [page
485] rice
bowl, water sprung up; this is the great well of
Ka-ju. After they had
lived here for a year the golden pig would not go into
his stye; they followed
the pig and came to the South side of the Song-ak
Mountain. There they built a
house and dug a well just outside the door. The
dragon’s daughter used this
well as a passage-way to and from the Water Palace.
This is the well on the
north side of the Kwang-myung Sa (1). His wife made
him promise that he would
not look into the well after her, threatening not to
return if he did so. One
day he followed her secretly and peeped into the well
after she and her little
daughter had gone into it. They were changed into
yellow dragons surrounded by
five colored clouds, black, white, red, blue, yellow.
He was afraid and did not
speak. When the wife
returned she was angry and said: “It
is honorable that husband and wife should keep faith
with one another; because
you have broken the covenant, I will remain no longer
here.” At once, together
with her little daughter, she changed into a dragon,
went down the well and did
not return. Until he was old, Chak-che-geun lived
close by the Song-yi (2)
Mountain. The following posthumous title was conferred
upon him: “The Resolute
Ancestor of Brilliant Glory.” His wife they called:
“The First Glorious Queen.”
They had four sons of whom the oldest was Yung (3).
Yung, when he became a man,
had a very great intellect; he conquered the three
countries of the Han. Once a
beautiful maiden appeared to him in a dream, and he
promised to marry hen While
travelling along the road from Song-ak to Yung-an city
be met a girl just like
the one he had promised himself to in his dream. He
married her, although it
was impossible to find out anything about her
antecedents. The people called
her “The Dream Lady.” Yung moved to Song-ak and built
a house on the south side
of the mountain. This was the Yun-gyong Kung (4). A
Buddhist Priest, named
To-sun (5), went by and asked “How is it that you sow
millet in a place where
hemp should be grown?” The Dream Lady heard this and
told her husband, and he
immediately sent out after the priest and asked him
what was the meaning of his
remark. To-run said:
“Looking at the properties of the
ground, I see (I)
廣明寺, ⑷ 俗離山，(3) 隆, (4) 延慶宮, (5) 道読. [page
486] it
has a great destiny.” Next year a “Holy Child” (i. e.
a future king)
will be born to you, he is to be called Kon (1). Whereupon the
priest immediately walked away. This
was in 877 A.D. and the fourth moon. Recognizing these
words to be of spiritual
origin Pung pondered them. In the course of time a man
child was born to them
and he became the first king of united Ko-ryu. The
Queen of Quelpart. A novel with the
above name has recently appeared
in serial form in the Chautauquan, from the pen of
Archer Butler Hulbert. It is
apparent to those who know Korea that the Quelpart was
put into the title for
alliterative purposes, for the scenery described and
the customs of the people
are purely Korean. This novel is in no sense an
historical novel and yet there
are just enough allusions to past events in Korea to
make it evident that those
events or at least their surroundings had exerted a
powerful influence on the
writer’s mind. The story has nothing to say about the
island named in the
title. Perhaps the author, by synecdoche, named the
part for the whole; for the
setting is thoroughly and consistently Korean. The tale opens
in Washington where a young American
army officer is starting for the Far East on some
mission that remains a
mystery till on the steamer he opens his sealed
instructions and learns that he
is to act as aide to a certain Col Oranoff, who is in
command of the guard at
the Russian Legation at the capita of “Quelpart.” The
colonel’s daughter Dulcine
is, by the merest chance, a passenger on the same
steamer and the hero renews
his former acquaintance with her to such good effect
that before the journey is
over they reach a most important and interesting
understanding which depends
wholly upon her father’s acquiescence. They reach the
capital of “Quelpart” and find that
the (1)
建. [page 487] king
of the country is residing temporarily at the Russian
Legation and
that the preparations are almost completed for the
burial of the murdered
queen. The magnificent ceremony is to come off in a
few days. The body of the
queen is being kept at a celebrated monastery on Lynx
Island, forty miles from
the capital. If Roze Island were ten times as large
and the hill ten times as
high it would answer the description of Lynx Island to
a nicety. The king of
“Quelpart” is much exercised in mind by
the fact that it has become known that the emissaries
of the Chinese, at the
instigation of Prince Tuan, are bent on preventing the
obsequies, by fair means
or foul. The Russians are equally determined that the
ceremony shall be a
success. This part of the plot rests upon the
Quelpartian notion that if any
accident befalls the body of a dead king or queen the
dynasty will become
extinct. This is apparently what the Chinese are
intent upon and the body of
the queen is being watched with the most sedulous care
by the monks of the
monastery and by Quelpart’s most trusted generals. The time has now
come to bring up the. royal
sarcophagus from Lynx Island to the capital. Col.
Oranoff puts our hero at the
head of a strong body of Cossacks who are to guard the
royal remains in transit
to the capital, and charges him to defend the precious
charge even with his
very life. The young American feels sure that on the
success of his. mission
depends his obtaining the hand of his dulcinea Dulcine This band of
Cossacks with the hero at their head
make their way to the seashore opposite Lynx Island.
Every thing seems quiet,
and so leaving the Cossacks to await his return the
goes to make a preliminary
survey of the monastery, which is perched high up
among the mountains. He finds
everything correct and decides, on his return, to
leave the Cossacks at the
foot of the mountain to receive the precious casket
when he and the Korean
generals bring it down. He returns to the monastery
and is busy with the work
when a tremendous explosion occurs which kills scores
of Koreans and completely
wrecks the building. The body is lost and with it the
young American’s hope of
winning Dulcine. But he discovers that the casket to
which the [page
488]
transferred is not destroyed. He takes it and,
with the help of some startled natives who have no
idea of what it should
contain, carries it down to the sea. And so he makes
his way back to the
capital where he is pounced upon by Oranoff and
congratulated so heartily that
he dares not tell that the casket contains nothing.
But he confesses to Dulcine
and, as the mistake is sure to be discovered, is in
despair of securing her
hand. She is as much interested in preventing such a
misfortune as he is and
comes to the fore by offering to personate the body of
the queen in the casket.
As it happens, she resembles the queen very closely
and manages to secure the
proper vestments in which to act her part. The hero
promises to be at the tomb
and arrange so that at the very last, before the great
monolith is settled to
its place on the tomb, he shall be there and secure
her release from the casket Things go all
right up to the climax, but just at
the moment when he should have been on hand to release
her, the Chinese
emissaries manage to kidnap him and carry him away to
the hills. Dulcine is
thus imprisoned in the tomb, but as there are enormous
quantities of baked
meats and fruits buried with her and the tomb space is
very large it is
possible for her to live for several days. Among the
mountains the very adventurous young
American manages to escape from his captors and after
several curious escapades
gets back to the city. Beneath the floor of the little
temple beside the royal
tomb a narrow passage leads to the tomb itself into
which there is no door, but
only a small aperture heavily barred. How the hero
succeeds in duping the
guards, gaining access to the tomb and releasing the
girl, who is nearly
smothered in confections, we need not relate here, but
it will be sufficient to
say that the wedding comes duly off, as it ought in
every well regulated novel. It is true that
the plot is somewhat startling and
some of the conventionalities of Quelpartean society
are mildly shocked, and
yet the story hangs together well, the imagination is
flattered by being put
through all its paces and many of the descriptions of
scenery and customs are
the best we have seen in regard to “Quelpart.” [page 489] The
Wizard of Ta-bak San. An ignorant
wood-gatherer once lived under the
slope of Ta-bak San in Chul-la Province. Standing one
morning in his door-way
he saw a handsome old gentleman, part way up the
slope, waving his hand and
beckoning for him to follow. The woodsman obeyed the
summons and hurried after
the old gentleman who made his way through the woods
with such agility that
even the woodsman could scarcely keep pace with him.
Every few moments the
mysterious figure would turn and beckon again and the
woodsman, as though
fascinated, had no power to disobey. The two at last
gained the very center of the
mountain cluster and entered the dense shadow of a
jungle so thick that one
could not see ten feet from the path. Here the old
gentleman allowed the
woodsman to overtake him and as he did so there
appeared, in an opening in the
glade, the form of a small but elegant building fitted
up in the most approved
style of Korean architecture. The old man silently
entered with his awe-struck
guest. There they found a beautiful young woman
setting out a repast which made
the poor woodsman open his eyes with wonder. Never had
he beheld such delicate
viands nor such profusion and variety. The old
gentleman pressed the timid rustic to seat
himself and partake of the banquet and excused himself
on the ground that it
was necessary for him to go on a short hunting
expedition. He asked the
woodsman to stay and take charge of the house for a
day or two until he should
return. The Korean is seldom indisposed to profit by
his good luck and the
woodsman found no difficulty in adapting himself to
the new and delightful
surroundings. It was not for him to question the
source of all these good
things but to enjoy them. The old man took his
departure leaving the woodsman
busy at work on the kuk-su, tu-bu, chu-ak, yak-kwa,
ta-sik, chong-bok-ki,
chon-gwa, kang-jung and other dainties, many of which
[page
490]
had never before tickled his palate. After eating
to his heart’s content he threw himself back upon an
embroidered cushion, filled
a silver pipe with tobacco and resigned himself to the
most pleasant
contemplation. A man of greater intellectual power
would have questioned the
reality of such luxury in the heart of a forest and
would have been more or
less uneasy about the outcome of the adventure; for
the philosophical mind
perceives that we do not get the good things of life
for nothing. But not so
with the woodsman. His motto was to take things as
they come and ignore the
fact that presently the bill will be presented. The next day the
old gentleman returned from his hunting
trip bringing good proof of his marksmanship in sundry
deer, wild-boar, rabbits
and birds; but he brought something better still. It
was a bag of wild mountain
ginseng roots, in a single one of which is
concentrated the virtues of the
whole Korean pharmacopoeia. As a single root
represents the value of several
hundred dollars this bag-full was enough to make the
woodsman stare. The old
gentleman made nothing of it however but
went to work preparing some of the game for the table.
The feast which followed
would have graced a royal table and our woodsman
attacked it with, it is safe
to say, more than a royal appetite. When an end was
reached, not of the viands
but of the woodsman’s capacity, the old gentleman
asked him if he would do him
a favor. Of course he would; anything in the
woodsman’s power was at the
service of his host. “What I want.”
said the old man deliberately “is to
buy a thousand bags of salt, but I am too old to
undertake the journey to Ulsan
on the coast where the salt is made. If you could take
this bag of ginseng and
trade it for the salt and bring the latter and deliver
it to me on the edge of
this forest I should consider it a great kindness. The
ginseng may bring more
than the salt costs but in that case you are welcome
to the balance. “ “A thousand bags
of salt!” exclaimed the wondering
woodsman. What in the world could be done with a
thousand bags of salt in this
wilderness? The old gentleman hastened to add: [page 491] “When you have
delivered the salt I will tell you
all about it.” The woodsman was
not unnaturally elated with his
mission, for it meant a handsome fortune for himself,
after the salt had been
bought and delivered. Shouldering the precious bag he
hastened down the path
and through the forest. The third day saw him driving
a bargain with the salt
makers of Ulsan and the following day a long line of
ponies, each with a bag of
salt on either side his packsaddle, could be seen
winding over the hills and
through the valleys of southern Korea. The woodsman
strode merrily at their
head singing snatches of song and building if not
castles at least good solid
tile houses in the air. At last he
reached the edge of the forest at the
rendez-vous appointed. The ropes were thrown off and
the salt-bags came to the
ground simultaneously with a thud. The old gentleman
appeared from the depths
of the woods, smiling. After thanking the woodsman for
his services he said: “You want to
know now why I purchased all this
salt. I will tell you how you can find out. Go sixty
li to the west until you
come to a little stream across which there is a
bridge. At this point you will
meet a man riding a donkey. Ask him what the salt is
for and he will tell you.” With a kindly
smile and a benevolent wave of the
hand he sent the mystified but happy woodsman on his
way. The long line of
ponies came on, unloaded, except for the money which
was to form the woodsman’s
wealth. Coming to the place indicated he saw a man of
venerable aspect crossing
the bridge on a donkey. The woodsman had
not forgotten his manners even if
he had become rich, so bowing low he asked the rider
to alight, as there was
something he had to ask. The old gentleman complied
and dismounting sat down
beneath a pine tree by the road side. The woodsman
began his story and as he went on the
old man appeared more and more agitated. He began to
sway from side to side and
moan as if in physical pain, but when the woodsman
made mention of the salt the
old gentleman broke down completely and sobbed and
wailed as if he had just
piled the earth over his father’s grave. [page 492] The woodsman
finished his tale and stood in
amazement waiting an explanation of his listener’s
emotion. Something serious
was evidently the matter, for the old man kept crying: “It is all over
then! all is lost! alas that I
should have lived to see the day!” After a while he
mastered his feelings enough to
explain to the now thoroughly frightened woodsman the
significance of all these
mysterious things. “You must know
first of all,” said the old
gentleman “that the being you met in the forest, and
who gave you this
commission, is no man at all but a fox who, having
lived for 1500 years, is
able to assume any shape at will. Now it is the nature
of this evil beast that
its power for evil is limited until it shall have
eaten a thousand bags of
rice. Then its evil influence cannot be thwarted. For
fifty years I have been
fighting his baneful influence in this kingdom of
Koryu and with some success,
but now alas! there is no more hope! I will return to
my master the king and
resign my office of minister and retire to my home to
die. The fall of the
dynasty is at hand.” When the
woodsman realized how he had been made a
tool to bring about this unheard-of calamity he could
find no words to answer.
His wealth was worse than useless to him. He felt as
if it hung around his neck
like a millstone. So he fled away across the fields
leaving the horses with the
loads of money at the mercy of the drivers. And where
he went and what his end
was no man knows. The old man who opened his eyes was
the renowned Chong
Mong-ju, celebrated in the annals of Koryu and one of
the marked names in Korea’s
long list of literati. It is known to
every one how he worked and planned
to prevent the Koryu dynasty from falling and how at
last he fell pierced by
the assassins knife on Ch’wi-juk bridge at Song- do
where still justice keeps
red the blood upon the stone until the crime be
expiated. [page
493] Review. We have received
a copy of the Proceedings of the General Conference of
Protestant Missionaries in
Japan, held in Tokyo Oct. 24-31, 1900. This is a crown
octavo volume of 1048
pp. from the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo. The
title explains the contents
of the work but it gives no hint of the very great
value of the papers which
are here printed in full and which were prepared with
evident care by the
leading missionaries in Japan. The scope of the
undertaking can be gauged by
the fact that forty-two different organizations were
represented in the
conference, by some 380 delegates, all of whom were
foreigners. Two or more
papers were read on each of the following topics:
General Historical Review of
Missionary Work since 1883; Evangelistic Work; Methods
of Evangelistic Work;
Special Mission Fields within the Empire; Educational
Results and Prospects;
Christianity and the Educational Classes; Religion in
the Home and Work among
Children；Christian
Literature in Japan; Revision and
Circulation of the Scriptures in Japan; Social
Movements; Self-support; Is the
Evangelization of Japan in the Present Generation
Possible? The discussion
of resolutions on
interdenominational comity and other important topics
is given in full. The
extensive appendices give necrological reports of
twenty-one different
societies; important additions to the Historical
Review; list of places where
there are churches or preaching places; full
statistical reports. The great
value of this work is enhanced by seven full-page
illustrations, giving the
pictures of over fifty prominent missionaries in
Japan, past and present. The perusal of
this book will impress one with the
truth of the statement made in its preface that “There
is no class of social
phenomena more interesting and instructive than those
within the observation of
the Christian missionary; and when men come to see, as
the missionary sees, how
powerfully [page
494]
the thoughts which Christianity has brought to
Japan have affected the habit of mind and the social
ideas of the Japanese
people, they must be led to a revision of many of the
dicta which during recent
years have passed for truths.” This work is a
most valuable addition to missionary
literature and should be in the library of every
missionary in the Far East. It
can be obtained from the Methodist Publishing House,
Tokyo, at a cost of ¥2.50,
which includes postage. Odds
and Ends Horse
Sense.
The second son
of T’a-jong Ta-wang, who sat upon
the throne of Korea 1401-1419 A.D. was called Prince
Yang-yung. His descendants
for many generations lived outside the South Gate of
Seoul just opposite the
Kwan-wang-myo, or Temple to the God of War. As time
went on they became very
poor and were in the direst straits. They could get no
official position and,
being gentle-men, they could not think of tarnishing
their illustrious name by
working for a living. Just in front of the gate,
facing the gate of the temple
opposite, grew three tall and conspicuous fir trees.
At the time to which we
refer the head of the family was Yi Chi-gwang and be
had the utmost difficulty
in making ends meet. One day a monk
came by and, pausing before the
gate, addressed the owner of the place with these
strange words, “If you will
cut down those three fir trees you will soon attain
great wealth.” It did not seem
at all likely but Yi Chi-gwang was
determined to let no opportunity slip for mending his
fortunes; so he called
his servants and had the trees felled immediately. The
very next day the king
happened to make a visit to the temple and was
surprised to see the familiar
trees lying on the ground. He asked who lived in the
house and having summoned
Mr. Yi asked about his family. The result was that the
king made him prefect of
Ko-yang, a district twelve miles west of Seoul. [page 495] In the
performance of his magisterial functions he
showed marvelous skill. The following anecdote
illustrates his remarkable
penetration. One day a young lad came to him in great
haste leading a sorry
looking horse. The boy said that the night before,
while he slept, another
groom had stolen his horse and left this poor animal
in its place He craved the
help of the magistrate in recovering his lost
property. The prefect sat
bent in thought for a few moments
and then said: “I will give you
a peck of salt which you must put
before this horse tonight and let him eat all he will;
then in the morning
loose him and follow him wherever he goes. You will
find your lost horse within
two days.” The boy followed
these directions, and when he let
the horse loose the next morning it started straight
for Seoul. Passing through
the city it proceeded to the village of Wang-sim-yi
outside the East Gate. At
last it came to the door of a house which was ajar and
pushing it open with its
nose it boldly entered. The boy followed and there,
tied to the eating trough,
was his lost pony. He immediately charged the master
of the house with having
stolen it and that gentleman was so ashamed that he
gave up the animal without
question. The boy, amazed
at his good luck, hurried back to
yang to ask the prefect how it was that he foresaw
that he would recover his
lost horse. The prefect laughed and said: “You ought to
know that people never water their
horses except at home; so I made you give that other
pony salt to make him
thirsty, knowing that he would go straight to the home
of his former master
who, of course, was the man who stole your horse.
There is nothing strange about
that, is there?” Quid
pro Quo. This same
wise prefect was once appointed to district of An-byun
in Ham-gyung province where
he was immediately called upon to adjudicate a
pressing case. It
seems that, years before, there had been a wealthy
resident of that district
who had given pledges to fortune by donating large
tracts of land to a
celebrated monastery called Suk-wang Sa (檡王寺) under the
impression that if ever his descendants
should be in desperate circumstances they could live
at this monastery without
imposition. The time [page 496] had now come
when that fear was realized. The family had become
poor and
the young man who was its sole survivor plead in vain
to be allowed to eat rice
at the monastery on the strength of his grandfather’s
munificence, but the
monks turned a cold shoulder. Repeated appeals to the
magistrate had failed to
secure him redress until the time came when this
famous Yi Chi-gwang entered
upon his duties as prefect. The young man, amidst the
jeers of the
yamen-runners who had seen him so often repulsed, made
his way resolutely to
the office of the new prefect and laid the case before
him. The wise magistrate
questioned the boy closely and also others who were
cognizant of the case. Then
he sat down, took his pen in hand and wrote the
following words: “The grandfather
of this man gave valuable laud to
the ‘King Buddha’ monastery to earn grace for his
descendant but when the time
for payment came it was withheld. Let the monastery
keep its “grace” and give
back the land.” So the foolish
monks were forced to deed back to
the boy large tracts of land which had been greatly
improved during their
tenancy and which now afforded him a handsome
competency. Caught
in Her own Trap. When Yang-no
came to the throne of Ko-gu-ryu, the
twelfth of the line, he was possessed of a very
beautiful concubine. Her beauty
was well known, for at that time women were not kept
in the background so much
as they are at the present day. It is said that her
hair was nine cha long,
which would be about fourteen feet. This may be a
little exaggerated but we
must at least concede that she had unusually long and
beautiful hair. and the
queen were not on the most pleasant terms as may be
surmised, and each spent
much time in inventing ways and means to humiliate the
other. At last the
concubine determined to risk her whole
fortune on one supreme venture; so she sent a faithful
servant out into the
town to purchase two cowhides. These were smuggled
into the palace under cover
of night and from them the concubine made a stout bag.
She hid this away until
a favorable moment should arrive. At last it came. The
King was walking in his
garden in the cool of the day when suddenly fearful
screams were heard and
presently the concubine came flying [page 497] down the path
with dishevelled hair, torn garments
and every evidence of having been engaged in a
desperate struggle. Behind her
she dragged the leather bag. She fell panting at the
feet of the King and
between her sobs she declared that the queen had
prepared this bag intending to
have her rival it and carried away and thrown into the
river. She said that, a
moment before, she had been seized and was about to be
thrown into the bag when
she managed to slip through the hands of her captors
and escape, bringing the
bag as evidence of the queen’s murderous designs. The king stood
quietly listening to the tragic
tale. When it was done he said: “And so the
queen wanted to get you out of the way.
