-June 9, 1952- the court is evacuating Seoul, and heading to Pyongyang.
-However, it started to rain, so the royalty had to get out of their litters and ride on horses, including the women! Probably the most physical exertion they'd ever experienced in their lives up to that point.
-Also, due to the rain, muck, and panic, the royalty got separated from supplies and went to bed hungry for the first time probably in the history of Korean royalty.
-Finally arrived at Gaeseong, the old capital of Goryeo.
-Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi both continued on towards Seoul, as did Katō Kiyomasa.
-Both arrived on June 11.
-In Seoul, King Seonjo had left behind Kim Myeongwon, the commander-in-chief of all of Joseon's armed forces, to defend the city.
-Joseon had the advantage of being able to hide behind the Han River and attack the Japanese as they forded across the river, but Kim Myeongwon only had 1000 troops at his disposal! Way too small!
-However, the Japanese began chopping down trees to make lumber for rafts, and soon they were crossing over the Han with them.
-Kim Myeongwon finally realized that he was fucked, and fled the capital along with many of his troops.
-Konishi Yukinaga was the first to arrive, once again beating Katō Kiyomasa to the punch. They had found the city deserted and looted, with many of its palaces and buildings having been burned by its own citizens in the chaos.
-Kuroda Nagamasa soon arrived too with his army, along with the 8th Division commander (and overall commander-in-chief) Ukita Hideie.
-Hideyoshi had adopted this dude after his infant son died, and had named him to oversee the operation until he could arrive and take over overseeing the operation himself.
-The reason Hideyoshi wasn't there now was because of health problems- he was losing his eyesight and also was having severe stomach problems.
-Also, his court urged him to stay in the country, fearing that if he left, Japan would just collapse back into a civil war again.
-At this point, about 150,000 Japanese troops had landed in Joseon.
-Divisions 1-3 and 8 were in Seoul, and 4, 7, and 9 occupied the countryside.
-Hideyoshi then began to prepare to move west with his navy, as it was critical that his ships had a suplly line via the Yellow Sea into China.
-Because there had been little naval resistance by Joseon, Hideyoshi believed that they didn't have any navy at all to defend the sea.
-Meanwhile, Yi Sun-shin was still biding his time and waiting for reinforcements from the countryside, and the Jeolla Right navy (under the command of Yi Eok-gi).
-He finally was forced to make a move when the court ordered him to move and reinforce the Gyeongsang Right navy, but it was obvious based on the info in the letter that the court didn't know that Won Gyun had destroyed nearly his entire fleet. Clearly, Won Gyun hadn't told the court what he had done in order to save face.
-June 16- the Battle of Okpo Harbor! The Jeolla navy snuck up to the harbor while Japanese forces were plundering inland and set fire to the port! Trapping the Japanese ships in the harbor, they fired off their heaven cannons from their panokseons and obliterated the Japanese ships.
-The Koreans wanted to pursue the Japanese inland as they fled the onslaught, but Yi Sun-shin stopped them. He knew that this would be dumb because his troops were poorly armed to fight on land, and the Japanese would gain the upper hand.
-By the end of the battle, 26 Japanese ships were destroyed and thousands of Japanese soldiers were killed. 0 Joseon ships were sunk, and only 3 Joseon soldiers were wounded due to idiotic friendly fire by Won Gyun's troops. This royally pissed off Yi Sun-shin.
-Yi Sun-shin immediately sent a report to the court, along with a Japanese ear and a musket, a curious thing to him.
-June 17- Yi Sun-shin's navy came upon 16 Japanese ships and destroyed them, but still didn't pursue them when they fled inland.
-By then they also found out that the Japanese had captured Seoul, and the court had fled to Pyeongyang.
-Yi Sun-shin decided to retreat back to a port near Yeosu to regroup and make a new plan.
-We actually have Yi Sun-shin's own records still, and are one of the best primary sources during this time.
-According to Japanese records, it's most likely that Joseon hadn't yet fought a naval battle with any legit Japanese warships yet, as they were using most of the ships docked at these harbors as transports, and were probably lightly armored and kind of shitty anyway.
-Meanwhile, the Japanese who marched on Seoul from Busan were still fucking exhausted, so they hadn't moved on yet.
-On their way to Pyeongyang, King Seonjo decided to hold court at Gaeseong and take inventory of what the common folk had going on there.
-The people, naturally, were pissed off at the incompetence of the government. So, King Seonjo decided to hold court in Gaeseong and take inventory to see what the common folk had going on there.
-The people, naturally, were pissed off at the incompetence of the government. So, King Seonjo decided to try and shake things up and move positions around, but this just seemed kind of cosmetic ultimately.
-The court finally arrived at Pyeongyang on June 16 with 3000 troops. They decided to make a plan:
-They knew that the Japanese had already controlled all of the southern peninsula except for the southwest.
-General Kim Myeongwon was sent to (or maybe he was already there?) the Imjin River to defend the crossing with 10,000 soldiers.
-Most of the Joseon forces were still garrisoned in the north to guard against the Jurchen.
-Desperate for defense, the Joseon court began to consider calling to the Ming Chinese for help.
-Some advisers believed that the Chinese would drive off the Japanese and restore the status quo, but others believed that the Ming would just send barbarian mercenaries and then occupy Korea for itself.
-Nevertheless, they sent to the Ming for help. Apparently, the Ming didn't believe the messengers. How could the Japanese cross the peninsula so fast? Were these just pirates, or was this a legit invasion?
-However, the Ming had its own wars and shit to deal with, so the Wan Li Emperor sent 1000 cavalry to go fight the Japanese.
-Meanwhile in Seoul, the news was that many people had moved back into the city for work, and that they were actually living relatively peacefully under the Japanese occupation.
-Apparently, Hideyoshi had ordered his forces to treat the Koreans well and to not harm those who kept the peace and didn't resist, and also to pay fair prices for shit.
-Koreans were also appointed to positions of authority, and this was especially appealing to those who were negatively affected by the hierarchical system of Korean Neo-Confucianism.
-Some Koreans even offered their own daughters to Japanese officers for marriage to ensure the benefits of Japanese rule. Joseon women began to be shipped off to Japan, as having a Joseon wife was apparently all the rage over there.
-Of course, rape was also very typical as well :(
-At the Imjin River, General Kim Myeongwon began to make plans for the defense of the river, but had a disagreement with one of his co-generals, Shim Gak, who instead relocated his own troops away from the Imjin River to Yangju, just north of Seoul.
-Shim Gak's troops ended up ambushing a small group of Japanese forces on their way to Yangju, but the royal court found out about this too late and after they had already sent the order for him to be killed for disobeying Kim Myeongwon, and so Shim Gak was executed before they oculd send a counter message to stop it from happening.
-At the Imjin River, some Japanese forces arrived but were quickly defeated and turned back to Seoul. Some noob Joseon commanders ordered their troops to chase them, but this was a trap!
-Obviously the Joseon forces who chased the retreating Japanese walked into an ambush and were slaughtered.
-However, Kim Myeongwon had known better and had held his troops back, but with their morale broken and rumors circulating about General Kim himself fleeing, the army itself broke down and fled.
-Because of this, the Japanese pushed on and conquered Gaeseong without much resistance.
-The Japanese then tried to make plans on how to move forward.
-Kuroda Nagamasa was to go west and attack the towns on the west coast before heading north to Pyeongyang.
-Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi were to lead the main force northwest to Pyeongyang.
-Katō Kiyomasa was to lead his forces up into the mountains of the northeast and to attack the towns up in there, as well as to secure it so that the Jurchen didn't just come in during the chaos and start attacking the Japanese.