Well, if she wants it of course it must be done.”
There-upon the wicked
concubine was thrown into the bag which she had
prepared and cast into the
river. The king saw through her artifice and punished
her severely, not so much
by killing her as by letting her suppose that he did
it because he thought it
was the queen’s desire. Editorial
Comment. We would invite
the readers of the Review to a
comparison that is not without significance at the
present moment. From the
news Calendar of this present issue it can readily he
seen that already the
dire effects of last summer’s drought are beginning to
be felt. In district
after district people who are ordinarily peaceable and
law-abiding citizens are
banding together and ravaging their own or neighboring
localities. It simply
means that hunger has driven them to the last
extremity. They are hardly
responsible for their acts when reduced to actual
starvation. Look at the
number of districts in which from one to five hundred
houses have been deserted
by their occupants who have wandered off to become
bandits or to become beggars
in the large centers. Look at the price of rice which
no at the season when it
should be cheapest stands at 900 cash measure, the
equivalent of thirty-six
cents. [page
498] Over against
this picture place the statements
which are appearing in every issue of the Japanese
papers showing that the rice
crop of Japan this year is exceptionally fine and that
the granaries are full
to overflowing. When we compare these two pictures we
ask by what law either of
international right or of humanity the Korean
Government has been practically
compelled to raise the embargo on the export of rice.
Was it because there was
a surplus in Korea? No. Was it because there was
scarcity in Japan? No. Was it
because there are a few score of Japanese merchants in
the ports whose business
would be damaged by the embargo? Apparently yes. The
government took the only
means in its power to keep what little rice was here
in order to fight off the
famine but the Japanese denied that there was any
famine and demanded tangible
proof of scarcity. Before the full effects of the
calamity could be felt the
Japanese belittled it and compelled the Government to
raise the embargo. They
wanted tangible proofs. Well, they have them now. The
country is full of armed
lawlessness. The streets of Seoul are unsafe after
dark. The revenues of the
country are more than decimated. If this is true in
the autumn what shall we
see in the spring? The Review is
not interested in politics as such
but this is not politics, it is a matter of life and
death to a million Koreans
in the next eight months. The foreign papers in Japan
applaud the diplomatic
triumph by which Korea is compelled to open her doors
and let a portion of her
desperately small supply of food go abroad. Those
papers are not intentionally
inhumane but they have no knowledge of the actual
conditions in Korea. Japan
ought to be sending a million bags of rice to Korea
to-day rather than taking a
single one away. We have always maintained that Japan
is Korea’s natural friend
and ally; that Japan can do more for Korea than any
other people, or than all
other peoples combined, and we still believe it. But
it is discouraging to see
the utter apathy of Japan in view of Korea’s desperate
straits. Instead of
aiding Korea in tiding over the evil times she puts on
the screws and helps to
make the evil greater than it need be. We have been
asked to correct the statement made in
the October Review that Japanese policemen connived
with [page
499]
and protected Japanese thieves in despoiling
ginseng fields at Song-do. We will say that this
information was given us by an
eye-witness. The Japanese to the number of ninety went
into the ginseng beds
and helped themselves while Japanese policemen were
present and made no effort
to restrain them. Our statement
can be denied only under two
suppositions, either that those ginseng beds be longed
to the Japanese who were
helping themselves, or that the owners had given them
permission to do so;
neither of these suppositions are correct. Even if the
Japanese had paid for
the ginseng in advance, which they had not so far as
we are aware, they had no
right whatever to go into the beds and help
themselves. They have redress, through
their Consul, if they are injured by Koreans, and
their action was quite
inexcusable. The fact that the Japanese policemen, or
at least men in Japanese
police uniform, stood there and saw it all without
offering to prevent it, is
proof enough of collusion. News
Calendar. The embargo on
rice was raised on the first of this
month because of the strong opposition of the
Japanese. The Japanese press
teems with statements of the abundance of the crop in
Japan and yet for the
sake of a few Japanese merchants the Korean people
must let the meager stock of
rice go abroad. Next spring will be the time to
discover whether this is wise
policy either for Korea or Japan. On Oct. 31 Pak
Che-sun, the retiring Minister for
Foreign Affairs, left for Japan where he will witness
the fall manoeuvres of
the Japanese army. He was accompanied by Col. Yi
Heui-du, Yi Keuk-yul a
secretary in the War Office and Capt. Kim Hyung-suk. In the
north-western part of this city an official
was passing along the street on the night of Oct. 31
and was attacked by a
robber in soldier’s clothes. Fortunately a policeman
happened to come that way
and the thief left for parts unknown much to the
relief of the official. At Hong-san in
South Ch’ung-ch’ung Province the [page
500]
famine is very severe. More than half the people
have wandered away in a state of destitution and
request is made by the
magistrate for financial help for these people. The Government
has raised objection to the Seoul
Fusan R. R. Co. laying their line near the royal tombs
in the vicinity of
Su-wun. The Governor of
Kang-wha states that the famine
makes it impossible to pay the taxes this year
amounting to 4, 310,000 cash and
begs that the payment be remitted for the present to
be paid up in the future
in annual installments. In the latter
part of Oct. three thieves dressed in
women’s clothes and entered a house in Seoul and
finding no men there looted
the place. On Nov. 1st the
Chinese Minister wrote to the
Foreign Office asking that this Government take steps
to hold in check Korean
robbers who cross the border and operate on the
Chinese side. It would be much
to the point if the Chinese Government would hold in
check their own people who
have been notorious for their invasion of Korean soil
during the last year. The district of
Chuk-san, only eight miles from
Seoul, petitions for soldiers to hold in check the
highwaymen who infest that
region. On Oct. 29th the
heavy tide at Ok-ku swept away a
number of salt sheds. A wealthy man
living near the center of Seoul
received a letter telling him that if he did not bring
$10,000 to a certain
place near Han-kang on a certain night his house would
he burned down. But he
is still holding the $10,000, waiting for the fire. J. N. Jordan,
Esq. of His British Majesty’s
Legation arrived in Seoul on the fourth inst. Between the
first and tenth of October the Seoul
Chemulpo R. R. carried 2090 passenger and 232,000 lbs.
of freight, making gross
receipts of $20.46 per mile each day. On Nov. 4th
13,192 bags of Annam rice arrived in
Chemulpo and on the 8th 15,000 bags. As the robberies
are so frequent in Kwang-ju the
War Department has served out guns to be kept in each
house. In Southern
Ch’ung-ch’ung Province alone the
shortage [page
501]
of revenue because of crops will be over $259,300.
And in Northern Ch’ung-ch’ung over $83,000. Three boat loads
of stone have been taken from
Kang-wha to use in building docks in Talien-wan. At Wonsan heavy
rains caused the destruction of
many fields and taree houses were swept away, two
people being drowned. The wife or Yi
Pom-chin on Nov. 10th started for
Europe to join her Husband in St. Petersburg. The Prefect of
Kang-wha reports 983 houses deserted
be-cause of famine and asks what is to be done about
the revenue from those
houses. The Prefect of
Han-sun reports an exceedingly high
tide 4 p. M. Oct. 30th which destroyed many rice
fields. The Chinese
Minister early in November asked the
Government to indemnify certain Chinese merchants for
the loss of forty bags of
ginseng which it is alleged the governor of
P’y2ng-yang seized in 1894 at the
time of the war. Of the rice arrived from Annam 5,000
bags have been sent to
Song-do to be sold. The prefect of
Ok-ch’un, Ch’ung-ch’ung Do reports
that on Oct. 15th a band of 70 robbers entered the
prefecture and looted two villages,
carrying away all valuables, violating the women and
burning upwards of fifty houses. The taxes from
north Kyung-sang Do will be short by
$58,944, and from South K. S. Do $30,184. On Nov. 12th the
Foreign Office gave a dinner to
the Foreign Representatives. Yi Ch’un-geun,
one of the most notorious thieves in
Seoul, whose depredations mount up to thousands of
dollars, has been caught and
will probably be handled summarily. The Island of
Quelpart has been visited by two very
destructive fires one of which destroyed nineteen
houses in the town of Che-ju
and the other thirty-two houses in Ta-jung. The prefect of
Kang-wha begs to have 300 bags of
Annam rice sent to that island to relieve the
distress. town of Che-ju and the
other thirty-two houses in Ta-jung. Robbers burned
thirty-one houses at Map’o
on the night of the tenth inst. [page 502] In the Military
School 540 men were examined for
pro motion on the 10th inst. of whom 170 were given
the rank of Captain. It is reported
that $10,000 worth of fifty cent and
twenty cent silver coins are being minted at the
Government mint at Yong-san. On the night of
the 20th inst. the R. R. Station at
Yong-t’ong-p’o was partially destroyed by fire. The house of Yi
Yun-yong former Minister of
Agriculture, Finance and Foreign Affairs, was raided
by thieves on the night of
the 20th inst. and valuable property was carried away. Over a thousand
citizens of Song-do appealed to the
magistrate of that town lamenting their utter
inability to pay either house or
land tax this year and begging that, according to
precedent in such cases, the
tax be remitted. Some of the Annam rice that was being
taken by boat north to
Pa-ch’un was stopped by pirates and each of the eleven
boats was forced to give
up twenty bags of rice. The prefect of
Yang-ch’un, ten miles from Seoul,
reports that the famine in his district is so severe
that it will be impossible
for him to remit the annual revenue and he asks for
instructions. Yi So-yung a
graduate of the School of Silk Culture
in Seoul has been given permission by the Department
of Agriculture to start an
experimental silk farm at P’ung-duk about fifty miles
to the west of Seoul. The
intention is to begin with five thousand mulberry
trees. Four
blackmailing letters have been received by a
resident of Seoul demanding several thousand yen and
threatening first arson,
second desecration of ancestral graves. The demand was
that the money should be
delivered at a certain pass between Seoul and the
village of Han-kang. The
Japanese report that a whaling vessel manned by
Japanese, on a recent cruise of
a few days near Wonsan, captured twenty-four whales. About the 20th
inst. Kim Kyo-hong, the Minister of
Finance, resigned and Yi Yong-ik became acting
minister. Twenty-seven men
from Quelpart were caught in a
storm while crossing to the mainland and were driven
to the coast of [page
503]
China where they were picked up by a Chinese junk
and taken to Chefoo. They were shipped to Chemulpo
where they arrived on the
16th inst. The Government will cover the expense of
bringing them back, which
amounts to $108.50. About the middle
of the current month Carl Wolter,
Esq. and family returned to Chemulpo from furlough in
Germany. We imagine that
Chemulpo is something of a contrast to Berlin or
Hamburg. But one thing is certain,
there are many far less pleasant places to live in
than Chemulpo. Richard Wunsch,
M. D. from Silesia, Prussia, has
been engaged by His Majesty as court physician on a
monthly salary of Yen 600.
He arrived in Seoul on Nov. 4th. Dr. Wunsch received
his approbation as M, D.
from the Prussian Government and has been practicing
several years in the
University Hospitals of Greifswald and Koenigsberg and
Berlin，and as one of
the leading physicians in the German Hospital in
London. We
understand that he enjoys a high reputation in
university circles in Germany
and was engaged on the special recommendation of Prof.
Dr. Baelz of Tokyo. In the district
of Cha-ryung in Whang-ha Province
the utter lack of rain has parched the whole face of
the country. The wells
have gone completely dry and nine out of ten houses
are empty, the people
having wandered away in destitution. Such is the
report of the prefect. The concession
to the Japanese of fishing rights
off the Korean coast has resulted in great activity on
the part of Japanese
fishermen but on the south-east coast they are
beginning to say there is not
enough profit in selling the fish to the Koreans, and
the question is being
raised of exporting all the fish to Bakan where they
can be readily destributed
by rail. If the Koreans wish to enjoy the harvest they
must wake up and take a
hand in the harvesting. We are very glad
to learn that the rumor of the
death of Mr. Augustine Heard, former U. S. Minister to
Korea, which was
mentioned in the Review last Spring, is unfounded. About two
o’clock on the morning of the 16th inst.
one of the outhouses in the rear of the Imperial
Library, just to the west of
the U. S. Legation, caught fire from some cause
unknown. If there had been any
help at hand the fire could easily have been prevented
from spreading to the
main build- [page
504]
ing but the place seemed to be deserted and the
lack of a half dozen buckets of water lost the
Government a very valuable
building. There were many valuable books in the
Library and they were all
destroyed together with the furniture, which included
a piano. At the mint in
Yong-san some sample paper money has
been made and presented to His Majesty for inspection.
The finest quality of
Korean paper was used and the bills are said to have
been very clearly printed. The date for the
removal of the remains of the late
queen to the new tomb at Chun-yung In Yang-ju
district, ten miles outside the
East Gate, is set for the twenty-fifth of the first
moon of next year. This
corresponds to March 4th. Yi Chong’-gon,
Inspector-general of Police, has been
appointed Master of Ceremonies on the occasion of the
moving of this royal
tomb. All officials
who receive their appointment
directly from His Majesty are called upon to supply
three men to act as
bearers, etc, in the procession, or, failing this,
they must pay nine dollars
each. Officials of the next grade are to supply two
men or six dollars each.
Officials of the third grade are to supply one man or
three dollars. Ana these
officials are to the men they send with twenty cents
each per day supply for
food. The people of
Kyong-ju in Kyung-sang Province are
reduced to such straits for food that over five
hundred of them have risen,
possessed themselves of a miscellaneous collection of
weapons and are looting all
the outlying villages of the district. They burn, kill
and plunder right and
left. The prefect has sent an urgent request for
troops saying that a thousand
soldiers will be necessary to put down the
disturbances. Cho Han-guk, the
governor of South Chul-la
Province, has tendered his resignation several times
but the government
announces that if he persists in resigning he will be
banished. A merchant of
Nam-po in Whang-ha Province was bringing
goods by boat from P’yung-an Province but was seized
by pirates near Kang-wha
and despoiled of more than a thousand dollar’s worth
of goods. On account of
the frequency of robberies many
special [page
505]
watchmen have been appointed in Seoul and the
suburbs, who go about ringing bails at night. At the
village of Tuk- sum on the
river the robbers caught the watchman and bound him
and left him very scantily
clad. On the second of
November three inches of snow fell
in P’yung-yang which is a record date for the opening
of winter in this region. Two Japanese
appeared at the office of the Prefect
of Chong-sun, about sixty miles from Kun-san, and said
they had permission to
mine gold in that district and they showed a printed
permit bearing the seal of
the Department of Agriculture in Seoul. The prefect
wrote for instructions and
learned that the Department had given no such permit
and that the permit was a
forgery. Whereupon the prefect arrested the two
Japanese and sent them under
guard to the Japanese Consulate in Kun-san. Through, the
kindness of one of our subscribers we
have received a pamphlet descriptive of an
International Exhibition of
Fisheries, organized by the Imperial Society of
Fisheries and Fish-culture at
St. Petersburg, and to be held in that city in 1902.
In conjunction with it
there will be a Congress of Fisheries. All the people
of the East are
thoroughly interested in the harvest of the sea, and
it is to be hoped that
they will be able to profit by the opportunity to
learn about the most
scientific methods for reaping that harvest. From the
prospectus we judge that
the Russian Government is most liberal in its
encouragement of the exhibition
which, as will be seen, is of an international
character. If the time should
ever come when population should run ahead of food
supply the harvest of the
sea would be of vastly greater import than at present. Our Japanese
contemporary makes a brilliant
suggestion which he trusts will ease the matrimonial
situation in western
countries where he affirms that there are many old
maids.” He suggests that, as
so many Koreans have several wives that there are many
deserving men who cannot
get even one, the unmarried women of the west be
imported en masse and the law
of supply and demand be allowed to work out its
natural results. He also
contends that as gold is better than silver so the
yellow races ought to become
better [page
506]
than the white. This is a new argument from
analogy for the progress of the Far East. Kim Man-su, the
Korean minister to France, asks to
be relieved of his office, giving as his reason
disinclination to the duties of
his office and inability to perform them acceptably. The Whang-sung
Sin-mun says that the Japanese
Minister in Seoul sent a despatch to the Foreign
Office asking for permission
for Japanese to erect telegraph lines between various
open ports in Korea,
commencing with Chinnampo. The F. O. replied that
permission could not be
given, as the government was about to begin similar
lines. The minister replied
pressing his former request and declining to accept
the government’s refusal. A
house-breaker came to grief the other night in
An-dong, in Seoul. After
breaking in and threatening the owner with a long
knife he seized some clothes
hanging on a hook and started to make away but fell
heavily down the stone
steps and cut his face severely. Dropping the clothes
and even the knife he
slunk away holding his injured nose with both hands. It is said that
the government is importing 300
head of horses from Annam. Stables are now being
provided for them at the
Imperial Hostlery called the Sa-bok just behind the
Educational Department. In view of the
difficulties into which Koreans fall
by mortgaging their houses to people of other
nationalities the government has
instituted a mortgage bureau and will shortly announce
that any Korean who
wishes to mortgage his house must come to that bureau
where he will obtain
lower rates than can be secured elsewhere. The governor of
Whang-ha province informs the
Finance Department that the shortage of revenue in his
province because of the
famine will amount to $98,196. A second police
department has been established, in
connection with the Household Department. Yi Kun-t’ak
is at its head. There
will be 100 policemen and sixteen inspectors. The town of
Yung-dong in Ch’ung-ch’ung Province was
visited by eighty freebooters on the third of October.
They [page
507]
came from the town of Whang-gan. After looting
certain villages in Yung-dong they went into Ok-ch’un
and burned fifty houses
and killed fifty-six people. The town of
Ham-yul in north Chul-la province has
suffered so severely from the famine that 400 houses
have been deserted and
over ninety people have died of starvation. Pak che-sun who
went to Japan to witness the
military manoeuvres had audience with his Majesty the
Emperor of Japan and was
decorated by him with the order of the Rising Sun,
first grade. The Chinese
Consul in P’yung-yang has requested the
governor to ask his government to designate a spot in
that vicinity that can be
used as a burial ground for the Chinese soldiers who
fell there during the
Japan-China war. They were buried in various places,
and it is desired to
collect their bones and bury them together. On account of
lack of funds in the Finance
Department the payment of salaries in all the
departments except those of wax
and police has been deferred. The town of
Sam-ch’uk was visited by a disastrous
flood on Oct. 19th by which eighty-eight houses were
swept away and eleven
people killed. It was due to excessive rains. In view of
disturbances in the southern provinces
Yi Man-ja has been put in charge of the police force
of the three provinces of
Ch’ung-ch’ung, Chul-la and Kyung-sang. On account of
the famine the Educational Department
has lowered the price of the annual calendar, which
goes into the home of every
Korean, from ten cents to six cents. The deficit in
revenue from the province of
Kyung-geui, in which the capital is situated, will be
$163,640. The prefect of
Kim-p’o asks the loan of 600 bags of
the Annam rice to tide over the famine, promising to
pay it back out of the
next crop. In connection
with the Roze Island affair two
Koreans have been condemned to receive one hundred
blows apiece and spend ten
years in the chain gang on the charge of having
received a bribe of 8,900,000
cash from the Japanese who claimed to have bought the
island. Another has been
condemned to 80 blows and two years in the chain-gang.
An- [page
508]
other to 80 blows and one year in the chain-gang;
and two others who have fled for parts unknown are to
be executed if captured;
meanwhile nothing is said of the man who is
principally implicated. The U. S. Charge
d’Affaires has addressed the
Government in regard to the World’s Fair to be held in
St. Louis in 1903,
suggesting that Korea appoint a commission and send an
exhibit to America. The prefect of
Pyuk-tong on the Yalu River
telegraphs for instructions regarding fifty-three
“houses” of Chinese who ask
to be allowed to settle on Korean soil and who offer
to pay the land tax. The Finance
Department is taking the present time
to clear up arrears of taxes. It takes for granted
that heretofore the various
magistrates have collected the taxes from the people
but it deplores the fact
that the magistrates have not seen lit to turn all the
money into the central
treasury. Consequently all magistrates who during the
past six years have been
short in their accounts are to be arrested and asked
to explain. This affects,
of course, all magistrates of this description who
have held office but have
since resigned. As the average tenure of office of a
country magistrate cannot
be much above two years, it is evident that a good
deal of money can be
expected from the class of men above described. We
hope it will be a lesson to
all prefects to confine their perquisites to the legal
figures. To show that
the sum involved is by no means insignificant it will
be necessary to cite the
cases of (1) the former prefect of Yun-an who owes
$1520, (2) the former
prefect of Kang jin who owes $6400, (3) the former
prefect of Chung-ju who owes
$1600, (4) the former prefect of Sung-ju who owes
$4400, (5) the former prefect
of Eui-heung who owes $200. These five men alone owe
$14,100. The prefect of
Un-bong reports that the famine has
driven nine tenths of the people from their homes and
the autumn tax will not
be forthcoming. The prefect of Man-gyung says
practically the same thing of his
district. The town of
Sun-an will be short this year $1160,
in its revenue. The lack of rain
in Kyung-sang Province during the
summer was made up for in the autumn by floods which
destroyed [page
509]
many houses. The various prefects went to the
places where such disasters occurred and inspected
them personally. In
Eui-ryung two men were drowned and 164 houses fell. In
Ham-an 101 houses fell.