-Japanese morale, however, was starting to drop. Yeah, they had conquered a lot of territory, but they had moved too quickly and were tired, knowing that they still had to fight the Ming Chinese. They were also constantly being harassed by guerilla fighters, and their supply lines were stretched too thin. They needed naval reinforcements!
-The Japanese probably didn't even realize that Joseon still had a navy, so they began to sail along to the west coast along the south to link up with their forces at Gaeseong and Seoul.
-Yi Sun-sin summoned the Jeolla Right naval commander, Yi Eok-gi, to join with him, and they sailed east to attack the Japanese.
-They planned on first attacking some of the ships who were docked at Sacheon, but they were spotted by a Japanese scouting ship. Luckily, they caught this scouting ship before it could sail back and sound the alarm.
-July 8- Yi Sun-sin and co. arrived near Sacheon, but found it was heavily fortified and contained about 12 battleships and other smaller boats.
-Yi Sun-sin only had like 30 battleships total, pretty puny when compared with the numbers of the entire Japanese invading fleet.
-So, Yi Sun-sin was able to lure the Japanese out of the harbor, and then immediately began firing!
-Japanese battleships were called "atakebune" (安宅船), and were actually quite similar to the Joseon panokseon in their build, but weren't as good because they weren't as sturdy and were set up for more for getting in close and grappling, which was a shitty strategy if you were going up against the cannon-filled panokseons.
-Also, the atakebunes were made with iron nails that rusted easily and low-quality wood. They also have less cannons, and these cannons were smaller than the Joseon ones. Finally, although they were faster than the panokseons, they turned more slowly.
-As the Japanese ships got closer and closer, Yi Sun-sin gave the signal to unleash his secret weapon- the powerful "turtle ship" (gobukseon)!!
-The gobukseon had a super-strong wooden frame, like the panokseon.
-Also had a powerful ramming speed.
-Had newer, smaller, more powerful cannons.
-Its spiked roof to make enemy boarding difficult, but it's unclear as to if the gobukseon was actually ironclad. This point is quite controversial, especially because Korean nationalists are super-serious about it.\
-Its dragon head was scary and could shoot out smoke or act as an additional cannon.
-The gobukseon really fucked up the Japanese ships, which could take their puny cannons and bullets and then dish out incredible firepower.
-Yi Sun-sin was actually wounded by a Japanese sniper, but he survived (obviously). Fun fact: during this time, muskets only had a range of about 300 feet or so in terms of accuracy.
-Surprisingly, Japanese muskets were quite advanced for their time, maybe a century ahead of China and Joseon, but unfortunately for them their cannons were kind of old and shitty.
-Why didn't the Japanese just use Chinese/Korean or European cannons on their ships?
-One theory is that the Japanese ships weren't strong enough to even handle the recoil of a "modern" cannon!
-This is also makes sense for why the gobukseon wasn't ironclad, because it wouldn't even need iron armor due to the shitty quality of the Japanese cannons. The wood was strong enough!
-Anyway, with the battle won, I'm assuming that the Japanese forces on land ran away, and so even though he was kind-of wounded, Yi Sun-sin allowed the men to celebrate- booze, women, who knows? But they did indeed party!
-July 10- Yi Sun-shin and his men press onto the village of Dangeo (near Geoje Island, west of Busan), where they had heard that the Japanese were raiding.
-They arrived to find Japanese warships and 12 smaller battleships in the harbor.
-Yi Sun-shin immediately attacked! Using the brutal firepower of their gobukseon and panokseons, they also used fire arrows and man-to-man combat (via a giant hook that sounds similar to the Roman "raven") to quickly fuck up the Japanese ships, and the remaining Japanese forces were forced to flee inland.
-21 Japanese ships were destroyed, and there were ZERO Joseon casualties. They also rescued numerous Joseon women that had been forced into sex slavery :(
-After the battle, Yi Sun-shin learned some new info- it was thought the Japanese were planning on a mass invasion of Jeolla Province. They also found out that a top Japanese commander had been killed in the recent battle they had just fought at Geoje Island. Finally, many local Koreans had begun fighting the Japanese army, probably out of desperation and/or anger towards the corrupt Joseon crown.
-At this point also, Yi Eok-gi and his fleet had joined up with Yi Sun-shin fleet. Combined, they now had roughly 50 panokseons.
-The Jeolla fleet then pressed on to Danghang Port, where they had intel that some Japanese forces were trapped in the village by a guerrilla army that had been raised by peasants, somehow.
-There they found 9 large warships, 4 medium warships, and 13 smaller warships.
-The Koreans immediately attacked, and while they did some damage, Yi Sun-shin felt that the Japanese were just going to flee inland as usual, so he ordered a retreat. However, the Japanese felt that the Koreans were legit retreating (as a sign of weakness) and tried to escape with their ships from the bay.
-Obviously, the Japanese ships were trashed.
-Yi Sun-shin also avoided burning the remaining enemy ships, so that later when the Japanese forces trapped in the town tried to escape, they were destroyed on these ships as they tried to leave the bay.
-July 15- patrolling the remainder of the area, 5 more ships were sunk.
-July 16- Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi had arrived at the Taedong River, just outside of Pyeongyang.
-However, they had no boats to cross, so they decided to just set up camp and see how Pyongyang would react.
-The people of Pyongyang of course immediately began to panic, and the king even sent his familyh (and their sacred ancestors' tablets) north. Even the king began to make preparations to leave as well, much to the chagrin of the people, who began to form into angry mobs.
-July 17- as usual, the Japanese made an effort to get Joseon to surrender, sending the same Japanese monk, Genso, as they always did.
-Of course, Joseon refused, saying that they would never betray the Ming Chinese, even if it meant the destruction of Joseon.
-The Japanese then began to fire on Pyongyang with their muskets, and this frightened King Seonjo so much that on July 19 he fled the city.
-Kim Myongweon was given the task of defending Pyongyang and the river. However, he had only about 10,000 soldiers! Everyone else had fled the city when they heard that the king left.
-July 18- Yi Sun-shin's fleet was finally running out of supplies, so they returned back to their home territory to re-supply.
-At this point, roughly 70 Japanese ships had been sunk, with Joseon losing ZERO.
-Less than 100 Koreans had died, but Japanese casualties must have been in the thousands.
-Meanwhile back in Pyongyang, the Koreans learned that because the Japanese had encountered such little resistance, they had grown complacent and overconfident. So, they decided to mount an attack on the Japanese while they were sleeping and not expecting a direct assault.
-This was actually a success, and the Joseon warriors managed to slay several hundred Japanese soldiers.
-However, Kuroda Nagamasa soon arrived to save the day for the Japanese, which resulted in the Joseon forces retreating. Unfortunately, as they fled back into the city, the Japanese decided to launch a full assault by crossing the Taedong River at the same shallow points that had been revealed by the Joseon troops.
-Thus, Pyongyang finally fell on July 22.
-Kunishi Yukinaga had now conquered all 3 of Joseons "capital" cities (Gyeongju, Seoul, and Pyongyang), and had marched more than 600 km in 2 months!
-July 23- Ming General Zu Chengxun, along with his subcommander Shi Ru, crossed the Yalu River with 1000-5000 troops! The Ming Chinese were about to enter the fight!
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Black Water Dragon II
-Busan and Dongnae Fortress were crushed, and almost all of the Korean captives who weren't killed in combat were decapitated :(
-Yi Sun-sin gathered the remains of his 24 panokseon fleet and formed a defense at Yeosu Harbor.
-During this time, the Japanese began to move out from Busan to march on Seoul.
-Hideyoshi's pan was to have one army lead the charge on Seoul alone while the main army followed in a 3-pronged assault so that they wouldn't starve on the way.