In Kon-yang thirty-one houses fell. In Cho-gye
twenty-one houses fell. The governor
appeals to the Government for aid in behalf of these
people. One hundred of
the horses ordered by the Government
from Annam arrived in Seoul on the 24th inst. They are
to be used as remounts
for Korean array officers. During the past
two years the Bureau of Surveys has
been busy surveying various country prefectures. A
good deal of ground has been
gotten over as the following figures will show. In Kyung-geui
Province, fourteen prefectures; in
North Ch’ung-ch’ung, thirteen prefectures; in South
Ch’ung-ch’ung, eighteen; in
North Chul-la, fourteen; in South Chul-la thirteen in
North Kyung-sang,
twenty-two; in South Kyung-sang, eight; in Whang-ha,
two. In all 104
prefectures have been surveyed. How thoroughly it was
done we cannot say but it
was done for the purpose of readjusting the taxes of
the country by including
new fields and houses. The cost of these surveys was
$199,146 41. By this means
the annual revenue of the government will be enhanced
to the extent of $669,018
a year, from the land tax and from the house tax
$113,299.20, making a total of
$782,309.20, which shows that the surveys were a
paying investment. A
man in Ham-heung named Chu Kye-ong has attained the
age of 105 years, and
so the governor of the province recommends him to the
Emperor as a candidate
for rank of the first grade. The man’s name is quite
appropriate as it means “The
Aged Cinnamon Tree.” The
revised figures representing the shortage of
revenue from South Ch’ung-ch’ung Province puts the
figure at $436,600. We
are pleased to note the arrival of Mr. Philip
Gillett from the United States, who has come to Korea
under the auspices of the
Young Men’s Christian Association to start a branch of
that organization among
the young men of Korea. News has come
that Mr. W. F. Sands, the Adviser to
the Korean Household Department, is ill with typhoid
fever in the [page
510]
town of Eui-ju on the Yalu River. Dr. Sharrocks,
connected with the Pyung-yang station of the
Presbyterian Mission, has been
summoned to Eui-ju to attend him. We trust that we
shall soon be able to report
his full recovery. The growing
boldness of Korean thieves has become
quite a common topic of conversation among foreigners
in Seoul. A case in point
occurred a few weeks ago when a young tourist from
America, named Mr. Rex, was
stopping at the home of Rev. H. G. Appenzeller. The
young man was awakened by a
curious noise and saw a thief crawling through a small
window into the room. By
a rather remark-able exhibition of presence of mind
Mr. Rex lay still to see
what the fellow would do. Descending to the floor the
thief began searching the
room for valuables. As he approached the head of the
bed where on a chair lay
the young man’s watch the latter hit out at him with a
good Anglo Saxon
shoulder blow which felled him to the ground and
completely demoralized him.
The rascal on his knees began rubbing his hands
together in the ordinary
oriental precatory manner but the Anglo-Saxon did not
understand the gesture
and gave him what is sometimes called a “John L,”
after which he called the the
host and the culprit was sent off to police
headquarters escorted by two
policemen. On Wednesday
afternoon a general Meeting of the
Korea Branch of the R. A. S. was held in the Reading
Room of the Seoul Union.
Rev. J. S. Gale, the Corresponding Secretary, read a
paper on Han-yang (Seoul).
After giving the subject a careful historical handling
the reader pointed out,
by means of an excellent map, the various points of
historical interest in the
city and its environs. The paper showed wide re-search
and a complete grasp of
the subject. It ended with a most interesting
translation of a description of
Seoul by a Chinese envoy who visited the city over
four hundred years ago,
which showed that the Korean people have changed very
little since that time,
most of the customs there described being in force
to-day. Thursday the
28th of November being the day set
aside by the President of the United States as a day
of Thanksgiving, there was
the regular Thanksgiving Service of the Union Church
at the Chapel of Pai Chai
School. The service [page 511] opened
with a short address by Mr. Philip Gillett, the new
Secretary of the Young Men’s
Christian Association of Korea, in which he spoke of
the rapid advance in
Mission work and its reflex influence on the people at
home. After his most
appropriate remarks the address of the day was
delivered by Rev. H. G.
Appenzeller in his usual eloquent style. He spoke
specially of the victories
for good municipal government in America, the
awakening of the people to the
dangers of the liquor traffic and the growth of the
spirit of union between the
different branches of the protestant church. We note with
pleasure the publication of the first
number of The
Korea Field, a
quarterly brochure of sixteen pages, intended to be a
point of contact between
the missionaries on the field，especially
Presbyterian
missionaries, and the people at home. It it full of
accounts of personal
incidents occurring in the missionary’s life and it is
these which are far more
interesting to Christian people at home than
generalities however brilliant. It
is the close touch which arouses enthusiasm and we can
not praise too highly
this effort nor too strongly recommend it to those who
desire information about
mission work in Korea. The Review has repeatedly
offered to open it pagesto
just this class of matter, but without success. But in
this other form which is
attractive and yet cheap a far wider public can be
reached than through the pages
of a magazine like the Review. We wish this venture
all success. The prefect of
So-ch’un says that the famine has
driven a great many people from their homes and the
distress is so great that
financial aid is needed from the central government.
But as the government
revenues come from these very districts it does not
appear how the aid is to be
given. On account of
the exertions of the Finance
Department to collect arrears of taxes from present
and former prefects these
gentlemen are working vigorously to get the money
together. Some are selling
their houses, others mortgaging them at 10 per cent a
month and others are
depending on their friends to help them over their
difficulties. The first day
after the decree went forth $10,000 were received, the
second day $20,000, the
third day $30,000 and so on, increasing $10,000 a day
until the sixth day when
a total of $21,000 had been collected. [page 512] The people of
An-ju have sent a letter complaining
loudly of the actions of the new prefect, saying that
he has seized, beaten and
robbed many well-to-do citizens and eaten a large
amount of the government
money. Even the children have made up a song about
him, which seems to be the
lowest depth of infamy to which a Korean can descend.
They demand that he be
removed. This year has
been one of most remarkable weather.
Every sign has railed and every precedent broken. And
now a foreigner returning
from Kong-ju a hundred miles south of Seoul, reports
that snow lies a foot deep
on the level in those parts. M. C. Fenwick,
Esq. of Wonsan is in Seoul and he
reports that the fruit season in Wonsan has been an
exceptionally fine one.
There is no other place in the East where the apple
imported from Europe or
America will thrive and not gradually lose its flavor.
The Wonsan apples grown
from American trees are fully the equal of those in
America. The plum,
gooseberry and currant crops were also exceptionally
fine. Wonsan grown apples
sold in Vladivostock for fifteen roubles a bushel
which would be equivalent to
twenty-five dollars, gold, a barrel. It would look as
if Korea might become the
orchard of the Far East. The climatic conditions seem
to be just right. Among
the western fruits that thrive the best must be
counted the grape which grows
in Korea luxuriantly and bears heavily. One garden in
Wonsan produced upwards
of fifty bushels this year. [page 513] KOREAN
HISTORY . In the year 1145
occurred an event of great
importance. A century and a quarter had now passed
since the kingdom of Sil-la
had fallen and as yet the annals of Sil-la, Ko-gu-ryu
and Pak-je had not been
worked up into a proper history. This year it was done
and the great work
entitled Sam-guk-sa,
or History of
the Three Kingdoms, was the result. This work which,
though rare, exists
to-day, is the thesaurus of ancient Korean history,
and it is the basis upon
which all subsequent histories of ancient Korea are
founded. Its compiler, Kim
Pu-sik, is one of the celebrated literary men of Korea
and may truly be called
the father of Korean history. In-jong was succeeded in
1147 by his son Hyon,
posthumous title Eui-jong. Never before had a king
given himself over so
abjectly to the priesthood. The people were thoroughly
discontented with his
course, but he would listen to no remonstrances. It
would have been better had
he been a more consistent Buddhist but his drinking,
gambling and
licentiousness gave the lie to his religious
pretentions and left the
impression that he was in reality only the tool of the
priesthood. It is said
that his visits to a certain monastery were so
frequent that an awning had to
be erected from the palace to its gates, and if at any
time the king was not to
be found they looked for him in this monastery. He was
an object of ridicule to
the whole people. In 1165 numbers
of the Kin people crossed the Yalu
and settled at In-ju and Chung-ju. The magistrates
raised a force of soldiers
on their own account without royal authority and drove
out the intruders and
burned their houses. The Kin emperor made the king
restore them to their places
but the magistrates again drove them out; so the
Emperor sent a body of troops
and seized sixteen of the country officials. The officials
desired to stop the king’s frequent
visits to his favorite monastery. One day as he was
passing along his covered
passage-way they made his horse rear violently and [page 514] at the same
time one of them let fall an arrow
before him. The king was terrified, supposing that
someone had shot at him, so
he returned to the palace in haste and barred the
gates. He charged a slave of
his brother’s with having shot the arrow and after
wringing a false confession
from him by torture put him to death. In 1168 Ch’oe
Ch’uk-kyung became prefect of T’am-na
(Quelpart). He was well liked by the people and when
he was removed and another
man put in his place they rose in revolt, drove out
the successor and said they
would have no governor but Ch’oe. So the King was
obliged to reinstate him.
These people of Quelpart were very unruly. It was only
during the reign of this
king’s father that the first prefect had been sent to
that island. The king sent a
commission to Dagelet island off
the east coast to find out whether it was habitable.
They brought back an
adverse report. Besides his
partiality to Buddhism the king added
another burden to those which the people already
carried. He made the eunuchs
his instruments to exact money from the people, and to
such as supplied him
with the most money from this illegal practice he gave
rank and honors. The
king was continually feasting, but none of the
military men enjoyed his favor
or shared his hospitality. Matters came to a crisis
when in 1170 one of the
military officials was struck by a civil official of a
lower grade in the
presence of the king while at a monastery outside the
city. The matter was
hushed up for the moment but when the company
separated some of the generals
assembled the palace guards and seized and killed the
two leading civil
officials. One, Han Roe, escaped and hid behind the
king’s bed. In spite of
this the generals entered and dragged him away to his
death. Then they began to
slaughter the civil officials and eunuchs
indiscriminately. The records say
that the dead bodies were piled “mountains high.” The
military officials had a
sign by which they might be distinguished. The right
shoulder was left bare and
they wore a head-dress called the pok-tu. Whoever was
found lacking these two
signs was cut down. The king was in mortal fear and
tried to propitiate the
leading general by the gift of a beautiful sword. He
accepted it but the [page
515]
work of death went on. They took the king back to
the capital and, arriving at the palace, cut down ten
leading men at that
point. Then they went to the palace of the crown
prince and killed ten more.
Proclamation was made in the main street “Kill any
official wearing the
garments of the civil rank.” This was the sign for a
general slaughter and
fifty more of the officials were murdered. After this,
twenty eunuchs were
beheaded and their heads were set up on pikes. Though the king
was badly frightened he continued his
evil course of life without abatement. The generals
wanted to kill him but were
dissuaded. The persecution of the civil officials
continued but there was some
discrimination, for two of them who were better than
the rest were spared and
protected. A civil official, returning from China,
learned of of this emeute
and, gathering forces in the country, approached the
capital; but at a certain
pass an unfavorable omen was seen in the shape of a
tiger sitting in the road.
The omen was true, for the improvised army was
defeated by the
insurrectionists. One Chong Chung-bu was the leading
spirit in this business
and he now proceeded to pull down all the houses of
the civil officials,
turning a deaf ear to the expostulations of those who
pitied the widows and
orphans. From this time dates the custom of destroying
the house of any
official or gentleman who is guilty of any serious
crime against the King. Gen. Chong came
to the conclusion that the king was
a hopeless case and so he banished him to Ko-je in
Island, Kyung- sang
Province, and the Crown Prince to the island of
Chin-do, and made way with a
large number of the king’s relatives and hangers-on.
He then put the king’s
younger brother Ho on the throne. His posthumous title
is Myung-jong. This was
in 1171. Then all the
offices were filled by military
officials, Gen. Im Keuk-ch’ung becoming Prime
Minister. Mun Keup-kyum was one
of the civil officials who were spared, and he now
feigned to be well content
with the condition of things and gave his daughter to
the son of one of the
generals in marriage. An envoy was sent to the Kin
court saying that as the
king was old and sick his brother had been given the
reins of power. [page
516] One of the
generals, Yi Ko, desired to effect a
revolution and, gathering his friends about him,
promised them high honors in
case the attempt should succeed. Thereupon he took
with him to a feast a number
of his followers with swords hidden in their sleeves.
Gen. Ch’oa Wun, however,
suspected something and communicated his suspicions to
Gen. Yi Eui-bang who
managed to get Gen. Yi Ko out into the anteroom and
there felled him to the
ground with an iron mace and dispatched him. His
followers were also seized and
killed. The emperor
suspected that the deposed king had
been forcibly ejected and so sent a letter severely
blaming his successor. An
envoy was dispatched to the Kin court to explain
matters. He talked well but
the emperor still suspected something and refused to
answer the King’s letter.
The envoy thereupon sat down and deliberately began to
starve himself to death.
This secured the desired answer and the envoy returned
to Song-do. The emperor
sent a commission to enquire into the matter. The
commissioner was feasted at
the capital and told that the deposed king was old and
sick and had gone away
to a distant part of the country and could not be
produced. The ill-will
between the military and the monks was
well illustrated when the palace caught fire. General
Chong saw many monks
running toward the burning buildings, but rather than
have them enter he locked
the gates and let the buildings burn to the ground. The remnant of
the civil officers were ever on the
look-out for opportunities to get the upper hand again
and drive out the
military party. To this end Kim Po-dang sent letters
to prefects far and wide
and a time for a rising was agreed upon. The banished
king was put in the van
of the army thus improvised and they advanced as far
as Kyong-ju. But the plan
miscarried and Kim, its originator, was seized by the
people and sent to
Song-do where he was put to death. Before dying he
exclaimed “I wa6 in league
with all the civil nobles.” This was probably not
true, but it caused a fresh
outbreak of the military party upon the civil nobles,
and scores of them were
killed. At last a reaction set in and the military
leaders, feeling that they had
gone too far, tried to make [page 517] amends by
giving their daughters to the sons of the civil
officials in
marriage. At this point
occurred one of the most revolting
events that blot the pagesof Korean history. Gen.
Chong, hearing that the
banished king had come as far as Kyong-ju sent Gen. Yi
Eui-mun to put him out
of the way. After the leader and two hundred members
of the ex-king’s guard had
been treacherously killed the ex-king himself was
spirited away to a
neighboring monastery. He was taken out to the brink
of a pond behind this
monastery and there Gen. Yi, who was a man of immense
stature, seized him in
his arms and crushed his ribs, killing him instantly.
The body was wrapped in
blankets, placed in two kettles, which were placed
mouth to mouth, and thrown
into the pond. When this monster, Gen. Yi, returned to
Song-do he was loaded
with honors. Later a monk, who was a good swimmer,
raised the body and gave it
decent burial. In spite of the
overwhelming power exercised by the
military party, the king was devoted to Buddhism. The
monks were very anxious
to kill Gen. Yi, who had taken such an active part in
deposing the late king;
so they massed in front of the palace and set fire to
it by first firing the
adjoining houses. Gen. Yi made a sudden sally with a
strong guard and killed a
hundred of the monks. He followed this up by
demolishing five monasteries whose
sacred vessels and other utensils he confiscated. Chapter
V. Rebellion
quelled ... cannibalism ... anarchy ... “faith
cure”... reformation...
Ta-na well... the Queen restored... slaves revolt...
the Mongols... envoy
killed... Kin weakens... Kitan refugees... civil
strife... Kitan driven back...
Mongol allies... Mongols drive Kitans into Koryu...
Mongol savages... Kitan
remnant surrenders... Mongol envoy... jealousy...
Mongol demands... rebels’ heads
sent to Song-do... Mongol demands tribute... brutal
envoy ... a new wall... Japanese
pirates... Mongol envoy killed... Mongol allies driven
back... prime minister dupcd...
pirates again... a Korean “Shogun”... Mongols cross
the Yalu... a Mongol letter
[page
518]
... the Mongols reach Song-do... leave it
untaken... the “Shogun” flees... a brave prefect...
Mongol terms... King
surrenders... Mongol residency. Cho Wi-jong was
a P’yung-yang man with a towering
ambition, and he now deemed the time ripe to put the
wheels in motion. He
therefore drew about him a strong body of troops. All
the districts about P’yung-yang
joined him excepting Yun-ju, which remained loyal to
the king. The people of
that place were afraid of the rebel but the loyal
prefect Hyun Tuk-su forged a
letter purporting to be from the royal army en route
for P’yung-yang. This gave
the people courage to hold out. Cho and his
troops inarched toward Song-do and
encamped not far to the west of the town. Gen. Yi
Eui-bang having first seized
and killed all the P’yung-an officials who happened to
be in the capital,
marched out against the rebels. At the first attack
the seditious force broke
and fled. Gen. Yi chased them as far as the Ta-dong
River. He crossed that
river and lay siege to P’yung-yang; but winter was
coming on and he was obliged
to retire to Song-do. Cho then made two or three
attempts to overthrow the
loyal town of but without success. Gen. Yi was a
ruthless man, who had no love of
humanity in him, but would kill his best friend if it
served his purpose. For
this reason Gen. Chong did not dare to associate with
him, but threw up his
commission and went into retirement. His son got a
priest to dog the footsteps
of Gen. Yi and wait for a chance to kill him. This he
finally accomplished and
Gen. Yi and many of his relatives were killed; and the
queen, who was his
daughter, was driven away. As Cho Wi-jong,
the P’yung-yang traitor, was
gradually losing power he desired to get help from the
Kin emperor. For this
purpose he sent two envoys, but one of them killed the
other on the way and then
fled to Song do. Cho sent another, but him the Kin
emperor seized and sent a
prisoner to the Koryu capital. In the spring the royal
forces besieged Cho in P’yung-yang
again and famine within the walls became so great that
men ate each other. Many
of the towns-people came out by stealth and as they
were well received by the
besieging force, well-nigh all the civilians in the
city came over [page
519]
the walls by night. When the city fell, Cho was
killed and his wife and children were sent to Song-do
where they were hung in
the center of the city. The rebel forces
were scattered but reunited in
various places and terrorized the whole north, so that
envoys to the Kin court
had to go a round-about way to avoid them. The whole
country in fact was in a
state of anarchy. In the south whole sections of the
country were disaffected
toward the government and bands of men roamed the
country. There was a rising also
in Whang-ha Province. In P’yung-yang the people rose
and drove out the
governor. The ting was forced to begin the correction
of abuses. He sent all
about gathering information as to how the people were
governed and as a
consequence eight hundred officials were cashiered.
But the attempt at
renovation came too late. In the west the bands of
robbers looted right and
left and could not be apprehended. The capital itself
swarmed with thieves. The
ancestral temple itself was robbed of its utensils.
But all this time the king
kept up a round of carousals and debaucheries at which
he himself played the
buffoon, and danced for the delectation of his guests,
and that too at a
monastery. A sacred place truly! In the twelfth
year of the reign, 1182, we find an
interesting application of what goes in these days
under the name of “faith
cure.” A priest claimed to be able to cure any
disease. Being called before the
king he said, “If anyone drinks water in which I have
washed my hands he will
be immediately cured.” He further explained “After
drinking the water, pray
earnestly to Buddha. Then rise and say ‘I am cured’
and if you really believe
you are cured, you will be so.” Crowds of people
applied to him for treatment.
He seduced many of the women who came to him. Gen. Yi Eui-mun
was now court favorite and he
usurped all the leading offices and acted as
pander-in-general to the King by
seeking out and forcibly carrying to the palace young
and handsome girls. This
seemed intolerable to such loyal men as Gen. Ch’oe
Chung-heun, and he, in
company with his brother, surrounded the palace,
killed Yi Eui-mun and many
others of his ilk, chased away many illegitimate sons
of the king, who had
become monks, and would not let them enter [page 520] the palace
again. This all happened in 1196, and
two years later the reformer continued the good work
by deposing the old and
indolent king, banishing the crown prince to Kang- wha
and putting the king’s
brother Mun on the throne. His posthumous title is
Sin-jong. The banishing of
the crown prince and his wife was effected in a very
heartless manner. They
were ordered out of the palace at a moment’s notice
and, coming forth entirely
unprepared for the journey, were mounted on horses in
a cold rain and hurried
away to Kang-wha. A terrible storm raged the day the
King was deposed, as if in
sympathy with the throes through the country was
passing. There was a
saying current among the people which
shows at once how superstitious they were and to what
an extent the eunuchs
were wont to abuse their power. They said, “If the
King uses water from the
Ta-na Well many eunuchs will arise and will cause the
government to be
administered badly;” so the well was filled up.