-Meant to be a targeted strike on Seoul, not a genocide of Koreans- Japan wanted to prove that they were better rulers than the Joseon rulers. This, of course, was the plan on paper, because obviously the Japanese soldiers raped women, slaughtered civilians and animals, etc.
-The Japanese experienced little resistance as they began to move up the peninsula, since the local governor had ordered an evacuation of the common folk.
-May 28- the Japanese take Daegu with very little resistance.
-Yi Sun-sin found out about how the noob Joseon naval commanders of Gyeongsang Right and Left Navies fucked up, and began to freak out.
-King Seonjo finally received news of the Japanese invasion during this time, and immediately began to finally make military preparations.
-Kim Myong-won was appointed as military commander over all the Joseon armed forces, but he didn't have any military experience and was just some random Confucian official.
-Below him was Sin Ip, a sub-commander with experience fighting the Jurchen, but was also overconfident.
-Below HIM was Yi Il, another sub-commander.
-Also, the court was STILL being plagued by infighting and petty bickering (instead of getting shit done).
-Sin Ip and Yi Il were then sent south to fight the Japanese while Kim Myong-won stayed in Seoul to manage the city.
-Yi Il was promised 300 elite warriors for the defense of the south, and expected to lead this band of warriors south and amass a peasant army along the way.
-However, he came to find that the troops given to him were scholars- not soldiers!
-The Neo-Confucian philosophy was that education and knowledge were the ultimate source of power, so these men were "elites" in that sense, but not soldiers.
-Yi Il dismissed them and angrily road south with 60 of the best archers he could find. However, in every district he went to he had trouble raising troops because the army reserve lists were kept by the local government bureaucrats who didn't really give a shit, so they were old and outdated, and the people who were on the lists were able to get out of duty through loopholes, excuses, etc.
-Meanwhile, later that day, the 2nd Division Japanese troops (led by Katō Kiyomasa) landed in Busan. These troops were comprised entirely of Nichiren Buddhists.
-Hideyoshi now had 40,000 Japanese troops in Joseon, with 100,000 more on their way.
-Kiyomasa, not to be outdone by the initial attack into Joseon led by Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi, immediately thrust north, taking Ulsan with very little resistance. He then marched onto Gyeongju, where he made the really dickhead move of putting the entire city to the torch, burning a shitload of temples, books, treasures, etc., and decapitated more than 3000 citizens. Then he marched on to conquer Yongcheon and Andong. Really fucked up dude.
-At this same time, Kuroda Nagamasa landed with Hideyoshi's third division, near Busan. Nagamasa was young, only 23, and wasn't really interested in competing for glory like all the other commanders were.
-He eventually moved into the countryside and captured Gimhae.
-May 30- Yi Sunshin received word from Gyeongsang Province that they were in desperate need of troops for defense, but Yi Sunshin refused and instead continued to bide his time, studying nautical maps and building morale among his own troops. He also executed any deserters who fled from his camp, passing around the head among the troops to set an example.
-Yi Il arrived at Sangju in order to fortify the city and make a stand against the Japanese, but found the town mysteriously deserted... everyone had evacuated!
-A scout came back to report that the Japanese were nearby, in a small village a few km away. Yi Il couldn't believe it, and had the scout decapitated (!) for spreading nonsense. However, other scouts soon confirmed that this was true :(
-Yi Il realized that he either had to fight with his band of archers, or retreat.
-Konishi Yukinaga had split his army by sending off Sō Yoshitoshi with 6000 men to scout, and now they were near Yi Il's position.
-The Koreans tried to make a stand, but were obviously easily overpowered immediately by the Japanese, and Yi Il quickly retreated to Chunju, where he regrouped with Shin Ip's army.
-By now, Shin Ip had like 8000 men in his army, mostly warriors who had retreated north as well reinforcements from Seoul.
-Shin Ip felt that it was best to fight with the Japanese in a rice field near Chungju with his cavalry, but Yi Ip warned him that it made more sense to retreat to the mountains and force the Japanese to attack them at a disadvantaged lower position. But Shin Ip was a cavalry general, and DGAF and wanted to shit done his way. He believed that his cavalry was far superior to the Japanese forces.
-Shin Ip felt that Yi Il was a coward and embarrassed that he had been defeated by the Japanese.
-Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi arrived at Bird Pass, and soon also met with Kato Kiyomasa, who was pissed off that they had forged ahead so quickly without sticking to the invasion plan. Combined, they now had about 40,000 troops.
-June 6- Marching first, Konishi's forces then split off again on to go attack Chungju, defended by Shin Ip.
-Shin Ip stupidly chose a position where his army was trapped, with the Han River behind him and a big hill to his right, leaving no convenient way to retreat.
-However, this may not have been a total blunder. Shin Ip was an experienced, educated general, and perhaps he felt like his cavalry was all that stood in protecting Seoul from the Japanese- his real mistake, however, was underestimating the Japanese.
-Also, it was a classic Chinese strategy to fight with your back against the wall. However, this was an obsolete strategy in the 16th century...
-Konishi had about 10,000 men, and Sō Yoshitoshi had about 5,000 men. Basic organization was musketeers in the front and swordsmen in the back.
-The Japanese forces quickly attacked the Korean army's wings, and they fell so quickly that Shin Ip sent his cavalry to charge on the Japanese gunners, where they were quickly shot down before they could do any real damage. The Japanese also tied burning reeds to draft animals and sent them into the Korean defensive lines, which caused confusion and more panic.
-Shin Ip's forces began to flee, and many were run down or found and killed by the advancing Japanese.
-Shin Ip drowned himself in the river in disgrace.
-Yi Il survived, and hastily retreated back to Seoul.
-A group of ninjas then were sent to infiltrate Chungju, and they were successful. They set fires and soon opened the gates.
-After the battle, Konishi and Kato got into a fight since Konishi was hogging all the action and glory.
-They finally agreed on a plan to move forward after calming down, but when Kato went back to his camp he ordered his army to immediately pack up and move out. Konishi then did the same.
-After leaving Chungju, Kato's forces soon met with Kuroda Nagamasa's forces, and they marched on Seoul together.
-June 7- news of the battle at Chungju arrived at Seoul via a half-dead survivor who came to the gates announcing that Seoul needed to be evacuated immediately.
-Seoul began to panic.
-That night, the Joseon court had a meeting- Prime Minister Yi Sanhae argued that Seoul should be evacuated. Yi Il agreed.
-However, most argued that this was dumb because King Seonjo would lose popular support, and that also how could the court abandon their family's ancestral tombs and burial sites?
-Realistically, it was clear that Seoul should be evacuated. They only had only raised a pitiful army of 7,000 men, and Seoul had 27 km of walls that needed defending!
-Many of these troops were rapidly deserting as well.
-Finally, King Seonjo realized that it was extremely fucking obvious that defending Seoul was a ludicrous proposition, so he agreed to flee with the court north to Pyeongyang, which hadn't been a Korean capital since Gogoryeo.
-King Seonjo also named his son, Gwanghae, as heir, and sent him to Jeolla Province to rally troops. Another son, Imhae, was sent to Gangwon-do to do the same.
-June 8- the court packed as much of their shit as they could and evacuated the city. Left behind were books, paintings, treasure, etc.
-As they left the capital, many peasants hurled garbage and insults at them for being such shitty rulers.
-Rioters immediately began looting and trashing the city. Many buildings were ransacked, including the offices which contained all the slave records...
-Yi Sun-sin gathered the remains of his 24 panokseon fleet and formed a defense at Yeosu Harbor.
-During this time, the Japanese began to move out from Busan to march on Seoul.