Another instance shows what a
terrible temptation there was for the people to abuse
their power. This same
reformer Cho’e Chung-heun, though himself a man of
perfect uprightness, had a
brother who now took advantage of his position to
force the king to take his
daughter as queen. To do this the real queen had to be
banished. As it happened,
the king was deeply attached to her, but he was in no
position to refuse to do
the bidding of the powerful courtier. After a tearful
parting she went into
exile. This was as yet unknown to the reformer, but
when he learned of it his
indignation was deep and fierce. Cloaking his
feelings, he called his brother
to a feast and there reminded him that they were not
of a high enough family to
furnish a queen, and he charged him to give up the
attempt. The next day, the
villain changed his mind again. His mother
expostulated with him and he felled
her to the floor. Gen. Ch’oe was told of this and,
surrounding himself with a
strong body-guard, he proceeded to the palace gate.
When his niece was brought
in her chair and was about to enter to become queen,
the faithful old general
disputed the passage and a fight ensued between his
men and his brother’s. The
former were successful and the wretch betook himself
to flight, but was
pursued, taken and killed by the general himself. The
rightful queen was
restored to her station. [page 521] The six years of
this king’s reign were one long
scene of turmoil and strife. In the first place the
slaves revolted. They said “The
high men are not made so by the decree of heaven.
Great men are those who do
well. Let us fight for our rights; Gen. Ch’oe is from
as low a grade as
ourselves. Let us become high men too.” They
rendezvoused at Heung-guk
monastery and decided as a preliminary measure to
demand from their masters the
deeds of themselves (for slaves as well as houses were
deeded property) and to
burn them. They were betrayed to Gen. Ch’oe who
trapped a hundred of them, tied
stones about their necks and drowned them in the
river. The south was overrun
by marauding parties whom the king bought off by gifts
of food, clothes and land.
In Chin-ju the governor’s servants locked him in his
private dungeon, gathered
a band of men and put to death all who would not join
their standard. It is
said that 6,400 men were killed because of refusal to
join them. The same
scenes were enacted in various places, notably in
Quelpart and Kong ju. In the midst of
these scenes the king died and was
succeeded in 1205 by his son Tok, posthumous title
Heui-jong. We have now
arrived at the threshold of events
which were destined to make Asia one great
battle-field and to cause the
sovereigns of Europe to tremble on their thrones. The Mongols
lived north of Yu-jin and were in a
sense connected with them. Their first great chief was
Ya-sok-ha (Yusuka) who
first led the revolt which separated the Mongol power
from the Yu-jin. He
together with Keui-ak-on conquered forty of the
northern tribes in quick
succession and brought them all under his flag. His
son’s name was
Chul-mok-jin, the great Genghis Khan. It was now in
the second year of
Heui-jong, in 1206, that the great Genghis proclaimed
himself emperor and named
his empire Mong. Meanwhile Ch’oe
Chung-heun was not proof against
the seductions of ambition and power, and we next find
him seizing the people’s
houses and building himself a magnificent residence
adjoining the palace.
People said of him that be buried a boy or a girl
under each corner post. When the spring
of 1212 opened, an envoy was sent
to the Kin court but was intercepted by Mongol
videttes who [page
522]
had by this time worked their way southward to a
point that commanded the road between Koryu and Kin.
The Kin people recovered
the body and sent it back to Koryu. Gen. Ch’oe had
acquired so much power that he was
in reality the ruler of the land, holding much the
same position that the
Shogun of Japan is said to have occupied. He may not
inappropriately be styled
the Shogun of Koryu. For this reason the king desired
to get him out of the
way. To this end he put upon his track a number of
monks, but as they began by
attacking his servant he quietly slipped into a chest
and they could not find
him. His body-guard became aware of his predicament
and forced the palace
gates, killing right left; and they would have killed
the king had not the wily
old general stepped out of his hiding place and
prevented it. The latter
banished the king to Kang-wha and the crown prince to
Chemulpo and set upon the
throne one Chong, whose posthumous title is Kang-jong. The only
event recorded of this reign is the arrival of an
envoy from the Kin court, who
wanted to enter the palace by the central or royal
gate. He insisted upon it
until he was asked the question, “If you enter by the
royal gate, by what gate
would your master enter should he come here?” This
silenced him. Kang-jong was
succeeded in 1214 by his son Chin,
posthumous title Kang-jang. This was destined to be
the longest and by far the
most eventful reign of the dynasty for it lasted
forty-five years and witnessed
the great Mongol invasion. The Kin power
was now trembling under the Mongol
onslaught and envoys came demanding aid from Koryu in
the shape of rice and
horses. The king ostensibly refused but allowed the
envoys to purchase rice and
carry it away with them. Again a dark
cloud hung over Koryu’s northern
border. It was not the
Mongols as yet, but the remnant of
the Kitan forces who were unable to withstand the
Mongols and so had fled south
into Koryu territory. At first the Koryu forces were
able to keep them in check
but as they came in ever increasing numbers they broke
down all opposition and
were soon ravaging Whang-ha Province, making
P’yung-yang their headquarters.
The lack of Koryu soldiers was so evident [page 523] that men of all
classes, even the monks, became
soldiers. It was of no avail. They were cut down like
stubble and Whang-ju fell
into Kitan hands. The enemy was soon only eighty li
from the capital.
Consternation reigned in the city and the people all
procured swords or other
weapons and manned the walls. To this outward
danger was added the terror of
civil strife for the priests took this inopportune
moment to attack the old
general, Ch’oe, who still ruled with a high hand. He
turned on them however and
cut down three hundred. He then instituted an
inquisition and as a result 800
more were killed. Such then was the desperate position
of Koryu; a powerful
enemy at her door, the south rife with rebellion, and
in the capital itself “mountains
of dead and rivers of blood.” Victorious Kitan came
sweeping down on Song-do,
out for some reason, perhaps because they had heard
that the town was well
defended, they made a detour, appearing next on the
banks of the Im-jin River
half way between Song-do and the present capital.
There they suffered defeat at
the hands of the Koryu forces as they did also later
at the site of the present
capital. In view of these defeats the Kitan army
retired to Ta-bak San. Now
another cause of anxiety appeared in the shape of the
Yu-jin allies of the
Mongols who crossed the Yalu and took Eui-ju. But
Koryu, wide awake to the
danger, threw upon them a well equipped force which
destroyed 500 of them,
captured many more and drove the remaining 300 across
the river. The king now
built a royal residence at Pa-gak San to the east of
Song-do, for he had been
told that by so doing he would be able to hold the
north in check. Myun Ku-ha of
east Yu-jin, being defeated by the
Mongols, came in his flight towards the Yalu, but the
Koryu general, Chung
Kong-su, caught him and sent him safely to the Mongol
headquarters. This
pleased the Mongols hugely and they said “We must make
a treaty of friendship.”
We must remember that the Mongols were at war with
Kitan and had driven her
army across into Koryu, but at first did not pursue
them. Now, however, an army
of 10,000 men under Generals T’ap Chin and Ch’al Cha,
were sent to complete the
destruction of the Kitan power. They were joined by
Yu-jin allies to [page
524]
the number of 20,000 men under Gen. Wan-an
Cha-yun. As these allies were advancing against the
doomed army of Kitan, the
remnant of which, 50,000 strong, was massed at
Kang-dong, a great snowstorm
came on and provisions ran low. Koryu was asked to
supply the deficiency which
she did to the extent of 1,000 bags of rice. This
still more helped her into
the good graces of the Mongols. But the records state
that the Mongols were so
little beyond the condition of the savage that there
could be little real
friendship between them and the people of Koryu. The
latter showed it too
plainly and the Mongols of course resented it. In this army
that was marching to the annihilation
of Kitan there was a contingent of Koryu forces under
Gen. Kim Ch’ui-ryo who is
described as being a giant in size with a beard that
reached his knees. He was
a favorite with the Mongol generals and was treated
handsomely by them. The siege of
Kang-dong was prosecuted vigorously
and soon the greatest distress prevailed within the
walls. The leader finally
gave up hope and hanged himself, and the 50,000 men
came out and surrendered.
Gen. T’ap reviewed them, took off the heads of a
hundred of the leaders and
released the remainder. The Mongol leader wished to
make a visit to Song-do to
see the king but he could not leave his army, so he
sent an envoy instead. He
gave the Koryu generals rich presents and released 700
Koryu captives that had
been previously taken. Many Kitan captives were put
into the hands of the Koryu
generals as a result of the decisive termination of
the war against Kitan and
many of the heretofore inaccessible parts of the north
were opened up, and they
were called the “Kitan District.” Ere long the
Mongol envoy approached Song-do and
the king sent out a messenger to meet him, but this
did not satisfy him, for he
exclaimed, “Why did not the king come out to meet me?”
It took some persuasion
to induce him not to turn back. When he had audience
with the king he wore the
heavy fur clothing of his native country with a fur
head-dress, and carried a
sword and a bow. Approaching the king be seized his
hand and showed him the
letter from the Mongol emperor, Genghis Khan. The king
turned pale and was
exceedingly embarrassed at this familiarity, and the
officials [page
525]
asked each other how the presence of this
barbarian could be endured. They induced him to retire
and assume Koryu
garments, after which he reappeared and the king
presented him with gifts of
gold, silver, silk and linen. Gen. Cho Ch’ung
accompanied the retiring Mongol and
Yu-jin allies as far as the Yalu where they bade him
an affectionate adieu and
declared that he was a man of whom Koryu should be
proud. The Mongol general,
Hap Chin, left forty men at Eui-ju to learn the Koryu
language and told them to
stay there till he returned. Gen. Cho then returned to
P’yung-yang where he was
lionized and feted. The old man Ch’oe Chung-heun
feared that Gen. Cho would
attempt to throw him down from his high position and
thought it would be better
to have him near by, where he could watch him; so he
forged a letter purporting
to be from the king, ordering him to come down to the
capital. He obeyed. It seemed at
this time that the relations of Koryu
and the Mongols would remain friendly, but if Koryu
thought this she was
destined to be rudely awakened. The Mongol and Yu-jin
allies sent to Myung-sung
and said “Koryu must send an envoy and do obeisance
each year.” This was said
in so offensive a way that it seemed to be an attempt
to provoke war. We are
not told what answer was given but it sufficed for the
time to secure peace. The great Ch’oe
Chung-heun who had carried things
with such a high hand now fell ill and died. This
caused more commotion than
the death of several kings. He was buried with royal
honors. He left many sons,
of whom U and Hyang were first and second. Hyang was a
bold and powerful man,
and before the father died he warned U against him U
succeeded to his father’s
position which, as we have seen, corresponded closely
with that of the Shogun
of Japan. A serious
rebellion broke out in the north under
two leaders, Han Sun and Ta Chi, the cause being the
illegal exactions of the
prefects. When the king found that it could not be put
down by peaceful means
he sent Gen. Kim Ch’ui-ro to put it down by force. The
east Yu-jin leader, Myun
Ku-ha, at first sided with the rebels but later
changed his mind, invited Han
Sun and Ta Chi to a feast, got them intoxicated,
assassinated them, put their
heads in a box and sent it to the [page 526] king, thereby
earning the good will of the latter.
The king then reformed the abuses in the rebellious
section and peace was at
last secured. The Mongols were
not to be content with an empty
friendship, and in 1221 they sent a demand for
revenue, consisting of 10,000
pounds of cotton, 3,000 rolls of fine silk, 2,000
pieces of gauze, 100,000
sheets of paper of the largest size. The envoy who
brought this extraordinary
letter was provided commodious quarters and excellent
food but he expressed his
dissatisfaction at everything by shooting arrows into
the house posts, and by
acting in a very boorish manner generally. The only
man who could do anything
with him was Kim Heui-jo who charged him with killing
a man in Eui-ji, and threatened
to have him imprisoned. Thus meeting bluster with
bluster he made the brutal
northerner listen to reason. When the envoy was about
to go to an audience with
his weapons in hand, this same Kim made him lay them
aside. Other Mongol and
Yo-jin messengers came and Kim managed them all so
well that no trouble arose. It was becoming
apparent that the Mongols were
likely at any time to make a descent upon Koryu; so,
in the following year,
1222, a wall was built near the Yalu river, extending
from Eui-ju to Wha-ju. It
is said that this was completed in the marvelously
short space of forty days, a
feat which shows not only how great a power Koryu
could exert when necessary
but how important she deemed it that tins wall should
be built. 1223 A. D. marks
the beginning of that long series
of depredations which Japanese freebooters inflicted
upon Koryu between 1200
and 1400. In this year they landed on the coast of
Kyung-sang Province and
ravaged the district of Keum-ju. With the opening of
the next year, a Mongol envoy
came modifying the demand for tribute to sea otter
skins only. The Kin dynasty
was now tottering to its fall but was destined to
cling to life for another ten
years. This year saw it nearly fall before the Mongol
power. Koryu therefore
discarded the Kin calendar. The friendship between the
Mongols and Koryu was
destined to be rudely broken in the year 1225, and
through no fault of the
latter except the inability to keep order in her own
territory. The Mongol
envoy, re- [page
527]
turning to the north, was set upon by a Koryu
highwayman and was robbed of the gifts which he was
carrying home. Thus all
friendly relations were ruptured and another step was
taken toward the final
catastrophe. This year also witnessed another Japanese
raid in the south. The Yu-jin who
had now assumed the Mongol clothes,
and were in reality an integral part of the Mongol
power, made a descent upon
Koryu in 1226 in the vicinity of Eui-ju. The prefect
deemed it too pressing a
matter to wait till word could be received from
Song-do, so he sent a thousand
men immediately against the raiders and drove them
back. The king forgave the
irregularity but refused to reward him. Ch’oe U who, as
we know, was the prime minister,
was duped by a diviner into believing that he was to
become king some day, and
he foolishly divulged the secret to a certain Kim, and
soon it became common
property. As punishment for this, as well as to get
himself out of trouble, Ch’oe
U had both Kim and the diviner drowned. The depredations
of the Japanese were without the
cognizance of the Japanese government and were against
its wish. This appears
from the fact that when in 1227 an envoy, Pak In, was
sent to Japan to
remonstrate against them, the government of that
country acquiesced and
arrested and killed a number of the corsairs. Both this year
and the next Yu-jin bands ravaged
the northern part of Koryu, but at the same time asked
that a treaty be
concluded. The ink was hardly dry on this before it
was broken by the very ones
who advocated it. Ch’oe U followed
in his father’s steps and having
established himself in the viceroyship began to abuse
the people, stealing
houses and lands from them wherewith to build himself
a princely mansion, two
hundred paces long. In the court of it he had mock
battles and the soldiers
played at ball. The expense of this was borne by the
people, whose faces were
already being ground to furnish the regular revenue.
His younger brother,
Hyang, who long since been had banished, attempted to
raise an insurrection in
favor of the exiled king; but Ch’oe U sent a strong
force and chased his
brother until he was run to earth in a cave among the
mountains where he was
killed. [page
528] It was now the
year 1231, the year which saw the
outbreak which had been threatening ever since Genghis
Khan came to the
chieftainship of the Mongol armies. As the spring
opened a powerful Mongol army
moved southward across the Yalu under the leadership
of Sal Ye-t’ap and took
the fortress of Ham-sin near Eui-ju. They followed
this up by storming Ch’ul-ju
which ended only after the prefect had set fire to his
house and destroyed his
whole family and he and his associates had cut their
own throats. The king did not
intend to submit without a
struggle. He sent Generals Pak So and Kim Kyong-sol at
the head of a large army
to operate against the invaders. They rendezvoused
with all their forces at
Ku-ju, the four gates of which were strongly
barricaded. The Mongols commenced
the attack at the south gate. The Koryu soldiers made
five brilliant sallies
and forced the enemy to retire. The honors of this
victory fell to Gen. Kim who
pursued the enemy some distance and then returned to
the town in triumph. The
Mongols, who seem to have been independent of any base
of supplies and made the
country through which they passed supply them, now
left this town untaken and
the Koryu army undefeated in their rear, and marched
boldly southward, taking
Kwak-ju and Sun-ju. From this point the Mongol general
Sal Ye-t’ap sent a
letter to the king saying “Let us make peace. We Have
now taken your country as
far as Han-sin and if you do not come to terms with us
we will draw
reinforcements from Yu-jin and crush you.” The
messenger who conveyed tins very
candid letter got only as far as P’yung-ju where be
was seized by the people
and imprisoned. While waiting for an answer, the
invaders tried another attack
on Ku-ju out with no better success. Not only so, but
they were badly defeated
at An-puk fortress. The king now
reinforced the army in the north and
at the same time feasted 30,000 monks at the capital
in order to influence the
celestial powers to bring about a cessation of war.
But at the same time the
Mongol forces were reinforced by Yu-jin troops and
with high spirits crossed
the Ta-dong river and swept down to P’yung-ju to wreak
their vengeance on that
place where even yet the Mongol messenger with the
letter for the king was
languishing in durance vile. [page
529]
KOREA
REVIEW, December 1901. The
Status of Woman in Korea It is a trite
saying that the civilization of a
people may be gauged by the treatment that they accord
to women. This is only
partially true, for in the various races of mankind
special conditions make
special rulings. For instance, in Thibet, where there
seems to be a great
preponderance of males, the practice of polyandry
prevails but however
disgusting this may appear to the western taste or
western conscience it does
not place the Thibetan on a lower plane of
civilization than the Esquimaux
where polyandry is not practiced. Again, in China and
all other lands that have
been permeated by Confucian principles the prime
necessity of having male issue
has largely influenced the position of woman and made
her lot more tolerable
than in Turkey or Persia but it would not be possible
to argue from this that
Chinese civilization is of a higher type than the
Persian or Turkish. We must
look to the causes underlying the better or worse
treatment of women in order
to discover whether it is a true index of a people’s
civilization. When India was
opened to the world the West cried
out in horror against the brutal manner in which
widows were treated. But even
this was due to natural causes. It was a great
preventive law which forced all
wives, for the sake of their own happiness, to guard
most sedulously the health
of their husbands. The common use of poison in the
tropics added to the crafty
and vindictive nature of the people made this cruel
law if not necessary at
least intelligible. In the same way
the people of the West are moved
with [page
530]
pity because the women of the Far East are kept so
secluded and are not allowed that free intercourse
with their fellowmen that is
accorded to women in the west. This pity too is, in a
sense, misplaced, for
though the condition of women in Asia is deplorable we
should rather criticise
the moral status of the people at large which renders
the seclusion of the
woman a necessity than to find fault with the mere
fact of their seclusion. In
this matter of the seclusion of women we do find
something of a gauge of a
people’s civilization if we look back of it to find
its cause. This seclusion
of women is a mean between the promiscuity of savage
tribes and the emancipated
condition of women in enlightened countries. It is as
much better than the
former as it is worse than the latter. There can be no
question that it is
Christianity which has resulted in the elevation of
woman in the West and it is
safe to say that the only way to secure like
privileges for women of the East
is to fill the East with Christian principles or at
least with ideas emanating
from Christian standards. We affirm, then, that under
present moral conditions
the seclusion of woman in the Far East is a blessing
and not a curse and its
immediate abolishment would result in moral chaos
rather than, as some suppose,
in the elevation of the race. In discussing
the condition of woman in Korea we
will divide the subject into ten general divisions (1)
seclusion (2) occupation
(3) education (4) punishments (5) property rights (6)
testamentary rights (7)
divorce (8) courtship and marriage (9) religion (10)
general In discussing
the seclusion of women in Korea it
will be necessary to classify them, for the degree of
seclusion depends upon
the position which the woman holds in society. In a
general way women may be
divided into three classes, the higher ox yang-ban
class, the middle or common
class and the low or despised class. As might be
expected the seclusion of
women here corresponds to the term exclusive in
western lands. The higher her
position the greater her seclusion. Ana just as women
pride themselves on their
exclusiveness in the enlightened West so women in
Korea pride themselves on
their seclusion. But let us inquire to what extent the
Korean woman of the
upper class, the lady,is secluded. Up to the age of
ten or twelve years the little girl
of good [page
531]
family enjoys great freedom, and can play in the
yard with her brothers and see anyone she wishes, but
the time comes when she
must never be seen without the chang-ot
or sleeved apron over her head and held close about
the face. From that time
she remains mostly in doors and can be familiary seen
only by the people of the
household and the nearer relatives. This stage of her
life is short for she is
generally married young and goes to take her place in
the family of her
husband, who will be found living with his parents.