-Hideyoshi's pan was to have one army lead the charge on Seoul alone while the main army followed in a 3-pronged assault so that they wouldn't starve on the way.
-Meant to be a targeted strike on Seoul, not a genocide of Koreans- Japan wanted to prove that they were better rulers than the Joseon rulers. This, of course, was the plan on paper, because obviously the Japanese soldiers raped women, slaughtered civilians and animals, etc.
-The Japanese experienced little resistance as they began to move up the peninsula, since the local governor had ordered an evacuation of the common folk.
-May 28- the Japanese take Daegu with very little resistance.
-Yi Sun-sin found out about how the noob Joseon naval commanders of Gyeongsang Right and Left Navies fucked up, and began to freak out.
-King Seonjo finally received news of the Japanese invasion during this time, and immediately began to finally make military preparations.
-Kim Myong-won was appointed as military commander over all the Joseon armed forces, but he didn't have any military experience and was just some random Confucian official.
-Below him was Sin Ip, a sub-commander with experience fighting the Jurchen, but was also overconfident.
-Below HIM was Yi Il, another sub-commander.
-Also, the court was STILL being plagued by infighting and petty bickering (instead of getting shit done).
-Sin Ip and Yi Il were then sent south to fight the Japanese while Kim Myong-won stayed in Seoul to manage the city.
-Yi Il was promised 300 elite warriors for the defense of the south, and expected to lead this band of warriors south and amass a peasant army along the way.
-However, he came to find that the troops given to him were scholars- not soldiers!
-The Neo-Confucian philosophy was that education and knowledge were the ultimate source of power, so these men were "elites" in that sense, but not soldiers.
-Yi Il dismissed them and angrily road south with 60 of the best archers he could find. However, in every district he went to he had trouble raising troops because the army reserve lists were kept by the local government bureaucrats who didn't really give a shit, so they were old and outdated, and the people who were on the lists were able to get out of duty through loopholes, excuses, etc.
-Meanwhile, later that day, the 2nd Division Japanese troops (led by Katō Kiyomasa) landed in Busan. These troops were comprised entirely of Nichiren Buddhists.
-Hideyoshi now had 40,000 Japanese troops in Joseon, with 100,000 more on their way.
-Kiyomasa, not to be outdone by the initial attack into Joseon led by Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi, immediately thrust north, taking Ulsan with very little resistance. He then marched onto Gyeongju, where he made the really dickhead move of putting the entire city to the torch, burning a shitload of temples, books, treasures, etc., and decapitated more than 3000 citizens. Then he marched on to conquer Yongcheon and Andong. Really fucked up dude.
-At this same time, Kuroda Nagamasa landed with Hideyoshi's third division, near Busan. Nagamasa was young, only 23, and wasn't really interested in competing for glory like all the other commanders were.
-He eventually moved into the countryside and captured Gimhae.
-May 30- Yi Sunshin received word from Gyeongsang Province that they were in desperate need of troops for defense, but Yi Sunshin refused and instead continued to bide his time, studying nautical maps and building morale among his own troops. He also executed any deserters who fled from his camp, passing around the head among the troops to set an example.
-Yi Il arrived at Sangju in order to fortify the city and make a stand against the Japanese, but found the town mysteriously deserted... everyone had evacuated!
-A scout came back to report that the Japanese were nearby, in a small village a few km away. Yi Il couldn't believe it, and had the scout decapitated (!) for spreading nonsense. However, other scouts soon confirmed that this was true :(
-Yi Il realized that he either had to fight with his band of archers, or retreat.
-Konishi Yukinaga had split his army by sending off Sō Yoshitoshi with 6000 men to scout, and now they were near Yi Il's position.
-The Koreans tried to make a stand, but were obviously easily overpowered immediately by the Japanese, and Yi Il quickly retreated to Chunju, where he regrouped with Shin Ip's army.
-By now, Shin Ip had like 8000 men in his army, mostly warriors who had retreated north as well reinforcements from Seoul.
-Shin Ip felt that it was best to fight with the Japanese in a rice field near Chungju with his cavalry, but Yi Ip warned him that it made more sense to retreat to the mountains and force the Japanese to attack them at a disadvantaged lower position. But Shin Ip was a cavalry general, and DGAF and wanted to shit done his way. He believed that his cavalry was far superior to the Japanese forces.
-Shin Ip felt that Yi Il was a coward and embarrassed that he had been defeated by the Japanese.
-Meanwhile, Konishi Yukinaga and Sō Yoshitoshi arrived at Bird Pass, and soon also met with Kato Kiyomasa, who was pissed off that they had forged ahead so quickly without sticking to the invasion plan. Combined, they now had about 40,000 troops.
-June 6- Marching first, Konishi's forces then split off again on to go attack Chungju, defended by Shin Ip.
-Shin Ip stupidly chose a position where his army was trapped, with the Han River behind him and a big hill to his right, leaving no convenient way to retreat.
-However, this may not have been a total blunder. Shin Ip was an experienced, educated general, and perhaps he felt like his cavalry was all that stood in protecting Seoul from the Japanese- his real mistake, however, was underestimating the Japanese.
-Also, it was a classic Chinese strategy to fight with your back against the wall. However, this was an obsolete strategy in the 16th century...
-Konishi had about 10,000 men, and Sō Yoshitoshi had about 5,000 men. Basic organization was musketeers in the front and swordsmen in the back.
-The Japanese forces quickly attacked the Korean army's wings, and they fell so quickly that Shin Ip sent his cavalry to charge on the Japanese gunners, where they were quickly shot down before they could do any real damage. The Japanese also tied burning reeds to draft animals and sent them into the Korean defensive lines, which caused confusion and more panic.
-Shin Ip's forces began to flee, and many were run down or found and killed by the advancing Japanese.
-Shin Ip drowned himself in the river in disgrace.
-Yi Il survived, and hastily retreated back to Seoul.
-A group of ninjas then were sent to infiltrate Chungju, and they were successful. They set fires and soon opened the gates.
-After the battle, Konishi and Kato got into a fight since Konishi was hogging all the action and glory.
-They finally agreed on a plan to move forward after calming down, but when Kato went back to his camp he ordered his army to immediately pack up and move out. Konishi then did the same.
-After leaving Chungju, Kato's forces soon met with Kuroda Nagamasa's forces, and they marched on Seoul together.
-June 7- news of the battle at Chungju arrived at Seoul via a half-dead survivor who came to the gates announcing that Seoul needed to be evacuated immediately.
-Seoul began to panic.
-That night, the Joseon court had a meeting- Prime Minister Yi Sanhae argued that Seoul should be evacuated. Yi Il agreed.
-However, most argued that this was dumb because King Seonjo would lose popular support, and that also how could the court abandon their family's ancestral tombs and burial sites?
-Realistically, it was clear that Seoul should be evacuated. They only had only raised a pitiful army of 7,000 men, and Seoul had 27 km of walls that needed defending!
-Many of these troops were rapidly deserting as well.
-Finally, King Seonjo realized that it was extremely fucking obvious that defending Seoul was a ludicrous proposition, so he agreed to flee with the court north to Pyeongyang, which hadn't been a Korean capital since Gogoryeo.
-King Seonjo also named his son, Gwanghae, as heir, and sent him to Jeolla Province to rally troops. Another son, Imhae, was sent to Gangwon-do to do the same.
-June 8- the court packed as much of their shit as they could and evacuated the city. Left behind were books, paintings, treasure, etc.
-As they left the capital, many peasants hurled garbage and insults at them for being such shitty rulers.
-Rioters immediately began looting and trashing the city. Many buildings were ransacked, including the offices which contained all the slave records...