From that time on she can
be seen and conversed with face to face only by the
following male members of
the family, her husband, father, father-in-law, uncle,
cousin, second cousin,
etc., down to what the Koreans call the p’al-chon or
“eighth joint,’ which
means the relationship existing between two
great-great-grandsons of a man
through different branches. This means something like
fourth or fifth cousin in
English. This refers either to her own cousins or
those of her husband. It will
at once appear that a Korean lady is not entirely cut
off from social
intercourse with gentleman, for in a country where
families are so large as in
Korea the gentlemen on both sides of the family within
the limits prescribed
may number anywhere from twenty to a couple of
hundred. Of course grandfathers
and great-grandfathers and great-uncles are also among
the favored ones,
although their number is naturally limited. But as a
rule none of these male
relatives will enter the inner part of a house, or
woman’s quarters, except on
invitation of the husband and generally in his
presence. Supposing, now,
that a young man marries and takes
his wife to his father’s house to live; a room will be
set aside for them
entirely separate from the room occupied by their
father and mother. The young
bride will have fairly free access to the room of her
new father and mother
even as his own daughters do, but her father will
never step inside her room
nor will any other man, besides her husband, except
under very exceptional circumstances
as in the case of severe sickness or the like. If any
of her male relatives are
to see her it must be in the room of her father and
mother. This does not apply
to the young brothers of the husband who may come into
her room upon invitation
up to the age of thirteen, when they too are excluded,
whether they have
married yet or not. [page 532] If there are two
married brothers living in their
father’s house neither of them can enter the other’s
room but each can of
course see the other’s wife in the father’s room. If we suppose,
on the other hand, that a young man
marries and sets up an establishment of his own, he he
is the head of the house
and any of his or his wife’s male relatives up to the
“eighth joint” may enter
their inner or private room upon invitation of the
husband. They will not do
so, however, unless there is some reason for their
seeing his wife, since a
gentleman’s house is supposed to contain a sarang or
gentleman’s reception-room
where he meets all his male friends. As a rule a lady
can go and visit her lady friends
with considerable freedom, but she must always leave
word at home exactly where
she is going. Arrived at her friend’s house she enters
the inner or private
room and during her stay the husband cannot enter the
room nor can any other
male adult. If, however, the guest is a relative of
the hostess she may see the
husband if he is within the prescribed limits of
consanguinity. A lady of
wealth or even of moderate means will not walk on the
street, although it is
admissible to do so provided the head be covered and
the face concealed by the chang-ot. She
will ordinarily go in a
closed chair or kama
carried by two
men. If she is able to afford it she will go in a
lady’s chair which is
distinguished from ordinary chairs by fan-shaped
ornaments hanging like bangles
on the sides. Only ladies of the highest rank can ride
in a chair carried by
four men. Women of the
middle class, use the common street as
freely as the men but always with covered head. The
statement which is
sometimes made that Korean women of the upper and
middle class are never seen
on the street is very far from the truth. Women of the
lower class comprising dancing-girls,
slaves, courtesans, sorceresses, and nuns are subject
to none of the laws of
seclusion that apply to so-called reputable women. In
fact they are not allowed
to use the chang-ot.
A possible
exception may be found in the case of a courtesan who
may use the chang-ot
but as she is never allowed to
use it with the cloth pad or cushion on the head to
support it she is instantly
recognized as belonging to the demi-monde. [page 533] Besides women of
these lower orders there are
others that never cover the face and who, although
entirely respectable, may be
seen by men without reproach. These are, lady
physicians, of whom there are
many in Korea, and the blind female exorcists. Women
of the upper middle class
or even of the highest class may enter the medical
profession and if so they
are exempt from the restrictions which hedge in their
sisters. It is said that
many Korean female doctors are very expert at
acupuncture which is about all
the surgery of which the Esculapian art can boast in
Korea. As one would
naturally suppose, women of the middle
class are not so closely secluded as those of the
upper class and yet a respectable
woman will never be seen without her chang- or by any
man outside that degree
of consanguinity represented by the Korean sip-chon
or “tenth-joint.” We thus see that a Korean woman of
the middle class can be
seen by male relatives two “joints” further removed
than those to whom her
higher sister is visible. And besides this it is far
less common for a man of
the middle class to possess a sarang or gentleman’s
reception room, and the
result is that relatives are far oftener invited into
the inner room than in
the house of a gentleman of the upper class. In closing this
division of the subject it should
be remarked that although women of the middle or upper
class conceal the face
with the chang-ot
the concealment is
by no means so complete as among the women of Turkey,
for the chang-ot
is simply held close before the
face by the hand and very frequently the entire face
is exposed to view. It is
very noticeable that the care exercised in keeping the
face hidden decreases
with the increasing age of the woman, and elderly
women of entire
respectability frequently take little or no pains to
screen the face from
public view. On the other hand one would seldom have
the opportunity of seeing
more than one eye and part of one side of the face a
young woman walking on the
street. In an
afternoon’s walk through the streets of Seoul
one would see scores if not hundreds of women walking
about without the least
semblance of a veil. These are mostly slaves. Now and
then a dancing girl will
be seen riding on a pony or in an open chair with
uncovered face. If a wedding [page
534]
procession should pass, a number of unveiled
women, with an enormous pile of hair on the head,
would be seen carrying gaily
decorated boxes which contain the “plenishings” of the
bride. These women
likewise are unveiled. But in every case they will be
found to belong to one or
another of the lowest orders of society. The
Marble Pagoda. The unnamed
pagoda in the center of Seoul is
probably the most interesting and remarkable monument
in Korea both on account
of its antiquity, its historical associations and its
undoubted artistic merit.
It is therefore a matter of surprise that so little
has been told us as to its
origin. We know, of
course, that it was sent as a gift by
one of the Mongol emperors in Peking six or seven
centuries ago, but beyond
this little of its history has been given to the
English reading public. We
would like to know just when and why it came, where
and by whom it was made and
how in the general wreck of Buddhist monuments at the
beginning of this dynasty
this pagoda stands to-day a lonely reminder of a
fallen dynasty and an
indisputable evidence that Buddhism once ruled this
country from the king to
the slave. The facts here given are taken directly
from Korean books of
unquestioned authority, namely, the Ko-geum
Chap-ji 古
今 雜志、and the Keum-neung-jip
金陵集. [* For
a fine description of the pagoda itself we would refer
the reader to Dr. H. N.
Allen’s article on “Places of Interest in Seoul” in
the April number of the Korean Repository
for 1895.] In the days of
King Mun-jong(文宗) of the Koryu
Dynasty, in the twenty-third year of his reign and the
eleventh moon (in the reign of Emperor Sin-jong 神宗) of the Song. 宋,
Dynasty—corresponding to 1069 A.D.) the king
determined to bulla a summer palace in Han-yang, the
present Seoul, and the
site determined upon was under In-wang San, the
mountain west of Seoul, near
what is now called Sa-jik Kol. The following summer he
made a visit to the
place but [page
535] on the way was forced to spend the night
at a
monastery near the Im-jin River because a heavy rain
came on. That night, so
the story runs, he dreamed that three venerable
Buddhist monks appeared before
him and asked him to build them each a monastery at
Han Yang. The next day the
king entered the town of Han Yang and in accord with
the request of the three
monks of his dream, selected three sites for
monasteries, one just south of
Chuk-ak which would be directly to the north of the
pagoda, a second one just
inside and to the left of the place where the East
Gate now stands, and a third
at a place that is now just outside the wall of Seoul
west of the New Gate or,
as foreigners call it, the West Gate. An enormous tree
still marks the spot
where that monastery stood. The first and largest of
the three monasteries was
called the Wun-gak Sa (圓覺寺) and it stood in close proximity to the
present
pagoda. The second near the East Gate was called the
Chung-heung Sa (重
興寺)
and at the time of the founding of the present dynasty
it was moved a few
miles outside the East Gate and called the Sin-heung
Sa or “New”-heung Sa. At
the same time its bell was placed in the gate of the
Kyong-bok Palace where it
still hangs. It is some 300 years older than the big
bell in the center of
Seoul. The third monastery, outside the West Gate was
named the Han-in Sa (漢仁寺). As it was not included in the limits
of Seoul, when the wall was built,
it was not destroyed At that time there was a proper
West Gate near that point
but when the Kyong-heui Palace or “Mulberry Palace”
was built this gate was
walled up and the New Gate or, as foreigners call it,
the West Gate was built.
About that time the Han-in Sa was notorious as being a
resort for vile people
and mudang and by order of the government was
destroyed. But to return to
our story; the king ordered the
building of these three monasteries, but the building
of his summer palace was
prevented for the time being by a terrible famine
which occurred in 1070 and
which was so severe that the records say 2,000,000
people perished throughout
the peninsula. In front of the
great monastery, the Wun-gak Sa,
the king ordered the erection of a memorial tablet. At
that point it was found
that a ledge of solid granite came to the [page 536] surface. The top
of this rock was carved in the
semblance of a tortoise and on its back was placed the
memorial stone which we
see today. This stone was an ancient Silla monument
which had stood for many years
in Chuk-ak, in that vicinity but it had fallen. It was
taken and carved over
into its present shape. The inscription on it is
to-day illegible. It consists
of fourteen characters and has been preserved in
Korean books. It records the
events attending the building of the monastery. It
will thus be seen that the
tortoise and monument antedate the pagoda by many
years. This much is prefatory
to an account of the pagoda itself but is necessary as
giving the historic
setting of this remarkable remain, and it may be well
to add that the next
king, Suk-jong 遍
宗
in 1101 succeeded in building his southern capital
or Nam-gyung [南京] at Yang-ju
some twelve miles north-east of Seoul
instead of at Han Yang. This palace was burned in 1170
during the rebellion of
Chong Chung-bu 莫
沖夫 And so we arrive
at the year 1352 when we first
hear of the pagoda. In that year Kong-mi 恭 became king of
Koryu.
His grandfather, king Ch’ung-suk 忠肅 had long
been dead but his grandmother was still living. Her
name was Yuk-in-jin Pal-la
or “The very truly Beautiful Eighth Daughter”(亦憐眞八剌). She was the
eighth daughter of Yang-wang (營王) who was the
younger brother of the Mongol emperor, Yung-jong [英宗]. In her day she
had it all her own way in Korea as
queen and still in her old age was able to satisfy her
little fancies. Now she
wanted to build her a summer house in Han-yang in
place of the palace which had
been long lying in ashes in Yang-ju and at the same
time to repair the Wun-gak
Sa, but as funds were lacking she appealed to her
influential relatives in
Peking with such success that emperor Sun-je (선휘帝) the last of
the Mongol emperors, at the advice of his aged prime
minister
T’al-tail who had served father as well as himself,
sent skillful architects to
Koryu and, what was still more to the point, 10,000
ounces of treasure to build
the palace and repair the monastery. But at the same
time the prime minister suggested
to the emperor that a fine pagoda be carved and sent
to the aged queen dowager
of Koryu as a gift. The emperor consented [page 537] and a messenger
was sent off to Koryu, acquainting
king Kong-min of this gracious design. The architects
from China with the help of native
talent repaired the monastery and erected a palace to
the west of where the
Kyong-bok Palace now stands. In front of it they built
a massive bridge across
the water-way. It was called the Song-ch’um Bridge (松簷橋). That palace
disappeared long ago but the bridge remains to the
present
day unaltered. It has never needed repair. It stands
not far from the
south-west corner of the Kyong-bok Palace and is one
of the few ancient and
authentic remains of Seoul to-day. But meanwhile
preparations were being made in China
for the building of the pagoda. The prime minister
T’al-tali sent for the most
skillful stone-carver in China. His name was Yu-yong 劉溶 but in view of
his marvelous skill the emperor conferred upon him the
name
Ye-jin ( 眞). The marble
for the making of the pagoda was
brought from Hyung-san 荆山 in China and
with it Yu-yang made the thirteen storey pagoda as we
now see
it in Seoul. When it was finished he came himself to
superintend its erection. There is an
interesting sequel to this event. Years
before, Kong-min’s father, as yet without a son, went
to Kyong-ch’un monastery 敬天山 on Pu-so San,
in P’ung-duk district, and prayed for a son. As
Kong-min was
born a year later he was looked upon as an answer to
the prayer. Now he determined
to erect a monument at that monastery in honor of that
event. He appealed to
Yu-yang the architect of the pagoda and that
good-natured gentleman consented
to make, with Kang-wha stone, a counterpart of the
marble pagoda, to be set up
at Kyong-ch’un monastery. It was done and to-day a
thirteen storey pagoda may
be seen there, made by the same hand that designed the
marble pagoda and
erected at about the same time. It is a matter
of wonder that the last emperor of
the Mongols, harassed as he already was by those who
were soon to prove his
conquerors, should have been able to command the money
and the leisure to a
attend to this matter, It was only a few years later
that his dynasty fell. But
there may have been a good reason for this handsome
treatment. Shortly [page
538]
after this event that very emperor sent great
amounts of treasure and provisions to the island of
Quelpart with the consent
of the king of Koryu, anticipating his eventual
overthrow and intending to make
that island his asylum. There was every reason
therefore why he should remain
on the very best of terms with Koryu, and viewed in
this light the sending of
this pagoda and of the money for the palace was only
what might have been
expected. As it turned out he was not able to come to
Korea but fled northward
before the victorious Mings, but not before ungrateful
Korea had turned the
cold shoulder to him and had driven the last,
remaining Mongol from her soil. In less than
fifty years after the pagoda was
erected the Koryu dynasty came to a bloodless end, and
the palmy days of
Buddhism were over. It was determined to move the
capital to Han-yang and the
new king, T’a-jo, asked the advice of his courtiers as
to the advisability of
razing the monasteries in the new capital, especially
the largest of them, the
Wun-gak Sa, where the pagoda stood. Most of them
advised that it be left
standing but Chong In-ji 鄭麟趾 one of the
prime ministers, and the third son of
the king, who afterward became T’a-jong Tawang and
Chong To-jun 鄭道
傅 a
famous general, strongly advised that it be destroyed,
bringing up as an
argument the unspeakable corruption of Sin-don the
monk who, more than any
other one man, caused the downfall of Koryu. On the
other side were ranged
Chong Un 奠芸 a second con
sin of the famous Chong Mong-ju, the
last great councilor of Koryu, and Whang Heui
one
of king T’a-jo’s councillors. In the midst of the
discussion there arrived a
letter from the Ming court at Nanking in which the
king was advised to allow no
monasteries to stand in the new capital. This settled
the question and orders
were given for their demolition. The subsequent
history of the pagoda is of little
interest excepting for the fact that the Japanese
attempted to carry it away
during their famous invasion of Korea in 1592.
Fortunately they only succeeded
in taking down the two upper storeys which they left
on the ground beside it.
It is to be hoped that the .government will replace
them and carefully preserve
this most interesting relic of the past. [page 539] The
Disturbance on Quelpart.* *Translated
from the Revue
de
l’Extreme Orient, Shanghai. There has been
recently a considerable flow of ink
in the Japanese Press concerning the Quelpart trouble.
These statements have
not always been so worded as to convey the the truth
impartially. It might be
will therefore to give the other side of the story and
so help the public to a
more exact idea of this deplorable affair. According to the
Japanese press it is the
Christians and missionaries who are to blame for the
troubles on that island.
To be sure the Christians defended themselves as best
they could, but
unfortunately they failed and became the victims of
the rioters. To openly
accuse the Christians of having fomented the trouble
is entirely unjust and it
is this point that requires elucidation. The Island of
Quelpart, situated, as every one
knows, about sixty miles south of Mok-po, has an
approximate population of 100,000.
The island is of volcanic origin and is composed of a
mass of mountains, of
which the highest peak is called Mount Auckland, or in
Korean Hal-la. San, 2000
meters in height. The shore is rocky and steep, with
hardly an harbor or
anchorage. Postal facilities are very poor and there
is no telegraph. The
country is very poor. The people live largely by
fishing, though they also
succeed in growing a little millet in their stony
fields. Politically the
island forms a separate mandarinate
and is divided into three prefectures, Che-ju in the
north, Ta-jung in the
south-west and Chung-eui in the south-east. Che-ju the
seat of the governor, or
Mok-sa, is the most important town on the islands The
governor, who has no
military or police backing, appears to the people to
be a gentleman of very
little importance. The population, though ignorant and
backward and subject to
very hard natural conditions, is very independent and
rises in revolt whenever
the government attempts to introduce innovations or
reforms. [page
540]
Up to
within a few years ago, taxes were levied in
the shape of the natural products of the island，such as horses
and cattle which roam half wild upon the mountains,
and
breed abundantly. This system agreed well with the
poor financial condition of
the people, but in 1899 the government determined to
make a change, and sent a
tax collector to levy taxes in cash. At about the same
time a French missionary
with his assistant was sent to the island where, up to
that time, the benefits
of Christianity were unknown. The special tax
collector rapidly became an object
of hatred to the people, in which they were encouraged
by the local magistrates
whose perquisites were being encroached upon by the
new order of things. At the
same time the missionaries were doing good work, and
that same year they
reported 1200 Christians or catechumens. This success of
the missionaries aroused the
hostility of many of the people especially the
officials. Taking advantage of
the fact that a few of the Christians had been
appointed assistants to the tax collector,
the officials found it easy to incite a portion of the
people against the
adherents of the new religion, whose rapidly
increasing numbers formed a
permanent obstacle to official extortion. We should have
mentioned that, beside the native
population, there are about 400 Japanese on the island
who have occupied the
positions most advantageous for trade and whose
encroachments are frequently
followed by disturbances. There is reason to believe
that these people
encouraged and increased the audacity of the rioters. The insurrection
was cleverly gotten up in April at
the time when the French missionaries are always
absent attending the annual
meeting in Seoul. The moving spirit seems to have been
the prefect of Ta-jung.
It was from this place that-soon after, to bands of
insurgents started out by
different routes toward Che-ju the chief city of the
island Their password was “Death
to the Christians and down with the tax collector”.
Naturally the Christians
fled before them and gathered in Che-ju for safety.
Meanwhile the notorious tax
collector had trade good his escape and landed on the
mainland. On the tenth of
May the Reverend Fathers Sacrouts
and [page
541]
Mousset returned to the island. Arriving in Che-ju
they found there upwards of 1000 Christians including
women and children; they
were half starved and frightened nearly to death and
unable to return to their
homes because the insurgents were camped at the gates
of the town. The
governor, undecided and timid, did not know what
attitude to assume. His
conciliatory communications to the chiefs of the
insurgents received only
arrogant replies. They demanded that 100 Christians he
handed over to them.
Seeing the danger growing more imminent every day
Father Sacrouts determined to
organize a defence, and with the courage of a chief
and the coolness of a
priest he accomplished His purpose in a very
creditable manner. He determined
to assume the offensive, hoping by capturing the
chiefs of the insurgents to
crush the uprising. The sortie was a success; some of
the leaders were
captured, but unfortunately the frightened governor
released them almost
immediately. This of course encouraged the insurgents
who increased in numbers
and boldness. The governor tried to escape and leave
the Christians and
missionaries to their fate. Father Sacrouts succeeded
in sending off by boat a
messenger to Mokpo with a telegram for Seoul and then
forcibly closed all the
gates of the town. Several days of
anxious waiting now passed during
which the governor who had attempted to escape
returned to the town, where he
began to excite the people against the Christians, Up
to this time they had
been in favor of defending the town but by a quick
change of face they food was
giving out and demanded that the gates be opened to
the insurgents, and that
all the Christian he expelled from the city lest they
should be the cause of a
general massacre. The strenuous
endeavors of the missionaries gained
a little time but finally the smouldering embers of
discontent burst into flame;
the populace rose en masse and the 28th and 29th of
May mark the perpetration
of a most barbarous massacre. The most revolting
particular in regard to it is
that women, horrible shrews, were the leaders in the
riot. Among the
Christians, men, women and children fell beneath the
fire of muskets and the
blows of swords, stones and clubs. In these two days
from five hundred to six
hundred victims fell not only in Che-ju but in the
neighboring villages. [page
542] Father Sacrout’s
servant was cruelly massacred
before his very eyes. The missionaries themselves
escape the general slaughter
only because they are forcibly detained in the
governor’s Yamen, while the
mission house was being looted and destroyed. Of all
the Catholic
establishments on Quelpart there only remains a mass
of ruins covered with a
heap of mutilated bodies. At last, after
two days of terrible agony, the
French gunboats La
Surprise and L’alouette arrive.
A boat is sent ashore
and our missionaries climb the town wall close to the
water’s edge and are
taken on board. In calling at Chemulpo the Surprise
had taken on board the new
governor of Quelpart. He now lands with the commanders
of the men of-war. In the middle of
the town our officers counted
sixty-eight dead bodies lying among the stones and
clubs with which they had
been killed. These details made the new governor
somewhat timid but our
officers urged that he should issue at once a
proclamation in order to calm the
people and they arranged that a suitable burial place
be found for the bodies
of the dead Christians. On the second of
June Mr. Sands the Adviser to the
Household Department arrived with 100 Korean soldiers.
These formed a police
force to guard the city, the governor’s yamen and what
was left of the mission
house. A few days later the Alouette took
on board fifty native Christians who begged to be
taken to the mainland. Since then more
troops have been sent to the island
but with little result. The rebellion still exists in
a latent condition and
seems to a wait the decision of the supreme court to
either recommence or
disperse- Thanks to the inquiry conducted by Mr. Sands
four of the insurgent
leaders, including the perfect of Ta-Jung have been
arrested. The decision of
the supreme court is still in abeyance awaiting the
arrival of further witnesses.
In closing let
us express the hope that Korean
justice will do its utmost to maintain its reputation
by fully repairing the
injury done to the Mission on the island of Quelpart.
E.
MARTEL. [page
546] Odds
and Ends. A
Prophetic Dream.
In Korea as in
almost all other countries dreams
have figured largely in local traditions, and many an
event of importance has
been foreshadowed by a vision of the night. Of course
they are generally made
to order after the event to which they refer, but
nevertheless they are of more
or less interest. No military character in Korean
history bulks larger than Yi
Sun-sin who built the “Tortoise Boat,” the first
ironclad in history, and with
it prevented the invasion of China by the Japanese in
1592. Before his
remarkable career commenced he dreamed one night that
there stood before him a
mighty tree whose branches towered to the sky. As he
gazed at it, a man
approached and began cutting its roots with an axe and
so well did he cut that
soon the whole tree began to quiver and give warning
that its fall was near. Yi
Sun-sin stepped forward and interfered. He drove the
vandal away and with his
own hand supported the tree till its roots again took
firm hold of the ground. When he told
this dream to a friend the latter exclaimed,
“You will become the savior of your country. That
mighty tree was Korea; the
one who would destroy it was Japan. With your own arm
you will drive the
invader back and keep the tree from falling.” This as
it proved, was just what
Admiral Yi did in the years which followed. The
Stone Doctor.
Two hundred years ago the
town of Po-ch’un thirty miles north-east of Seoul
boasted the possession of a
most noted man by the name of Hu Mok. His greatness
was attested by the fact
that his eye-brows were so long that he braided them
and hung them over his
ears like spectacles. This man came home one day with
a highly polished stone
under his arm. How or where be got it he never told,
but it had such a high
polish that it could be used as a looking-glass. Hu
Mok claimed for this stone
the ability to diagnose any disease of the human
frame. All the [page
544]
patient had to do was to place the part affected
against the stone and any doctor, looking into its
surface, could tell exactly
what ailed the man. As a correct diagnosis is at least
half the cure, it is not
to be wondered that the inn-keepers of Po-chun drove a
thriving trade from that
time on. At last Hu Mok reached the bound of life and
was about to betake
himself to the grave, eyebrows and all. He called his
son and said: “If you want to
preserve the virtues of this stone
never clean it, even though moss should grow upon it.”
The old man passed away
leaving his wonderful legacy and it continued the
practice of medicine in its
own peculiar way for upwards of a century and a half;
but at last its virtues
came to an untimely end. The seventh descendant of Hu
Mok thought he would
scour it up a bit as it was getting to look a little
rusty. The result was that
never again would it divulge its marvelous secret. The stone is
still preserved in Po-ch’un and can be
seen by the curious wayfarer. Its name is the Chojang
Suk or “The Stone which
reveals a man’s vitals.” (照臟石). Oxen
could not draw him. Kang Kain-ch’al
was only a clerk in an inferior
government office some four hundred and sixty years
ago but he was such a good
man that even the highest men in the land were afraid
of him. The conclusive
proof of his goodness was the fact that even the
beasts of the field would obey
him. At one time the frogs in the pond behind his
office croaked so loudly that
he could no longer stand it. So he wrote on a piece of
paper: “This is a
government office where noise cannot be
tolerated, for it interferes with work Instead of
remembering this and keeping
silence, out of gratitude for our giving you this pond
to live in, you keep up
this horribly sad croaking which is the only voice
that heaven conferred upon
you. But it must cease. If you do not stop we shall
have to discipline you.” This letter
together with an armful of chopped straw
he threw into the pond and immediately each frog
seized a piece of the straw
and held it in his mouth as a gag, just as Korean
school teachers do to boys
who do not repeat the characters [page 545] well but make
disturbing noises. From that day to this the frogs in
that
pond are never heard to croak. The pond is in the
Hon-byong Sa-ryung-bu, near
the Home Department, and although frogs are there not
one of them opens his
mouth to croak. Well, this shows what a fine fellow
Kang was. At that time the
king’s son-in law, Cho Ta-rim, was a shocking
scapegrace who lived inside the
South Gate under Nam-san. He had the effrontery to ask
the king to make him a
gold bridge from his house to one of the spurs of
Nam-san When Kang heard
of this, in spite of his humble
position, he memorialized the throne, urging that Cho
Ta-rim be killed. This
raised a tempest at once. Kang was seized and
condemned to death as the worst
traitor that ever lived, a regular Man-go Yuk-chuk. He
was bound to a cart to
be driven to execution according to custom, with his
accusation pasted on his
back—to wit, Arch-traitor. But when they tried to
start, the bullocks could not
move the cart an inch. More were yoked on and the
goads were plied but not a
wheel would move. The criminal
cried, “If you will remove this
accusation from my back and write, in its stead,
Arch-patriot, the cart will
go. At first they would not, but at last, as there was
no other way, they
followed this direction and instantly the cart moved
forward as if its wheels
had ball-bearings. The authorities
could have had little sense of the
humorous or they would have sent Kang home with
honors; but no, they carried
out their grim purpose and his head fell. A few weeks
later the unanimous voice
of the people demanded the death of Cho Ta-rim and he
also was executed. If you
do not believe this story go some summer night and
listen for frogs at the
Hon-pyung Sa-ryung-bu. A
Just Division. Mang Yo-jung was
a prefect of a country town in the
days of Koryu, at about the time William the Conqueror
was making things lively
in England. This prefect did not believe in dragging
out to a great length the
legal cases which he was called upon to adjudicate.
One of his off-hand
decisions has come down in tradition to the present
day. A hunter had succeeded
in wounding a fox with his arrow and was chasing the
animal down. The fox grew
weak from loss of blood and the hunter was rapidly
overtaking it, when a farmer’s
dog give chase and succeeded in [page 546] dispatching the
fox before the hunter came up. The question then arose
as
to the ownership of the game. The hunter claimed it on
the ground that if he
had not wounded it the dog could not have overtaken
it. The farmer claimed it
on the ground that his dog had killed it. The prefect
was called upon to decide
the case, which he did in the following words: “A
hunter and a dog were chasing
a fox. Each did part of the work of bagging the game.
Each must therefore have
a share. The hunter was after the animal’s skin and
the dog was after the
animal’s flesh. Let each have his proper portion and
depart in peace.” A
Military Manoeuvre. The famous Yi
Sun-sin was not only a great naval
commander but he was as great a general. He always
made nature work with him
and fought with his wits as well as with his
sword-arm. At one time, during the
great invasion, he built a fine fort in a peculiar
position at the mouth of a
river with whose idiosyncrasies he was thoroughly
acquainted. Soon after
finishing it he received news that a large force of
Japanese were at hand.
Thereupon, to the disgust of his lieutenants, he
ordered the fort to be
deserted, but not destroyed. He then led his men over
a neighboring mountain
and waited. The Japanese, coming to the fort and
seeing it deserted, supposed
that the enemy had fled, and took possession. Gen. Yi
so disposed his troops
that the enemy could not move about very freely and so
remained for the most
part in camp. Four nights later the rainy season
broke, the river rose with
great rapidity and the fort, which had been so placed
that the line of retreat
from the fort would be cut off by a few feet of rise
in the water, was at the
mercy of the river. To the back of the fort was a
sheer precipice and as the
water crept up it formed an ally for the Koreans which
no prowess of the enemy
could withstand. All but two of the invaders perished
and the soldiers of Yi
Sun-sin could not praise highly enough the seeming
pusillanimity of their great
leader which had won them a victory without a stroke.
[page
547] Editorial
Comment. In the closing
issue of the year we may be expected
to say a word as to the way in which the Review has
been received by the
public. As for ourselves we are abundantly satisfied
with the reception that
has been given our little magazine. Whether the public
is satisfied is quite
another question. Some subscribers write us that they
are most interested in
the History of Korea, others prefer the anecdotes and
glimpses at Korean life
while others still urge us to give more copious news
notes. Taking all things
together we do not see how we can drop any one of the
departments without
dissatisfaction from one side or the other, and with
our present subscription
list we do not see our way clear to enlarge the
magazine. As soon, however as
the finances of the Review will allow, it will be
enlarged to sixty page s. There has been
no difficulty in securing abundance
of material for the Review, interesting and otherwise,
but it is to be
regretted that it is not more representative in
character. We want more names
on our list of contributors; we want more people to
ask questions about
anything and everything connected with Korea. We want
more subscribers to write
and tell us that they do not like the magazine—if they
do not―and just why; we
want more people to write and tell us what special
subjects they would like to
see discussed in the magazine; we want our subscribers
to remember that there
are many tastes to be consulted and the whole magazine
cannot be given to
satisfying the wishes of any one part to the exclusion
of the others. We have
to thank the public for their generous patronage and
hope that the Review will
be worthy of its continuance. In reviewing the
events of the past year in Korea
there is only one large, overwhelmingly important
fact, the lack of rain and
the consequent famine. There is not one of the readers
of this Review that will
be seriously discommoded by [page 548] this famine,
and yet right about us at our very doors there are
hundreds
and thousands who are feeling the sharp pinch of
hunger. Thousands upon
thousands of this people are going to perish of
starvation before the earth
produces another crop. In the face of this catastrophe
all other events seem
insignificant. Semi-starvation means a recrudescence
of savagery and already
the rural districts, which it is impossible to police
are becoming the scenes
of rapine and plunder. But what to do for it? That is
the saddest part of it
all. We are impotent to avert or even mitigate the
evil. We can feed a few
starving ones at our doors and perhaps tide a few over
till self-support again
becomes possible but how about the thousands and tens
of thousands? We say that
the United States has suffered a heavy loss by the
death of Pres. McKinley but that
was not a fraction of the loss that Korea has
sustained in the failure of the
earth to supply her people with food. A famine not
only sacrifices human life
but it disorganizes society, it tangles the threads
which hold the body politic
in nice adjustment, it contravenes the law of supply
and demand and its effects
remain, it may be, for a decade. Another serious
development of the year is the
rapid fall in exchange. Of course general prosperity
cannot but be affected by such
rapid fluctuations. In makes the most stable business
propositions quite
uncertain and tends to diminish trade. It makes risk
the main element in
commerce, and imparts a “wild cat” look to what
otherwise would be deemed
undoubtedly good business. Even intrinsic value will
not always keep a currency
up to par, but when in addition to general political
unrest is added a lowering
of the standard of intrinsic merit we do not have to
go far to find the cause
of the fall in exchange. We repeat what we have said
before— no government can make
money by minting coin, for if the labor and the metal
are not worth the face
value of the coin the public is sure to find it out.
It is true the United
States has been able to keep silver coin up to double
its intrinsic value
within her own dominions, but, so sure as two and two
make four, she will have
to pay for it in the long run. [page 549] News
Calendar. Near the end of
November M. Faure arrived in Seoul
as a guest of M. Collin de Plancy, the French
Minister. He has come to Korea to
invite the government to take part in the Exposition
of French Indo-China which
will take place in the winter of 1902-3. M. Faure is
Chief Secretary to the
Governor General of Indo-China. The former
United States legation in Peking was
bought on Nov. 18, by E. Martel, Esq., in the name of
the Korean Government.
The Korean Government will take possession late in
1902, at which time the new
U. S. Legation will be finished. The property bought
by Mr. Martel belonged to
Hon. Mr. Den by former U. S. Minister to Peking and up
to the present time has
been rented to the U. S. Government. The size of this
property is 7000 square
meters and contains five buildings. It is situated on
Legation Street opposite
the Russian Legation. The French
General in Tientsin has sent a present
of four Arab horses to His Majesty the Emperor of
Korea. E. Clemencet,
Esq., the Adviser to the Postal
Bureau has just returned from Tokyo where he made
arrangements for the
establishment, in connection with the Imperial Korean
Post-office, of a branch
of the “parcels post.” The arrangements are not yet
completed but formal
assurances have been given that they soon will be. It
is needless to say that
this will be a very great convenience, especially to
the foreign population of
Korea. We have long felt the want of such a service
and the thanks of the
community are due to the energy and diligence
displayed by Monsieur Clemencet
in meeting the wants of the community in this
particular. Baron Corvisart,
Military Attache of the French
Legation in Tokyo, and a recent subscriber to this
Review, is a great-grandson
of the surgeon-general of the army of Napoleon
Bonaparte and private physician
to the great Emperor. On December 18th Rev. and Mrs.
C. Hounshell of [page
550] Tennessee arrived in Korea to join the
Southern
Methodist Mission. They will be stationed in the city
of Song-do. On the 22nd
inst. nineteen men graduated from the
Government Normal College. They had made good progress
especially in
mathematics, twelve of them having completed algebra
and plane geometry.
Several of them will shortly be sent to the country to
take charge of schools
in the provinces. The Finance
Department is showing great activity in
bringing to book former delinquent prefects who were
short in their accounts.
The latest move has been to call up men who held
prefectural positions prior to
1896 and ask them to make good all deficiencies. The
method is as drastic as
was that of Angelo in Measure for
Measure
but it will be a good thing if it teaches the
aspirants for provincial
positions that retribution is not always postponed
till a future life. The prefect of
Yun-an, in Whang-ha Province reports
that on account of the famine over 1900 houses have
been deserted and their
occupants have wandered away. The prefects of
Tang-jin and Kyo-ha in Kyung-geui
Province report that nine out of every ten houses are
deserted and that
government granaries must be drawn upon to feed the
people and that all taxes
must be remitted until the Autumn of 1902. Many of
these reports are probably
exaggerated and are intended in part to secure
increased perquisites for the
local officials, but at the same time the suffering is
very real and calls for
the deepest sympathy. We mentioned in
a late issue of the Review the good
work done by the Surveying Bureau in the country. It
seems that when the work
began, the survey commission was given authority by
the Finance Department to
collect arrears of taxes in the country to pay the
cost of the surveys. The commission
collected $669,010. The expenses attending the surveys
amounted to $199,146.
The balance was turned over to the finance Department.
This money would have
been very difficult to collect had it not been for the
careful work of the
commission and no little dissatisfaction is expressed
because the Finance
Department does not meet the financial needs of the
Survey Bureau. The Finance
Department announces that in view of
the [page
551]
scarcity of funds it will not be possible to
supply the salaries of the members of the Council
during the coming year. A great deal of
stone is being carried from
Kang-wha to Talienwan for building purposes. Lately
2000 blocks of stone have
been taken, at an average cost of $8.00 a block, each
block measuring
approximately four feet square and one foot thick. The Finance
Department has handed up to the
Government the names of eighty-three former officials
who have not paid up
their arrears of taxes, and begs that if they do not
do so the death penalty
may be pronounced. The Government has so decided and
these thrifty gentlemen
will naturally be feeling about in the corners of
their pockets for loose cash.
Their total deficit is $10,000. A former member
of the Tong-hak sect named Song P’al-yong
has been apprehended and will be executed. Evidence
has been brought up which
clearly convicts him of murder. On the night of
the first of December an aged woman
in the northern part of the city froze to death. She
had been a servant in a
certain family for many years but as she grew old and
sickness incapacitated
her for work she was driven out to die. This gives us
just a glimpse of the
darker side of Korean life. As a rule, we prefer to
believe the Koreans are
naturally kind-hearted. A Korean named
Chang Cha-du sold real estate in
Pu-pyung on the Han River, to a Japanese for $1800.
The chief of the village
writes to the Government asking that the sale be
declared void and the money
returned to the Japanese. The excuse for this is that
the property is outside
treaty limits, but if all the property bought by
foreigners outside of treaty
limits were to be taken back by the Government it
would keep the authorities
busy for some time. Yi Chong-gon a
lieutenant-general in the Korean
army has been made Commissioner of Police. Han In-ho, a son
of Han Kyu-jik one of the five
officials who were massacred on the night of Dec. 4th
1884, has been appointed
Judge of the Supreme Court. In the districts
of Whang-gan, Mun-eui and Ok-Ch’un
robbers in bands of ten, twenty and a hundred are
looting to [page
552]
their hearts’ content. The people are leaving
their houses and trying to get to places of safety,
but the robbers, assuming
soldier’s uniforms, block the roads and prevent their
escape. Also in Yong-dong
the prefect has asked for troops to hold the robbers
in check. In the large
prefecture of An-ak in Whang-ha Province
1952 houses have been deserted by their
famine-stricken occupants. A refreshing
exception is found in the case of the
Governor of North Pyung-an Province, Yi To-ja who has
repeatedly requested to
be allowed to resign but without success, because the
people of his province
persistently beg the Government not to let him resign,
as he is such an upright
ruler. Some of the
important measures lately decided upon
by the cabinet are the following: (1) That the land
taxes must be collected,
(2) that absconding defaulters’ relatives must be held
to payment of all
claims, (3) that men who go surety for others must be
liable for the payment of
all claims, (4) to join into one the two prefectures
Kil-ju and Sung-jin in
Ham-gyung Province, (5) that proper buildings must be
built in the ports for
the Superintendents of Trade, (6) that two-storey
houses overlooking the palace
must be bought, (7) that funds must be found for the
completion of the new
Queen’s tomb, (8) that $500 of the Whang-ha land tax
must be remitted. During the
current year from the third moon to the
end of the year eleven convicts have been decapitated,
eleven have been strangled
and twenty-nine prisoners have died of disease. Of
those who were decapitated
one was a soldier who intruded into the palace, one
was a man whose wife,
according to an oracle, had conceived a “crown
prince,” and nine were convicted
of treason and beheaded together. Of those who were
strangled, one was Kim
Yung-jun the former Minister, six were thieves and
robbers, three of whom were
counterfeiters, and four others, crime not specified.
Of those who died of
disease twenty-one were convicts and eight had not yet
been brought to trial. We are glad to
report that W. F. Sands, Esq., has
arrived in Seoul from the north. In Eui-ju he suffered
from a light attack of
typhoid, but was able to secure foreign medical
attendance. [page
553] The public has
been privileged to witness a very
pretty display of Christmas toys at L. Rondon’s new
store near the palace.
Life-size dolls in ravishing frocks are reinforced
with piles of bonbons,
enough to satisfy the most capacious holiday appetite.
It must take some public
spirit to venture on such an outlay considering the
comparatively small number
of foreigners in Seoul, but we understand the things
went off like hot cakes
and so justified the venture. Of the 107 Annam
horses that have been purchased by
the government thirty-three go to the military school
for use by the students,
two each to the six barracks in Seoul, two each for
the two generals, two for
the P’yung-yang regiment, twelve mules for the
artillery. The very best four
are reserved for the Emperor’s use. The rest remain at
the government stable. The Law
Department requests the Minister of Finance
to arrange for the salaries of three “Law Revisers.’ There are three
whaling companies on the eastern
coast of Korea, one Russian and two Japanese. They pay
an annual license fee to
the Korean, government averaging $100 for each whale.
The Russian company has
paid $3465-95 during the current year. One of the
Japanese companies has paid
$1532-95 and the other one $1142.75. The total catch
of the Russian company has
been twenty-four whales and of the two Japanese
companies nineteen. The largest
whale captured was sixty-five feet long and the
smallest forty feet long. The Ta-dong
River closed on the sixth instant and
200 Chinese merchants and artisans have left for China
for the winter. The robbers are
multiplying in alarming numbers in
North Kyung-sang Province, especially in Kyong-san and
Ha-dong. The Government
Mortgage Bureau is doing a brisk
business as the prefects who are in arrears have been
obliged to pawn their
houses and lands to make themselves square with the
Finance Department. The
Government has realized $40,000 by these transactions. The case of the
murder of Mr. Bland at the American
gold mines in Un-san has been reopened and a reward of
$500 has been offered
for the apprehension of the criminal. [page 554] A Famine
Commission has been appointed by the
Emperor, composed of Yi Yong-ik, Min Yong-suk and Yi
Chi- yong. The Emperor has
been pleased to give $20,000. to start the fund. A Korean company
with a capital of $200 (!) has
been formed with the purpose of providing Korean
houses with the most approved
style of western drainage, and it has requested the
Government to give it a
permit to carry on this laudable work. If their rates
are as modest as their
capital the “funny” papers will get no jokes on
plumbing from Korea. A band of 160
robbers armed with fire-arms and
other weapons attacked the village of Ch’ung-yang in
An-ak prefecture on Nov.
1st, burning the houses and killing four people. One
of the robbers was
captured and sent to the provincial capital, Whang-ju. The men now in
the prisons of Seoul number 117. The police
bagged a company of ten thieves who had rendezvoused
at an inn outside the South Gate. The innkeeper gave
information of their
presence to the police. It was found that they are a
part of a large band
numbering above a hundred who are plying their trade
between Seoul and
Chemulpo. In the town of
Yang-ju an attempt was recently made
to perpetrate one of the most detestable crimes
peculiar to the Far East. A
young man died and after the funeral a band of young
men from a neighboring
town determined to kidnap the widow. The widow’s
sister-in-law, a young married
woman, was staying in the house at the time when the
blackguards came to carry
out their purpose. The terrified widow becoming aware
of their approach
prepared to escape by a back way but she was almost
sure to be overtaken and
seized. The sister-in-law rose to the occasion like a
heroine, hastily donned
the widow’s weeds, sent the widow off to find a place
of safety and calmly
awaited the coming of the gay young men. They broke
into the house and taking
her for the widow carried her away. She made no
remonstrance at the time and so
gave the real widow full opportunity to escape. When
however they had carried
her a mile or two she suddenly broke out on them as
only a thoroughly angry
oriental [page
555]
woman can and demanded by what right they had
seized her, a wife whose husband was still living, and
carried her away. The
young men were somewhat sobered by this and
discovering their mistake hurried
her back to the house and slunk away beaten. Taking
every thing into account it
would be hard to match this for pure, downright
heroism. She risked more than
life for her friend, on a mere chance of coming
through safely. We take off our
hat to her. We have to
report the very sad death by hydrophobia
of Mr. J. Newell, constable in the British Legation,
on Tuesday Dec 22nd. His
death is believed to be due to the bite of a cat,
which he received in August
last. He leaves a wife and two little girls. The
funeral took place on the 24th
instant. The newly
arrived Italian Consul, Conte U.