Monday, March 20, 2017
Black Water Dragon I
-1592- Joseon is invaded by the Japanese!
-This war goes by many names: "The Seven Years War", "The Imjin War", "The Japanese Invasion of Korea", or even "The Japanese Calamity of the Year 'Imjin'".
-"Imjin" means "Black Water Dragon", which refers to the year 1592 in the lunar calendar.
-This was the first great war of Asia, fought between the 2 most powerful Asian nations- Japan and Ming China.
-Prologue:
-In 1543, Portuguese missionaries are attacked by waegu and decide to flee to Okinawa (instead of trying to make it back to Malacca (Portuguese colony in Malaysia)). However, there was a storm, and their boat ended up landing in Tanegashima, an island south of Kyushu (but still a part of Japan).
-The Japanese there had probably never seen white people before, but they were able to communicate by drawing Chinese characters on the beach with a stick (the boat captain was Chinese).
-The Portuguese also had some firearms, 2 of which the Japanese bought out of curiosity.
-These firearms were arquebuses (precursor to the musket).
-This wasn't actually the first time the Japanese had encountered gunpowder, as they had seen it before when the Mongols had attempted to invade (bringing with them Chinese-style cannons). However, the Japanese at the time believed that these cannons were unreliable, heavy, and a pain in the ass to lug around (especially in the Japanese mountainous countryside). Therefore, the Japanese hadn't bothered to copy or modify this technology.
-The Japanese ended up being interested in the arquebus enough to try and create some for themselves, but had too much trouble getting it exactly right, so eventually they just hired a Portuguese blacksmith to show them how to do it properly. Soon, all the Japanese warlords were frantically trying to manufacture these weapons for themselves, believing that this technology held the key to the domination of Japan.
-Eventually, the daimyō Noba Nobunaga realized that it was dumb to try and equip his samurai warriors with arquebuses because they were much better with their longbows. However, peasants armed with these weapons was a different matter...
-The Battle of Nagashino was a watershed moment for Japan, in which Nobunaga's strategy of peasants armed with arquebuses as an addition to his army really made it obvious that warfare in Japan was changing.
-Oda Nobunaga died in 1582 and was replaced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal supporter and eventual unifier of all of Japan!
-However, he did not receive the title of "shogun" by the Japanese Emperor because he didn't come from a noble family. Thus, Hideyoshi was always insecure about this, which maybe played a role in his lust for constantly expanding his power and attaining respect.
-Also, Hideyoshi knew that he had to keep all of the warlords under him busy, otherwise they could turn on him.
-He soon realized that Ming China was just a shell of its former self, and that it was only a few days away by ship from Japan...
-1580s
-At this point, the Ming dynasty was like 300 years old and had been in bad shape for awhile, but things were actually improving during this time and they weren't actually doing THAT badly.
-The Ming also had firearms too, but they were inferior to the Portuguese/Japanese arquebuses.
-However, one of the biggest problems in the Ming dynasty during this time was that its military generals were ruling over their respective provinces as if they were lords themselves, and the state was rife with corruption.
-These generals also inflated their troop numbers in order to get more funding from the Ming government.
-It was reported that overall, the Ming had a standing army of 3 million soldiers, but really it was probably more like roughly 900,000 (or less). The corruption went all the way up to the Wanli Emperor himself, who would use the army for extortion.
-It was obvious that this was a huge problem when, at one point, a Mongol warlord was able to lead an army almost to Beijing before meeting any resistance.
-The Ming also tried to alleviate their military problem by having barbarians on the borders fight for them and act as buffers against other barbarians.
-They finally seemed to get it together, however, and things began to slowly improve internally.
-During this time also the ruler of China was the Wanli Emperor, who had been enthroned as a boy in 1572 and would rule until 1620, the longest of any Ming dynasty ruler.
-Early on, he was a seemingly good ruler who was energetic and active.
-Joseon
-Meanwhile, the Joseon dynasty was experiencing a lot of the same corruption as the Ming.
-Due to the nature of Joseon taking Confucianism even more seriously than the Chinese, corruption was widespread and there was a strong opposition to any attempt at change or reform.
-Also, in order to prevent generals from amassing too much power away from Seoul, they were all kept close to the capital, which meant that the army was poorly maintained since the higher-ups didn't really know what was going on with their men out in the provinces.
-The quality of regular officers was low as well, due to the military exam being very easy and the general requirements being only to be physically able to fight and be brave. However, this was really outdated in terms of how you would go about looking for whoever is qualified to lead as an officer.
-Also, in the Confucian hierarchy, being in the military wasn't very prestigious, and was usually a back-up plan for those who failed the Civil Service Exam.
-The government bureaucrats also had more power than the military officers. Bureaucrats were allowed to change military commands and take over as commanders themselves if they wanted to. The only prestigious military positions were generals, who were usually just civilian bureaucrats anyway.
-It was believed that a great scholar would also make a great military leader, which is obviously bullshit.
-The Joseon dynasty also for whatever reason failed to keep up their system of fire beacons built around the peninsula (which included 700 mountaintop stations!), which would belch forth smoke during the day and fire at night.
-Civilians didn't want to do it, and it was usually left up to political exiles to operate the beacons...which was obviously a terrible idea.
-During this time the Joseon dynasty army wasn't completely inactive with their army.
-There were constant skirmishes with Jurchen hordes and/or other barbarian hordes of the north, plus constant waegu raids in the south.
-Army recruitment was difficult since so many citizens were exempt from duty, plus 30% of the Joseon population were actually slaves (and thus unable to serve in the army)!
-The actual warriors of the army were good fighters, but poorly led.
-The Joseon cavalry was pretty badass though, and great in hand-to-hand combat (although they still weren't as good as the Jurchen in this respect).
-Joseon cavalry's favored weapon was the pyeongon, a kind of wooden flail inspired by the tool used by farmers to thresh rice.
-Joseon infantry were set up mostly as anti-cavalry troops with polearms, spears, and tridents, and usually only wore padded armor and a felt cap. They also occasionally had bamboo shields.
-Joseon archers were some of the best in the world during this time, with the powerful gakgung (composite bow), which could fire up to 450 meters! In comparison, samurai bows could only shoot up to 300.
-During this time Joseon archers also used flaming and explosive arrows.
-Joseon also had the mighty hwacha rocket launcher, capable of firing up to 200 singijeon (fire arrows) in a volley at once!
-Joseon also created a new kind of boat that had a bunch of cannons and was covered so that it was more difficult to capture by pirates- the panokseon ("board-roofed ship"). Joseon loved loading these up with hwachas as well.
-It also had a giant-ass cannon called "heaven cannon" (cheonja-chongtong) weighing 300 kg and had a huge 1.3 long barrel with a caliber of 12cm.
-The heaven cannon usually fired an iron-tipped wooden bolt that also had gunpowder inside sometimes. It also had iron fins which made it heavier, but also more aerodynamic. Really brutal stuff. Sometimes also fired small stones or lead, like a grapeshot.
-Also, Joseon warships were made of really tough pine wood.
-To attack coastal fortifications, the Joseon navy would usually use a primitive, inaccurate, 300kg bronze mortar that could fire a heavy stone at about 400 meters. The name of the projectile roughly translates as "Flying Striking Earthquake Heaven Thunder", and was a hollow iron ball packed with gunpowder and a timed fuse.
-During this time, King Seonjo was the ruler of Joseon.
-Started out as a capable ruler, and quickly worked to try and put an end to the pesky raiding of the northern barbarian hordes, but found that the political Neo-Confucian system was too fucked up to get anything done.
-The court was split between the "East" and "West" factions, and was stuck in a brutal deadlock and completely paralyzed.