Francesetti di Malgra, presented his credentials at
court on the fourteenth
instant. Relations between Italy and Korea have been
carried on heretofore
through the British Legation but from now on Italy
will be represented in
person. Conte di Malgra is occupying the house
recently vacated by Rev. S. F.
Moore in Kon-dang-kol. In the district
of Chuk-san about sixty miles south
of Seoul a band of robbers have taken their stand in
an important pass and have
made the road impassable for travellers. These robbers
have disguised
themselves by covering the face with pun, a white
paste which women use as a
cosmetic. The prefect asks for soldiers in order to
break up this dangerous
nest of robbers. In
Ch’ung-suk-kol, near the center of Seoul, a
thief in broad day light knocked a man down in the
street and took his clothes
and hat and made his escape. Two French
instructors in the School of Mines in
Seoul have recently returned from a prospecting tour
in Ch’ung-ju, Ch’ung-ch’ung
Province. The people of
Hong-ju request the Government to
remit the whole of their annual land tax of $32,800,
but the Government
remitted only $1,000 of it. One result of
the famine is to close a number of
schools in the country which have hitherto been
successful but which [page
556]
cannot be carried on without the necessary funds.
This shows one of the ways in winch the famine
disorganizes society. Robbers are
swarming in the prefecture of Yong-dong,
North Ch’ung-ch’ong Province, and the prefect begs for
twenty soldiers to act
as police. Pak Che-sun the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, who
went to Japan to witness the military manoeuvres,
returned to Seoul on the 9th
inst. The people of
Pi-pa Ward near the center of. Seoul
petition the Government to compel the merchants to
tear down the buildings
which they have erected on the street and which
interfere with the traffic. It
is to be wished that this practice of encroaching upon
the street might receive
the attention of the Governor of Seoul as it is
becoming a great nuisance. A
Korean seems to think the street in front of his house
is his own private
property to be used either as a dumping ground for
garbage or a site for a
ka-ge or shop. Or he may take a notion to go out and
dig up a cart-load or two
of dirt to use in mending his mud wall. If the
Government would make an example
of two or three of these fellows the evil would be
stopped. The
Superintendent of Trade in P’yung-yang writes
an urgent letter to the Government asking that Captain
Kim Kyo-gun of the 3rd
regiment in that city be speedily arrested and brought
to trial for
ill-treating the people, one of whom has died from
injuries inflicted by this
captain for resisting extortion, and because he has
persistently withheld a
part of the soldiers’ pay and put it in his private
purse. A military
hospital has been established and two
native physicians have been put in charge. One would
suppose that most
important branch of the army would be put in the hands
of a thoroughly
competent foreign surgeon as, whatever the Koreans may
say about medicine, they
confess that foreign surgery is far in advance of
their own methods. The Law
Department has increased the penalties for
theft so that now a man who steals 50,000 cash, or
twenty dollars, will be put
in the chain-gang for three years and for a second
offence he will suffer the
extreme penalty of the law. On
the 10th inst, a considerable fire in Kyo-dong,
Seoul, [page
557] consumed three Korean houses and four
Chinese
merchants’ shops. This is the same place where the
little riot occurred a few
months ago, indemnity for which the Chinese
representative is still asking the
Government to pay. The
statement in the native papers that the United
States had withdrawn from the agreement to sell their
Legation in Peking to the
Korean government is very wide of the mark. In the
first place the property did
not belong to the United States government. This
statement arose probably from
the fact that the United States government has
requested the Korean government
to grant them the use of the property for a period of
six months after their
lease expires next June. The painful news
has reached us that Rev. Geo. Leck
of P’yong-yang, while at the American Mines in Un-san,
was stricken down with
malignant small-pox and that he succumbed to the
disease within a week. Next year bids
fair to be a very gay one from one
point of view. As the Emperor enters upon his sixth
decade an imposing ceremony
will be in order. As the Crown Prince imperial attains
his thirtieth year it
will be celebrated by another festival. As the Queen
Dowager Hong attains her
eightieth year the event will be heralded by a feast,
and as the Young Prince
Eun attains his seventh year his studies will begin.
This, too, will be
attended with a celebration. The Government has given
orders for the celebration
of these events. A man named
Ch’oe Keui-hyun having obtained a
permit to mine gold in P’yung-gang in Kang-wun
Province went to that place and
found that the gold bearing reef lay under a village
and a large number of
graves. So he ordered the people to pull down their
houses and to dig up the
graves. This naturally caused consternation among the
people and the Governor
of the province has sent up to Seoul asking that the
permit be cancelled. The rice
merchants of Seoul have, petitioned the
Government to the following effect: “The rice supply
for Seoul comes from the
three southern provinces, but when we send our agents
down there to buy rice
the prefects forbid them to buy, saying that there is
only enough rice to feed
the people of the [page 558] immediate
vicinity; but when Japanese buyers appear it is
impossible to stop them and so
a very unfortunate state of affairs is brought about.
Therefore the Government
should order the prefects to allow Koreans to buy as
well as Japanese. On the 6th inst.
a disastrous fire occurred in
Hyup-ch’un in which twenty-three houses were destroyed
and an old man
seventy-six years of age perished in the flames. The government
has communicated with the foreign
representatives asking that their nationals be
restrained from building
edifices more than two storeys high in the vicinity of
the palace now occupied
by his Majesty. Kim Poinin,
having been intrusted with tax-money
collected in P’yung-yang to bring to Seoul, preferred
to use the money as
capital and went into business. He was arrested and
thrown into prison where he
froze to death on the 13th inst. The same night
another prisoner named O
Myung-Su also died of cold. The Governor of
Seoul has suggested to the
government that as there are so many foreigners in
each of the thirteen
provinces interpreters be placed at convenient points
throughout the country in
order that communication between these foreigners and
the local officials may
be facilitated. The government fell in with the
suggestion and so notified the
Finance Department. The salary of these interpreters
is set at $30. a month. From the new
year the Police Department will cease
to be a separate department and will revert to its
former condition as an
appendage to the Home Department. The robbers of
Chin-ch’uu in Ch’ung-ch’ung Province
have become so bold that they have formally challenged
the local troops to a
trial of strength. The Foreign
Office has informed the Chinese
Minister that if Chinese fishing boats approach the
shore of Korea within the
three mile limit they will be fined a thousand dollars
for each offence. The Korean
government has received $30,000，Japanese
currency, from fishing licenses during the past year
from the
Japanese and Chinese. The total number of boats is
2500. The total gross
receipts from the whaling business
during the year on the coast of Korea has been
$673,900. [page
559] Since 1895 the
ferry across the Yalu at Eui-ju has
been a government monopoly and the fares collected
have gone into the national
exchequer. As the river freezes in winter and people
cross on the ice the toll
is collected the same as when the boats run. Perhaps the most
celebrated scholar that Korea has
ever seen since Sul-ch’ong and Ch’oe Chi-wun was Yi
Whang, commonly known by
his title T’oe Gye. Recently his tomb and shrine in
Yong-ch’un in Kyung-sang
Province were looted by robbers. The governor informed
the Emperor and the
latter immediately ordered $1000 to be given for
repairing the tomb of this
celebrated man. On the first of
December the coast towns of Su-wun
were visited by a disastrous tide which destroyed
seventy houses and
seventy-five other houses were rendered untenable.
Therefore it is asked that
the tax be remitted. The Seoul
Electric Company are to be congratulated
upon the completion of their new building at Chong-po.
It is not only a fine
building for Seoul but it would do credit to any of
the great business centers
of the Far East. This is the first foreign firm that
has ventured to invest,
any considerable amount of capital in Seoul and if
enterprise and energy mean
anything they will mean success for this company. It is evident
that Christmas means as much as ever
to the children—and indeed to the grown-ups as well.
There has been the same
flourishing crop of Christmas trees as ever. The
Korean churches held crowded
meetings at which there was shown the same good cheer
and mutual spirit of
helpfulness that Christmas brings the world around.
The Christmas gladness was
subdued because of the great sufferings of the people
through the famine but
there are no circumstances so untoward that they can
rob Christmas of its
meaning. At the Seoul
Union the children had a grand
Christmas tree, the gift of Mr. Gordon Paddock, the U.
S. Charge d’ Affaires, and
thanks are also due to Mr. Coleman who helped to
secure the tree and set it up.
Many of the good things that adorned its branches were
due to the munificence
of Dr. Weipert, the German Consul. If anyone was in
doubt as to [page
560]
whether Santa Claus really exists, his doubts
would have been laid at rest had he been at the Seoul
Union on Thursday P.M.
the 26th and seen him distribute the gifts. He had to
bring along a great
snowball to keep his ears cool. Someone in the back
part of the audience where,
as everyone knows, the bad boys congregate had the
impudence to call this
snowball “wash” but we can assure you that white ball
was as surely snow as
that Santa Claus himself was present. Early in
December, M. Leon Vincart, the Belgian
Consul in Seoul met with a very painful accident. He
was in a jinriksha and was
coming down a hill in Chin-koga when, in turning a
corner, the vehicle was
overturned and M. Vincart received a double fracture
of the arm and other
injury to his elbow, of a very serious nature. It is rumored
that in view of the very low condition
of the finances the government contemplates the
closing of some of the, common
schools in Seoul and of some of the foreign language
schools. Just how the
latter could be done at present we do not see. There
are many other points
where retrenchment could be effected without doing
near so much damage as by
closing schools. At best there are too few and it
would be unfortunate if the
government, by beginning its economical policy in the
closing of schools,
should indicate that public education was the thing
most easily dispensed with. We understand
that the Emperor has given his
permission for the building of the new Presbyterian
Hospital on the property
now occupied by the government hospital. Whether there
or elsewhere, it is to
be hoped that the building of a thoroughly good
hospital will be pushed in the
spring. During the
extremely cold weather which prevailed
about the 20th inst. the thermometer stood at about
zero for a few nights. It
is said that at least half a dozen people froze to
death in Seoul during those
days. There are few places where the price of fuel is
so high compared with the
price of the other necessities of life. [page
561] Korean
History. By a night
attack they took the place, burned it to
the ground, killed the prefect and even destroyed
every dog and other domestic
animal in the place. Then they advanced toward Song-do
and soon appeared
beneath its walls. There the Mongol generals P’odo,
Chuk-ku and Tang-go went
into camp. The Mongol
general Sal Ye-t’ap was now in the
north. The king had already sent one messenger to ask
for terms of peace and
had received the following answer, “I am emperor. If
you wish, to fight it out
then come on and fight. If not then surrender, and be
quick about it, too,” The
king now sent another messenger on a similar errand.
He returned with two
Mongol commissioners and three more soon followed.
They were immediately
admitted to an audience and a conference followed,
after which the king sent
rich presents to Gen. Sal Ye-t’ap who seems now to
have joined the main army
before Song do, and also to the other generals. What
the result of the
conference was is for some reason, not stated in the
records, but that it was
not entirely satisfactory to the Mongols, or if
satisfactory not sufficiently
so to make them forego the pleasure of plundering, is
seen from their next
move, for they left Song-do and went southward to the
center of the peninsula,
the rich province of Ch’ung-ch’ung. The cowardly
prime minister showed his colors by
sending a man to find a retreat for him on the island
of Kang-wha, but the
messenger fell into the hands of Mongol foragers. Gen, Sal Ye-t’ap
had gone north and joined another
division of the Mongol army and again he attacked
Ku-ju. He made engines of war
called ta-p’o-ch’a, a sort of catapult, with which to
reduce this town, but the
magistrate, Pak So also made similar instruments which
hurled huge stones, and
the besiegers were compelled to retire to a distance
and take refuge behind
various kinds of defenses. The Mongols made three
attempts to deceive the
prefect by forged letters pur- [page 562] porting to be
from the king and saying “I have surrendered and
therefore
you must submit,” but Pak So was not to be caught by
so simple a trick. The
besiegers then tried huge scaling ladders, but these
were cut down by the
defenders as fast as they were put in place, An aged
Mongol general, who made a
circuit of the town and marked the splendid state of
defense into which the
place had been put, declared that he had never seen a
place so well defended. So the little
town stood and the great Mongol
general was forced to seek other fields for the
display of his prowess. He sent
a letter to the king finding fault because of the
death ot the first Mongol messenger
and modestly suggesting that peace could be secured if
he would surrender and
give 20,000 horse-loads of clothing, 10,000 pieces of
purple silk, 20,000
sea-otter skins, 20,000 horses, 1,000 boys, 1,000
girls and 1,000,000 soldiers,
with food, to help conquer Japan. In addition to this
the king must go to the
Mongol court and do obeisance. These were the terms
upon which Koryu could
secure peace. With the
beginning of the next year, 1232, the king
sent two generals bearing a letter of surrender. With
it he sent seventy pounds
of gold, thirteen pounds of silver, 1,000 coats and a
hundred and seventy
horses. He moreover stated that the killing of the
Mongol messenger was not the
work of the Koryu government but of a band of
insurgents and robbers. The officials
had to give their garments in order to make up the
number that was sent. Each
prefect along the route was charged with the duty of
seeing that the Mongols
were in no way molested. But Pak So the
prefect of Ku Ju was an obstinate
man and would not give up his fortress even when he
knew the king had
surrendered. It was only after a great deal of
argument and expostulation that
he at last capitulated. The Koryu people wanted to
kill him for his obstinacy
but the Mongols said “He is your greatest man and you
should prize him highly.” So ended the
first act of the tragedy, but it was
net to be the last. A Mongol residency was established
at Song-do and Mongol
governors were stationed at important centers
throughout the country. The
Mongol resident insisted upon [page 563] entering the
palace by the middle gate which the king alone used,
but it
was shut and barred and he was not able to carry his
point, when the tribute
above mentioned reached Gen. Sal Ye-t‘ap he expressed
the greatest
dissatisfaction with it because it fell so far short
of what was demanded and
he imprisoned the messenger who brought it. The king
sent an envoy to the
Mongol capital saluting the emperor as suzerain for
the first time. Chapter
VI. The king moves
to Kang-wha . . . . a slave
rebellion . . . . Mongol anger . . . . second invasion
. . . . Mongol charges .
. . . popular insurrections . . . . palace building .
. . . the north occupied
by Mongols . . . . Mongols not good seamen . . . .
suffering and distress . . .
. nature of Mongol occupation . . . . diplomacy . . .
. temporary peace . . . .
Gayuk Khan . . . . Mangu Khan . . . . efforts to get
the king out of Kang-wha .
. . . great invasion of 1253 . . . . an urgent letter
. . . . king decides not
to remove . . . . great fortress falls . . . .
impossible demands . . . . siege
of Ch’un-ch’un . . . . Ya Gol-da meets the king . . .
. the king promises to
return to the capital . . . . a ferocious
governor-general . . . . exchequer
depleted . . . . Cha Radar before Kang-wha . . . . a
beautiful reply . . . . a
new viceroy . . . . succession of disasters . . . .
viceroy overthrown . . . .
Mongol ravages . . . . the north defenseless. That neither the
Koryu king nor any of the
officials believed that the end of the trouble had
come is evident. No sooner
had the tumult of war subsided than the question arose
in the Koryu councils as
to the moving of the court. Some objections were made,
but Chloe U silenced
them by killing off a few of the objectors. As for the
king, he could not make
up his mind to go; but the viceroy showed no
hesitation. Seizing the government
carts be loaded his household effects upon them and
moved to the island of
Kang-wha. He also urged the people to do likewise, and
put up placards
threatening with death anyone who should speak against
removing. Meanwhile the
people throughout the country were rising in revolt
against the Mongol
governors and were driving them out. This was sure to
call down upon the
troubled land another invasion, and the king at last
made up his mind [page
564]
to follow the example of his viceroy and move to
Kang-wha. A palace had been prepared for him there and
on the appointed day a
start was made from the capital. It happened to be in
the midst of the rainy
season when the roads are well-nigh impassable. The
whole cavalcade soon found itself
mired, and torrents of rain added materially to the
discomfort. Even ladies of
noble rank were seen wading with bared limbs in the
mud and carrying bundles on
their heads. The wailing and crying of this forlorn
multitude was audible for a
long distance. Gen. Kim Chung-gwi was left to guard
the capital. When the king
at last arrived on the island he found that the palace
was not ready for
occupancy and he was obliged to live in a common house
while the officials
shifted for themselves. Messengers were immediately
sent in all directions
ordering the people to leave the mainland and seek
refuge on the islands. The common
people in Song-do were in utter
confusion. Anarchy stared them in the face. A slave by
the name of Yi T’ong
gathered about him a band of slaves and raised an
insurrection. The general who
had been placed in charge was driven out, the monks
were summoned to help in
the sack of the town and all the government buildings
were soon looted. It is
hardly complimentary to Buddhism that her monks were
invited by this seditious
rabble to help in these lawless acts but it is
probably a true picture of the
times. When this came to the ears of the king he sent
Gen. Yi Cha-sung to put
down the insurrection. The slaves barricaded the road
but the general dispersed
them and at night gained admittance to the city by
feigning to be a deserter.
Once within, he caught the slave leader Yi T’ong and
the rest soon dispersed. When the news of
this exodus from the capital and
the driving out of the Mongol governors reached the
Mongol capital is caused a
sensation. The emperor, in a white heat, sent a
messenger post-haste to Song-do
and behind him came a powerful army. The demand was
“Why have you changed the
capital? Why have our people been driven out?” The
king replied that the
capital was changed because all the people were
running away, but he affirmed
that although he had removed to Kang-wha his friendly
feelings toward the
Mongols had not changed. To this the Mongols made the
[page
565] only
answer that was to be expected from them. They fell
upon the northern towns and
put them to indiscriminate slaughter. Men, women and
children fell beneath
their swords. Gen. Sal Ye-t’ap himself came to attack
Choom fortress. In that
place there was a notable archer. He shot with
unerring skill and every arrow
found its victim. Aided by this man the garrison
offered such a stubborn
resistance that the Mongols at last fell back in
disorder. It is said that Gen.
Sal Ye-t’ap himself was one of the victims of this
man’s superb marksmanship.
The king offered him official position but he would
not accept it. The
spring of 1233 found the emperor’s anger somewhat
abated and instead of sending
another army he sent another envoy with four
formulated charges. (1) No Koryu
envoy had come to do obeisance. (2) Highwaymen had
killed a Mongol envoy. (3)
The king had run away from his capital. (4) The king
had given false figures in
the census of Koryu. We are not told whether these
were answered but we may
infer that they were, and in the humblest tone. It
would be singular indeed if, in such lawless times,
there were not many
insurrections in the country. A considerable
insurrection was gotten up in
Kyung-sang Province but was put down with a heavy hand
for the records say that
after the battle between the rebels and the loyal
troops the road for six miles
was lined with dead. In P’yang-yang likewise there was
a rising led by one Pil
Hyon-bo. The King sent Gen. Chong I alone to settle
the difficulty. He had
already been a P’yung-yang prefect and had put down
one insurrection. He was
feared throughout the whole section. As he approached
the northern city his
servant besought him not to enter it, but he replied
that such were the king’s
orders. So he went to his death, for the
insurrectionists, failing to win him
over to their side, gave him his quietus. The viceroy
then sent 3,000 picked
troops to the rebellious city. They took the rebel
leader, cut him in two and
sent the fragments of his body to the king. The second
in command named Hong
Pok-wun, fled to the Mongols, by whom he was warmly
welcomed. He became their
guide in many subsequent expeditions. These renegades
were a source of constant
trouble between Koryu and the Mongols; so much so that
the King [page 566] took
pains to show favor to the parents and relatives of
those who had fled to the
Mongol flag. This same year a second wall was built
about Kang-wha. The king
sent asking the Mongols to recall the rest of their
troops, and it was done. With
the opening of the following year, 1234, great numbers
of people were summoned
to help in the building of a palace on Kang-wha. At
this time the utmost favor
was shown to Buddhism^ Sacrifices were offered on all
the mountains and beside
the with the hope of enlisting the sympathy of the
gods.; The viceroy also
looked out for himself, for we are told with some
exaggeration, that he built
himself a house twenty li in circumference. It was in
this same year that the
Kin dynasty became extinct. With
the opening of the next year the real occupation of
the land by the Mongols
commenced. The north was systematically occupied,
scores of prefects being
seized. The king on Kang-wha meanwhile was trying to
secure a cessation of
these hostilities by turning sun-worshipper, for every
morning from seven to
twelve the officials spent their time worshipping that
very useful, but hardly
divine, luminary. The year following increased the
hopelessness of Koryu’s
position a hundred fold, for the Mongols established
seventeen permanent camps
in P’yong-an and Whang-ha Provinces. They came as far
south as Han-yang, the
present Seoul. They then proceeded southward to the
very extremity of the
peninsula, and camps were established through all that
portion of the land. The
only reverse the Mongols met in this triumphal march
was at the hands of Son
Mun-ju the prefect of Chuk- ju, now Chuk-san, who had
learned the tactics of
the Mongols while serving in the north. Every day he
foretold successfully at
what point the enemy would make the next attack.