-Because of this, Joseon faced an existential threat when Japan threatened to invade, but couldn't do anything about it due to this paralysis.
-Diplomacy
-Diplomacy between the Ming dynasty, Joseon, and Japan during this time was complex.
-Usually the Japanese wanted Ming luxury goods and would obtain them through Joseon because Joseon had a bunch of Ming stuff.
-During the early days of the Ming dynasty, the Japanese had actually sent tribute to the Ming and in return had been acknowledged as a tributary state (really a bunch of states, but was technically considered one I guess due to being "unified" under the Japanese emperor).
-The Ming in return offered gifts for their submissions.
-However, relations had soured due to Japanese piracy, a riot by Japanese traders in a Chinese port city, and the collapse of centralized power in Japan during the warring states period.
-Although the Japanese still continued to trade with Joseon, they were still butthurt that Joseon had participated in Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan.
-Joseon always viewed Japan as a backwards, superstitious barbarians. This was probably due to so many Japanese resorting to piracy over the years.
-Joseon viewed China as the pinnacle of civilization, and always tried to emulate their style and culture, seeing them as like an older brother.
-There were religious components to this too:
-Joseon wanted to be SO Confucian (like the Chinese) that they ended up being more Confucian than the Chinese actually were.
-Meanwhile, Buddhism continued to spread to Japan from the Korean peninsula, so the Japanese ended up being more hardcore about Buddhism than anyone else (like how Joseon became more Confucian than China).
-Joseon would have perhaps been a similar case to Japan regarding Buddhism, but during this time Joseon's hardcore Neo-Confucian philosophical elite suppressed the practice of Buddhism in the kingdom.
-The waegu were also becoming a problem again, especially from Tsushima Island where the lord there had lost control of the island during Japan's Warring States period, so during the chaos there the waegu were thriving.
-Because China was the center of the Asian world and the Ming dynasty its rulers, the power-hungry Hideyoshi felt that it should belong to him.
-Mounting Tensions
-Tensions rose between Joseon and Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi sent emissaries all over Asia, but Joseon didn't even know who Hideyoshi was and probably thought he was just some noob.
-After meeting his emissaries Joseon believed that Hideyoshi wasn't actually a real shogun that should be shown respect a legitimate representative of Japan (a fellow tributary state of the Ming dynasty). In their eyes, Hideyoshi was just some upstart rebel.
-1586- Hideyoshi commanded Lord Sō Yoshitoshi of Tsushima Island to go to Joseon and demand submission to Japan, and also for Joseon to begin preparations for the invasion of Ming China.
-Yoshitoshi was screwed either way because if Joseon said yes, then he would lose his trade monopoly with Joseon, but if they said no then they would then see him as their enemy and close their ports to him.
-Yoshitoshi decided to take a risk, and altered the message, saying that Joseon was to send an ambassador to Hideyoshi with a message of goodwill instead of submission.
-In order to have a degree of deniability, Yoshitoshi sent a messenger instead of himself so that he could blame the messenger in case the shit hit the fan.
-However, the messenger was a noob who acted like an asshole when he arrived in Joseon, so this naturally probably pissed off the Joseon court. Embarrassed, Yoshitoshi had the noob messenger executed when he returned to Tsushima Island.
-The Joseon court reaction about Hideyoshi was split, but to bide their time they sent a message to Yoshitoshi saying that they couldn't send a diplomatic mission to Japan because Japan was too far away and also that they were poor sailors (haha).
-Many Joseon courtiers felt that Hideyoshi was bluffing- he was still fighting resistance forces in Japan (they believed)! How could he possibly have enough power to conquer the Ming dynasty?
-Hideyoshi decided to test the Joseon defenses, and sent scouts to make light attacks against Joseon ships. The scouts reported that the Joseon ships were timid and weak.
-The Joseon response? Jack shit. Some courtiers wanted to conscript peasants to guard the coast, but there was still the threat of the Jurchen hordes in the north, and so the Joseon decided it was best to make sure that the defense of the north was their main priority.
-1588- Hideyoshi sends a new envoy to Joseon, this time Yoshitoshi himself. However, King Seonjo still refused to send a friendly envoy to Japan.
-In 1589, Yoshitoshi tried once more to persuade King Seonjo to get in bed with Japan.
-The Joseon government finally said that they would consider sending an envoy to Japan, but only if they could first receive some Korean criminals who had fled the kingdom and become waegu. Yoshitoshi arranged for some random Koreans living in Japan to be brought back (who knows if they were actually criminals), The "criminals" were then executed at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.
-At the event, King Seonjo was given a gift from the Japanese- an arquebus. In return, King Seonjo selected a beautiful warhorse from his personal stable.
-Oddly enough, the Joseon government didn't really bother to check out the arquebus with much interest, seeing it as a barbarian toy more than anything else. Big mistake!
-Meanwhile, Joseon spies began reporting back that the Japanese threat was legit- Hideyoshi was building hundreds of warships, raising a huge army!
-The Joseon court was completely paralyzed with so many options, but most of the court seemed to believe that the Japanese didn't pose a significant threat to Joseon.
-Another problem was that there was too much petty Neo-Confucian bickering and shit that obstructed any realistic, effective legislation.
-Finally, in 1590 King Seonjo agreed to send a diplomatic envoy of friendship and goodwill to Japan. Hwang Yun-gil (leader of the Western faction) and Kim Seong-il (leader of the Eastern faction) were sent from Busan to Japan. They first arrived, however, at Tsushima Island, where they stayed for a month. While they were there, there was some drama with the seating arrangements not being correct or something, and Kim Seong-il had a meltdown!
-In order to calm things down, Yoshitoshi had some servants executed, which I guess smoothed things over.
-They finally arrived in Kyoto in August, but Hideyoshi was gone, putting down some rebels. They had to wait for another few months (until December!), and during that time were forced to stay in a boring temple and eat boring food.
-Finally, they met with Hideyoshi and gave him his gifts and shit. Because of the misunderstanding due to Yoshitoshi, Hideyoshi didn't feel the need to see the envoys again due to them being there to give him tribute, and gave them a letter instead for King Seonjo warning that Joseon was to aid him in conquering Ming China, or else face obliteration!!
-Kim Seong-il felt that this wasn't serious, and that Hideyoshi was just being a moron. However, Hwang Yun-gil knew that war was imminent, and immediately sent messengers to Seoul to warn the king.
-King Seonjo finally made a decision- there was no way he could betray the Ming dynasty! They were like an older brother/father to Joseon!
-Joseon began to make preparations for war in the south, especially in Gyeongsang Province near Daegu, Dongnae, Busan, and Jinju, with earthen walls, fortifications, etc.
-One official who oversaw these preparations was one of the greatest naval commanders / Korean heroes of all time- Yi Sun-sin!!
-Born to an upper-middle class family in Seoul. Had served the government since the Goryeo dynasty until his grandfather had been purged from service in 1519, and afterwards the family had declined a bit.
-Yi Sun-sin went into the military because he had older brothers who were prepping for the civil service exam, and his family couldn't support all of them doing so.
-In the military he became renowned as a skilled swordsman and archer.
-Established himself early as a capable military officer when he was stationed in Hamgyong Province (in modern-day North Korea) fighting the Jurchen.
-1580- Became a naval officer and was stuck in Jeolla Province.
-Although he was obviously a badass, his stubbornness and unwavering ethics/morals caused the higher-ups to dislike him since he was not susceptible to corruption.
-1583- Sent back to the north to fight the Jurchen again.
-Actually managed to capture a Jurchen chief- Mu Pai Nai.
-Had to leave the army for 3 years (because his father died), but he returned in 1586.