People said he was inspired. It
would seem that the Mongols, however, did not remain
long in the south, for we
read that when the standard of revolt was raised the
following year at Na-ju,
the Koryu forces, sent by the king, speedily overcame
them. This would hardly
have been likely had the Mongols been in force in that
vicinity. We
must remember that the Mongols were continental people
and knew nothing of the
sea. Even the narrow strip [page 567] of water between
Kang-wha and the
mainland daunted them. And so it was that the king
from his island retreat
defied the tremendous Mongol power. By
1238, when the Mongols again flooded the country with
their soldiery, the
people had mostly found refuge among the mountains and
on the thousands of
islands which lie off the western coast of Korea. It
would be impossible for
anyone to imagine the suffering and distress entailed
by these invasions. The
records say that the people simply left their houses
and fields and fled to
these places of refuge. What did these hundreds of
thousands of people live on
as they fled, and after they reached their places of
retreat? What breaking of
old bonds of friendship and kinship, what rending of
family ties and uprooting
of ancient landmarks! It is a marvel that the land
ever recovered from the
shock. These Mongols were fiercer and more ruthless
than the Japanese who
overran the country three centuries later and they
were far more numerous,
besides. Plunder being their main motive, their
marauding bands covered a much
greater territory and mowed a much wider swath than
did the soldiers of the
great Hideyoshi, who kept to comparatively narrow
lines of march. Nor did these
Mongols meet the opposition which the Japanese met.
The Mongols made a clean
sweep of the country, and never again do we read of
those splendid armies of
200,000 or 300,000 men which Koryu was once able to
put into the field, even
when groaning under the weight of a corrupt court and
a rampant priesthood. It
is from these days that dates that utter prostration
of Koryu’s power which
left her an easy prey to every Japanese freebooter who
had two good swords at
his back. After
ravaging to their hearts’ content the Mongols withdrew
in 1236 to their own
territory but sent a messenger ordering the king to go
to Peking and bow before
the Mongol emperor. He refused, but sent instead a
relative by the name of Chun
with a letter asking the emperor to excuse him from
attempting the difficult
journey to the Mongol court. Again the next year the
same demand was made, but
this time the king simply declined to go. The Mongols
then modified their
demand and ordered the King to come out from his
island retreat and return to
Song-do. This the king had no intention [page 568] of
doing; but the next year
he sent another relation named Sun as a hostage to the
Mongol court asserting
that this was his son. The emperor believed this and
married Sun to one of his
own near relatives. The
Mongol emperor Ogdai died in 1242 and the queen
dowager took charge of affairs
during an interval of four years, until 1246, when
Gayuk became emperor. This
brought peace to troubled Koryu far a period of five
or six years. During this
time, all that was left of her resources was used up
in sending five or six
embassies to the Mongol court each year. The moment
the pressure of war was
raised the king followed once more the bent of his
inclinations, and while the
country was in the very lowest depths of distress he
feasted royally in his
island retreat, while the viceroy vied with him in the
splendor or his
entertainments. It is said that at one feast 1300
musicians performed. Meantime
the people were slowly returning to their homes. Gayuk
Khan came to the Mongol throne in 1246, and it was the
signal for the renewal
of hostilities against Koryu. At first four hundred
men came, ostensibly to
catch sea-otter but in reality to spy out the country
and learn the mountain
passes of the north. The king was not expecting a
renewal of hostilities, or
else was too much taken up with his feasting to attend
to the defenses of the
north; so the people fled in panic before this handful
of invaders. Many of
them took refuge on Wi-do Island off P’yung-an
Province and there engaged in
agriculture. They built a great dam across an estuary
of the sea and reclaimed
a large tract of cultivable land, but they suffered
badly from lack of wells. In
1249 Gayuk died and the regency again devalued upon
the queen dowager. Peace
again reigned for a time, broken only by a single
attempted invasion by the
Yu-jin people, winch was unsuccessful. The king began
the erection of a new
palace at Song-do in order to make it appear that he
intended to obey the
standing injunction of his suzerain to go back to the
capital. The
Mongol regency ended in 1251 and Mangu Khan became
emperor. An envoy was
immediately despatched to inquire whether the king had
yet obeyed this command,
but as the answer was unsatisfactory the Koryu envoy
who appeared [page 569] at
the emperor’s court the following year was thrown into
prison and a last envoy
was sent with instructions to settle the question
definitely. If the king would
come out and return to his capital the people might
remain on Kang-wha, but if
the king refused, the envoy was to return with all
haste to the Emperor and war
would be declared at once. A certain Korean, hearing
about these instructions, hastened
forward and informed the king and urged that he go out
and meet the envoy. To
this the king did not assent. When the envoy arrived
the king set a great feast
for him, in the midst of which the Mongol arose and,
assuming a terrible
aspect, demanded loudly why the king did not leave the
island and return to
Song-do. Without waiting for an answer to the question
he strode out of the
hall and posted back to the north. The people were in
dismay and said to each
other, “This means war again.” When
the lengthening vernal sun of 1253 had melted the
northern snows this prophetic
word was verified. The renegade Koryu general, Hong
Pok-wun, told the emperor
that the king had triple-walled the island of Kang-wha
and would not move
therefrom. War, ever welcome to these first Mongol
emperors, was now afoot. The
first detachment of 10,000 troops was led by the
Emperor’s brother Song-ju.
With many allies from the Yu-jin and other tribes he
crossed the Yalu. Then the
Mongol general, A Mo-gan, and the renegade Hong
crossed and advanced as far as
the Ta-dong River. Following these came Gen. Ya Gol-da
with sixteen chieftains
in his train and with a formidable array of troops.
The envoy Sun who, we will
remember, had married a Mongol princess, now wrote an
urgent letter to the king
saying “The emperor is angry because you persist in
disobeying him and he is
sending seventeen kings against you. But he says that
if you will leave the
island and follow out his commands he will even now
recall the army. You have
now an opportunity of giving your country a lasting
peace. If you leave the
island, send your son to the emperor and receive the
Mongol envoy well, it will
be a blessing to the kingdom of Koryu. If you will not
do this, I beg of you to
put all my family to death.” Beneath
this last appeal lay a terrible threat and the king
[page 570] realized it. A
great council was convened and the universal voice was
in favor of compliance;
but a single voice was raised in opposition. It said
“How much treasure have we
squandered on this insatiable barbarian, and how many
good men have gone as
envoys and never returned. Let the king go out now
from this place of safety
and when we behold him a corpse our condition will be
enviable indeed!” This
word startles the assembly. Cowards that they are,
they rise to their feet and
with one voice applaud the stirring words and charge
the king to stay in his
island fortress and still defy the savages of the
north. Gen.
Ya Gol-da now sent a messenger to the King purporting
to be from the Emperor
saying “I have begun from the rising sun and I will
conquer to its going down.
All people rejoice but you, who do not listen. I now
send Gen. Ya Gol-da. If
you receive him well, I will leave you in peace; if
not, I will never forgive
the offence.” Immediately putting his troops in motion
the redoubtable general approached
the strongest fortress in Whang-ha Province. It was
surrounded by almost
perpendicular precipices. The commandant laughed at
the Mongols and defied
them, and feasted in their sight. But the Mongols,
directing all their energy
at a single point, soon battered down a portion of the
well, set fire to the
buildings with fire arrows, and with scaling ladders
effected an entrance; The
commandant hanged himself, and 4,700 of the garrison
were put to the sword. All
children above ten years old were killed and all the
women were ravished. Gen.
Ya Gol-da, being at To-san in Whang-ha Province,
received a plaintive letter
from the king asking turn to retire from the country.
He told the bearer of
this missive, “The Emperor says the king is too old to
bow. I am going to find
out whether this is true. I will give him just six day
to get here.” The
messenger argued the dangerous condition of the road
and said it could not be
done in that time. Then the Mongol forces turned
eastward and began to destroy
the fortresses and loot the store-houses, at the same
time sending to the king saying,
“If every prefect in the land will send in a written
surrender I will retire,”
This was impossible in the present state of turmoil,
and it probably was a mere
pleasantry on the part of the Mongols. [page 571] The town of
Ch’un-ch’un was a rather
formidable place and its siege and fall offer some
interesting indications of
the method of Mongol warfare. First a double fence or
stockade was built around
the town and outside this a bank six feet high and a
ditch correspondingly
deep. Ere long the supply of water in the town gave
out and the people killed
their cattle and drank the blood. The distress was
terrible. Cho Hyo-ip, a leading
man, seeing that there was no escape, first burned up
his family and then
killed himself. The prefect fought until he was
exhausted and then threw
himself into a burning house and perished. A party of
the strongest of the
remaining soldiers made a fierce attack upon one
portion of the stockade and
succeeded in breaking through, but they could not
force the bank and trench
beyond. The enemy entered, razed the town and burned
the grain, and the women
were carried away. During this time the king was using
the only means left for
turning the tide of war. He was worshipping every
spirit that he could think of,
and before every large boulder. He raised all his
ancestors several rounds in
the ladder of apotheosis; but it all seemed to have
little effect upon the progress
of events. Another renegade, Yi Hyun, arose in the
north and forced many
districts into his following. In
the course of time Gen. Ya Gol-da arrived before the
town of Ch’ung-ju in Ch’ung-ch’ung
Province, but being unable to reduce it without a
regular siege, he left his
main army there and came north to the vicinity of
Kang-wha. He then announced, “If
the King will come out and meet me here. I will take
my forces back across the
Yalu.’’ With this message he sent ten Mongol generals
to the king. The latter
complied, and with a heavy guard came across the
straits and met Ya Golda at
Seung-ch’un-bu. Gen. Mong Go-da was present with Ya
Gol-da at the interview
which followed The Mongol general said, “After we
crossed the Yalu into Koryu,
thousands of your people fell every day. Why should
you think only of your own
comfort while your people are dying thus by tens of
thousands? If you had
consented to come out sooner, many lives would have
been saved. We now ought to
make a firm treaty.” He added that Mongol prefects
must be placed in each
district and that a force of ten thousand in all must
be quartered upon Koryu.
To this the king replied that [page 572] with such
conditions it would be
extremely difficult for him to return to Song-do. In
spite of this the Mongol
leader placed one of his men in each of the
prefectures. The only question
which was discussed in the royal councils was how to
get rid of the Mongols.
One man dared to suggest that the Crown Prince be sent
to intercede with the
emperor. The king flew into a rage at this but soon he
was so far mollified as
to consent to sending his second son, Chang, with rich
gifts to the Mongol
court, a course of procedure which once more drained
the royal coffers to the
last farthing. The king had promised the Mongols to go
back to Song-do ‘‘gradually”
as fast as preparations could be made, and also to
destroy the palaces in
Kang-wha. The Mongols kept their word and retired but
as they went they
plundered and ravaged. When they had gone the king
caught the renegade Yi Hyun
and killed him and his son, and banished all his
adherents. This was a
dangerous course, for this man had acted as guide to
the Mongols and the latter
were more than likely to resent his death. So it
turned out, for an envoy came
post from the Mongol court complaining that only the
king alone had come out
from Kang-wha, and that a man who had helped the
Mongols had been slain for it.
Whether the King answered these complaints
satisfactorily we do not know, but
soon the emperor developed a new plan. He sent Gen.
Cha Ra-da with 5,000 troops
to become governor-general of Koryu. The emperor
little knew what sort of a man
he was letting loose upon Koryu. No sooner had this
beast in human shape
crossed the frontier than he began a systematic course
of extermination. He
killed right and left, every living thing. The king
hastened to remonstrate but
he answered “Unless ail the people have their hair cut
I shall continue to
kill.” The records say that he carried into captivity
the enormous number of
206,800 souls, both men and women, and that of the
dead he left behind no
estimate was ever made. When the emperor heard of
this, even his fierce heart
was touched, and the next year, 1255, he recalled the
monster. The latter
obeyed but on his way north he built fortified camps
along the way, for future
use. In
spite of the thanks which the Koryu king sent to the
emperor for this
deliverance, the latter allowed this same general to
come back with a powerful
force, and accompanied [page 573] by the same former
envoy, Sun, who had
married the Mongol princess. The king had to go out
and meet them and waste his
remaining treasure in useless presents. So thoroughly
was his exchequer
depleted that his own table was but ill supplied. The
two countries were now nominally at peace, but as Gen.
Cha seemed bent on
fighting, there seemed to be nothing to do but to
fight. Some of his soldiers
were roughly handled at Chung-ju where a thousand were
killed. Again in the
east a large detachment of his troops were heavily
defeated. At
last Gen. Cha came, in his sanguinary wanderings, to
the vicinity of Kang-wha
and displayed his banners in sight of that island, to
the great uneasiness of
its occupants. Sun, the renegade, was now a Mongol
general and was as bitter
against Koryu as any of the northern savages. The
king, in despair, sent Kim Su-gan to the emperor to
make a last appeal to his
clemency, but the emperor replied “I cannot recall my
troops, for your king
will not come out from his retreat”. To this the envoy
made the beautiful
reply, “The frightened quarry will not come forth from
its hole till the hunter
has departed. The flower cannot spring from the frozen
sod”. Upon hearing this
the emperor immediately gave orders for the recall of
the ruthless Gen. Cha. Ch’oe
Hang the son of Ch’oe U, had held the position of
viceroy for eight years. His
course had been one of utter selfishness and
oppression. Many honorable men had
met their death at his hands. He now died leaving a
son, Ch’oe Chung, a young
man of considerable power. When the viceroy died his
retainers did not announce
the fact until the household had been put in readiness
for any emergency and a
strong armed guard had been stationed at every
approach. We can argue from this
fact that the viceroyalty was anything but pleasing to
the king and that in
case the viceroy died the king would be glad of an
opportunity to abolish the
office altogether. Subsequent events proved the truth
of this supposition. When
everything was in readiness the death was announced
and the young man Ch’oe
Chung was put forward as viceroy. The king was obliged
to confirm him in [page 574]
the office. He had no power to refuse. Ch’oe Jung was
a son by a concubine and
from this time the annals contain no mention of man’s
birth on the mother’s
side. This was because Ch’oe Jung killed everybody who
was heard speaking
slightingly of his birth. If anyone had a spite
against another he could always
effectually vent it by charging him with having said
that Ch’oe Chung was of
common birth. Disaster
and distress followed each other thick and fast in
these days. An insurrection
arose la Kang-wun Province tinder the leadership of
one An Yul, but was put
down. A famine wasted the country and the poor were
fed out of the government
supplies. The Mongols though nominally at peace with
Koryu seemed to consider
the territory as their legitimate foraging ground, and
now they came walking
through the land, coming even to the gates of Song-do.
The king sent Gen. Yi
Eung and feasted the unwelcome guests in the hope of
inducing them to leave the
unhappy country. It was a vain hope. They turned
southward and continued their
thieving across the Han River even to Chik-san. The
king feasted them again and
asked them to desist. The leader replied that he would
do so if the king would
come out of Kang-wha and send the Crown Prince to the
Mongol court. As this
leader was that same Gen. Cha who had once been
recalled by the emperor for
cruelty, we may easily understand how anxious the king
was to be rid of him, at
any cost. He therefore consented to the conditions,
and Gen. Cha retired as far
as Yun-ju and ordered all the detachments of his army
to desist from
plundering. The king kept his word, in part at least,
for he sent not the Crown
Prince but his second son together with Ch’oe Chung. Ch’oe
Chung used his wits for the purple of personal
emolument and his credulity also
led him into all lands of difficulties. His grand
mistake was in casting off an
aged slave, Kim In-jun, who had served his father and
grandfather faithfully
and deserved better treatment at the young man’s
hands. The worm, thus trodden
upon, turned and bit to the bone. It was as follows.
The aged servant, gaining
access to the king, told him that the young viceroy
was dead and in a moment
secured another man as leader of the soldiers. Clad
with his new power the
vengeful old man caught [page 575] and
killed some of the most intimate friends of the
viceroy and in the early
morning gained access to the viceroy’s house and
hunted him from room to room.
He found him hidden in a disused chimney flue from
which he was speedily drawn
forth and dispatched. When the old slave announced
this to the king the latter
said “You have done me a great favor”, and could
hardly refrain from tears. The
king then destroyed the picture of Ch’oe Chang-heun
who had founded the
vice-royalty, and distributed the ill-gotten wealth of
the Ch’oe family among
the people. It is said that even the lowest citizen
received at least three
bags of rice or other grain. At the same time all
Ch’oe’s following were
banished. The
year 1258 had now come, the last that the aged king
Ko-jang was destined to
see. In this year the Mongols came again as usual.
They began by building and
garrisoning a fortress at Eui-ju. Then Gen. Cha Ra-da
with a small body of a
thousand troops came southwards as far as Su-an in
Whang-ha Province. It shows
how utterly shorn of power Koryu was, that this
general should dare to
penetrate so far into the land with only a thousand
men at his back. Hearing of
this the aged king decided to try a little artifice.
He came out of Kang-wha,
across the straits to Tong-jin on the opposite bank,
in order to make it appear
that he had complied with the emperor’s command. Gen.
Cha demanded that the
crown prince also come out. He made a line of Camps
all the way from Song-do to
Tong-jin and settled down as if he intended to stay
and see his orders obeyed.
The king had retired to the island again upon the near
approach of the Mongols
and now the latter redoubled their demands and ravaged
more remorselessly than
ever. They swarmed all about Kang-wha and nothing but
a narrow strip of water
lay between the king and that more than half savage.
The water proved, however,
an effective barrier. All this time another Mongol
force under Gen. San Gil-da
was wasting the northern and eastern districts. The
people of Wha-ju and of
fourteen other towns, led by one Sin Chip-pyung sought
refuge on Clio-do island
but finding this insecure, moved to another; but some
Koryu renegades led
Mongol troops there and overthrew the little colony. The
king now altered his tactics. Sending an envoy
to [page 576] China he said “I
have desired to obey the emperor but hitherto I have
been prevented by the
powerful officials. Now that the viceroy has been put
out of the way I will go
back to Song-do and do as you shall direct. But we are
surrounded by your
soldiery and it is hard to move. We are like mice when
the cat is about. Let
them be ordered back home and I will do as you
direct.” Meanwhile
two traitors in the north had overpowered the Koryu
general and had gone over
to the enemy. The whole north was therefore without a
single defence and was
being held by these two traitors under Mongol orders.
Such was the unhappy
condition of affairs when the year 1258 came to a
close. Chapter
VII. The
Mongols a fixture . . . . a royal envoy . . . . his
reception . . . . palaces
on Kang-wha destroyed . . . . the regency . . . .
Mongol troops ordered away .
. . . standing complaint. . . . a singular custom . .
. . pirates . . . . the prince
finds Kublai Khan . . . . the prince returns to Korea
. . . . Mongol policy
conciliatory . . . . again suspicious . . . . tribute
remitted . . . . king goes
to China . . . . Sun silenced . . . . Chinese envoys
to Japan . . . .
accompanied by Korean envoys . . . . Kublai’s message
to Japan . . . . specified
charges against Koryu . . . . Mongol general murdered
. . . . envoys to Japan
shabbily treated . . . . Kublai orders Koryu to aid in
the invasion of Japan .
. . . Kim Ehun destroyed . . . . Japanese captives
sent to Peking . . . .
revolution . . . . the emperor threatens . . . . king
re- instated . . . . king
goes to China . . . . his requests . . . . returns . .
. . serious preparations
to invade Japan . . . . officials’ wives restored . .
. . a remarkable commissioner
. . . . Kublai proclaims the Yuan empire . . . .
Japanese envoy . . . .
rebellion on Quelpart . . . . finances in bad shape .
. . . Koryu falsely
accused . . . . rebellion stamped out . . . . Koreans
build boats for the
Mongols . . . . the army of invasion . . . . the
expedition sets sail . . . .
attack . . . . driven back by storms . . . . the king
s Mongol queen . . . .
Mongol coiffure and dress . . . . argument for
plurality of wives . . . . women’s
rights . . . . another envoy to Japan
The
year 1259 opened with the sending of an envoy to China
but he was waylaid,
robbed and killed by Koryu ruffians; thus Koryu was
ever discredited in the
eyes of China. The Mongols now began to make fields
about P’yung-yang with the
intention of making that city a permanent Mongol
center. They repaired the
walls of the town and constructed new war boats on the
river. [page 577] |