-He had further success against the Jurchen and was noted for his bravery, but the other officers were jealous assholes and so they lied and had claimed that Yi Sun-sin had deserted a battle, so he was demoted, imprisoned, and tortured. He continued to serve after this, however, as a normal soldier.
-However, Yi Sun-sin's luck changed when his old childhood friend, Ryu Seong-ryong, had become a high-ranking minister who decided to help him out.
-1590- Yi Sun-shin was appointed as a military commander in Jeolla Province, stationed at a garrison on Wan Island.
-Before that he had also been appointed as a garrison commander at several other places too, but this was his first big position before finally hitting it big as an admiral.
-1591- Yi Sun-sin was appointed as naval commander of the "Left Jeolla" (eastern half of Jeolla Province) thanks to Ryu Seong-ryong's favor with King Seonjo.
-This was considered a cushy job since the Left Jeolla navy was kind of a joke and poorly managed.
-However, Yi Sun-sin immediately began to turn things around by running it pretty tightly, with harsh punishments, executions (for major defenses), but also rewards as well.
-Also began to repair badly maintained ships, construct new ships, and build fortifications and defensive stations and weapons.
-Soon, Yi Sun-sin had transformed the navy under his command into the best in the kingdom, and also had a strength of 24 panokseon ships.
-Why didn't the Ming dynasty combine forces with Joseon to fight Japan?
-Because the Ming found out about what was going on via messengers from the Ryukyu Islands, who had heard from the Japanese messengers that Joseon had allegedly agreed to attack the Ming along with Hideyoshi.
-This was because Hideyoshi had believed Joseon had sent him tribute, not a "good will" mission like Joseon had thought they were doing.
-The Ming, naturally, were really pissed off! Joseon hadn't mentioned anything to them about this, so they felt betrayed!
-Finally, soon after the Ming found out about what was going on from the Ryukyu messengers, the Joseon messengers arrived. Japan was about to attack Joseon!
-Joseon had many allies in the Ming court, but the Wanli Emperor was still very suspicious.
-1591- Ming sent diplomats twice to Joseon to see when the deal was.
-Fall of 1591- Hideyoshi had finally had enough of Joseon, and soon Japanese merchants and travelers began to be mysteriously absent from Busan...
-Hideyoshi's plan:
-Initially wanted to invade the Ryukyu Islands before hitting Taiwan and then southern China, which at the same time another force would travel through Joseon (assuming they were friendly) and attack Beijing.
-Finalized plan: the above was too complicated. Just go straight through Joseon, full-strength!
-After taking Joseon and the Ming, Hideyoshi had his sights set on conquering Vietnam, Thailand, and even India!
-Hideyoshi then changed his HQ from Kyoto to Karatsu, Kyushu, and constructed Karatsu Castle as his center of power.
-He raised a massive army of 335,000 men. 100,000 were to remain in Japan as a defensive force should the Ming decide to launch a counterattack.
-3 divisions leading the attack:
-First division:
-Led by Konishi Yukinaga (AKA Agostinho (converted to Catholicism), from Osaka, Kansai region) and Sō Yoshitoshi (AKA Dario (converted to Catholicism under the influence of Konishi Yukinaga), from Tsushima Island), and some other minor generals.
-Second Division:
-Led by Katō Kiyomasa (from Nagoya, Chūbu region), Nabeshima Naoshige (from Hizen, Kyushu). and other minor generals.
-Third Division:
-Led by Kuroda Nagamasa (from Himeji, Kansai region), and some dude named Otomo Yoshimada.
-During this time, some of the commanders were Christians (see above), and many of the Japanese soldiers actually were as well. These were not the samurai of the Japanese old days- this was the NEW Japanese army, made up of both samurai and peasants, some of whom were Christian.
-Hideyoshi actually hated Christianity himself, but saw Christians as important in his success. However, some speculate that Hideyoshi sent many of these Christian commanders and troops as the first in line during the invasion (shock troops, kind of) so that they'd die before the non-Christian troops.
-Before the arrival of the Japanese troops, the Joseon court was still discussing the potential threat. General Sin Rip believed that the Japanese were short, weak, and bad fighters. Also, he believed that their guns were lousy and inferior to Korean bows.
-The main problem and reason for why the Japanese were so dangerous to Joseon was because of incompetence.
-Too many government officials stupidly believed that Hideyoshi was an idiot and didn't have the strength or intelligence to pull off an invasion.
-Also, the generals or officials in charge of preparations were incompetent, or didn't believe the Japanese were a threat.
-Meanwhile, Yi Sun-sin had been developing an experimental new ship, which was to be revealed very soon...
-April 13, 1592- Hideyoshi launches his attack from Tsushima Island!
-Due to bad tower upkeep and management, the tower beacon warning system wasn't able to carry the message to Seoul and was only confined to Gyeongsang Province.
-The Japense ships (about 90) began to group at Busan Harbor.
-By evening, around 300 had arrived. By night, 400!
-Both Gyeongsang navies (right and left) didn't attack and just watched, unable to believe the size.
-They believed that maybe it was a huge tribute mission from Japan as an apology (yeah fucking right!).
-They had 150 panokseon ships that could have easily taken on the shitty Japanese ships (which didn't even have cannons).
-That night, the Japanese met with the commander of the forces of Busan one last time to demand that Joseon allow the Japanese passage into Ming China. Joseon officials refused, so the Japanese decided that time was up and war had begun!
-The Japanese troops began to disembark and lay siege to Busan.
-While Sō Yoshitoshi laid siege to Busan, Konishi Yukinaga laid siege to Dadaejin Fortress.
-At Busan, Sō Yoshitoshi asked the Busan commander (Jeong Bal) one last, final time to surrendur to the Japanese, but Jeong Bal refused. So, the Japanese attacked!
-Joseon quickly realized that their poorly-trained conscripts, armed with bows and spears, were no match for the Japanese arquebus firepower.
-By the next morning, Busan had fallen and Jeong Bal was dead, and the Japanese had really fucked up the city, killing men, women, and even dogs and cats!
-During this time, the Japanese ships remained unprotected in the harbor, but the cowardly Park Hong was not too scared to strike and fled north with his fleet.
-There was also a sea battle fought against Won Gyun of the Gyeongsang Right Navy, but he was defeated due to the aggressive Japanese tactics of assaulting the ships and drawing them into hand-to-hand combat.
-40 panokseon were destroyed.
-Won Gyun led the retreat to Geoje Island, and then Hansan Island. As boats loomed closer, Won Gyun believed they were Japanese, so he began sinking the panokseons...but stopped when he found out that they were just Joseon fishing boats.
-Only 4 panokseons remained lol.
-Only the Jeolla commanders remained now, and they only had 100 panokseons between them.
-Also, even though Busan had fallen, Dongnae Fortress nearby remained as a rallying point for Joseon forces.
-However, once the poorly-trained conscript peasant forces realized that Busan had been crushed, the army began to dissolve as people panicked and fled.
-The governor of the area even declared Dongnae as officially fucked, and fled to Seoul.
-Forces remained at Dongnae Fortress, however, but refused to submit to the Japanese and were quickly annihilated :(
-This war goes by many names: "The Seven Years War", "The Imjin War", "The Japanese Invasion of Korea", or even "The Japanese Calamity of the Year 'Imjin'".
-"Imjin" means "Black Water Dragon", which refers to the year 1592 in the lunar calendar.
-This was the first great war of Asia, fought between the 2 most powerful Asian nations- Japan and Ming China.
-Prologue:
-In 1543, Portuguese missionaries are attacked by waegu and decide to flee to Okinawa (instead of trying to make it back to Malacca (Portuguese colony in Malaysia)). However, there was a storm, and their boat ended up landing in Tanegashima, an island south of Kyushu (but still a part of Japan).
-The Japanese there had probably never seen white people before, but they were able to communicate by drawing Chinese characters on the beach with a stick (the boat captain was Chinese).
-The Portuguese also had some firearms, 2 of which the Japanese bought out of curiosity.
-These firearms were arquebuses (precursor to the musket).
-This wasn't actually the first time the Japanese had encountered gunpowder, as they had seen it before when the Mongols had attempted to invade (bringing with them Chinese-style cannons). However, the Japanese at the time believed that these cannons were unreliable, heavy, and a pain in the ass to lug around (especially in the Japanese mountainous countryside). Therefore, the Japanese hadn't bothered to copy or modify this technology.
-The Japanese ended up being interested in the arquebus enough to try and create some for themselves, but had too much trouble getting it exactly right, so eventually they just hired a Portuguese blacksmith to show them how to do it properly. Soon, all the Japanese warlords were frantically trying to manufacture these weapons for themselves, believing that this technology held the key to the domination of Japan.
-Eventually, the daimyō Noba Nobunaga realized that it was dumb to try and equip his samurai warriors with arquebuses because they were much better with their longbows. However, peasants armed with these weapons was a different matter...
-The Battle of Nagashino was a watershed moment for Japan, in which Nobunaga's strategy of peasants armed with arquebuses as an addition to his army really made it obvious that warfare in Japan was changing.
-Oda Nobunaga died in 1582 and was replaced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a loyal supporter and eventual unifier of all of Japan!
-However, he did not receive the title of "shogun" by the Japanese Emperor because he didn't come from a noble family. Thus, Hideyoshi was always insecure about this, which maybe played a role in his lust for constantly expanding his power and attaining respect.
-Also, Hideyoshi knew that he had to keep all of the warlords under him busy, otherwise they could turn on him.
-He soon realized that Ming China was just a shell of its former self, and that it was only a few days away by ship from Japan...
-1580s
-At this point, the Ming dynasty was like 300 years old and had been in bad shape for awhile, but things were actually improving during this time and they weren't actually doing THAT badly.
-The Ming also had firearms too, but they were inferior to the Portuguese/Japanese arquebuses.
-However, one of the biggest problems in the Ming dynasty during this time was that its military generals were ruling over their respective provinces as if they were lords themselves, and the state was rife with corruption.
-These generals also inflated their troop numbers in order to get more funding from the Ming government.
-It was reported that overall, the Ming had a standing army of 3 million soldiers, but really it was probably more like roughly 900,000 (or less). The corruption went all the way up to the Wanli Emperor himself, who would use the army for extortion.
-It was obvious that this was a huge problem when, at one point, a Mongol warlord was able to lead an army almost to Beijing before meeting any resistance.
-The Ming also tried to alleviate their military problem by having barbarians on the borders fight for them and act as buffers against other barbarians.
-They finally seemed to get it together, however, and things began to slowly improve internally.
-During this time also the ruler of China was the Wanli Emperor, who had been enthroned as a boy in 1572 and would rule until 1620, the longest of any Ming dynasty ruler.
-Early on, he was a seemingly good ruler who was energetic and active.
-Joseon
-Meanwhile, the Joseon dynasty was experiencing a lot of the same corruption as the Ming.
-Due to the nature of Joseon taking Confucianism even more seriously than the Chinese, corruption was widespread and there was a strong opposition to any attempt at change or reform.
-Also, in order to prevent generals from amassing too much power away from Seoul, they were all kept close to the capital, which meant that the army was poorly maintained since the higher-ups didn't really know what was going on with their men out in the provinces.
-The quality of regular officers was low as well, due to the military exam being very easy and the general requirements being only to be physically able to fight and be brave. However, this was really outdated in terms of how you would go about looking for whoever is qualified to lead as an officer.
-Also, in the Confucian hierarchy, being in the military wasn't very prestigious, and was usually a back-up plan for those who failed the Civil Service Exam.
-The government bureaucrats also had more power than the military officers. Bureaucrats were allowed to change military commands and take over as commanders themselves if they wanted to. The only prestigious military positions were generals, who were usually just civilian bureaucrats anyway.
-It was believed that a great scholar would also make a great military leader, which is obviously bullshit.
-The Joseon dynasty also for whatever reason failed to keep up their system of fire beacons built around the peninsula (which included 700 mountaintop stations!), which would belch forth smoke during the day and fire at night.
-Civilians didn't want to do it, and it was usually left up to political exiles to operate the beacons...which was obviously a terrible idea.
-During this time the Joseon dynasty army wasn't completely inactive with their army.
-There were constant skirmishes with Jurchen hordes and/or other barbarian hordes of the north, plus constant waegu raids in the south.
-Army recruitment was difficult since so many citizens were exempt from duty, plus 30% of the Joseon population were actually slaves (and thus unable to serve in the army)!
-The actual warriors of the army were good fighters, but poorly led.
-The Joseon cavalry was pretty badass though, and great in hand-to-hand combat (although they still weren't as good as the Jurchen in this respect).
-Joseon cavalry's favored weapon was the pyeongon, a kind of wooden flail inspired by the tool used by farmers to thresh rice.
-Joseon infantry were set up mostly as anti-cavalry troops with polearms, spears, and tridents, and usually only wore padded armor and a felt cap. They also occasionally had bamboo shields.
-Joseon archers were some of the best in the world during this time, with the powerful gakgung (composite bow), which could fire up to 450 meters! In comparison, samurai bows could only shoot up to 300.
-During this time Joseon archers also used flaming and explosive arrows.
-Joseon also had the mighty hwacha rocket launcher, capable of firing up to 200 singijeon (fire arrows) in a volley at once!
-Joseon also created a new kind of boat that had a bunch of cannons and was covered so that it was more difficult to capture by pirates- the panokseon ("board-roofed ship"). Joseon loved loading these up with hwachas as well.
-It also had a giant-ass cannon called "heaven cannon" (cheonja-chongtong) weighing 300 kg and had a huge 1.3 long barrel with a caliber of 12cm.
-The heaven cannon usually fired an iron-tipped wooden bolt that also had gunpowder inside sometimes. It also had iron fins which made it heavier, but also more aerodynamic. Really brutal stuff. Sometimes also fired small stones or lead, like a grapeshot.
-Also, Joseon warships were made of really tough pine wood.
-To attack coastal fortifications, the Joseon navy would usually use a primitive, inaccurate, 300kg bronze mortar that could fire a heavy stone at about 400 meters. The name of the projectile roughly translates as "Flying Striking Earthquake Heaven Thunder", and was a hollow iron ball packed with gunpowder and a timed fuse.
-During this time, King Seonjo was the ruler of Joseon.
-Started out as a capable ruler, and quickly worked to try and put an end to the pesky raiding of the northern barbarian hordes, but found that the political Neo-Confucian system was too fucked up to get anything done.
-The court was split between the "East" and "West" factions, and was stuck in a brutal deadlock and completely paralyzed.
-Because of this, Joseon faced an existential threat when Japan threatened to invade, but couldn't do anything about it due to this paralysis.
-Diplomacy
-Diplomacy between the Ming dynasty, Joseon, and Japan during this time was complex.
-Usually the Japanese wanted Ming luxury goods and would obtain them through Joseon because Joseon had a bunch of Ming stuff.
-During the early days of the Ming dynasty, the Japanese had actually sent tribute to the Ming and in return had been acknowledged as a tributary state (really a bunch of states, but was technically considered one I guess due to being "unified" under the Japanese emperor).
-The Ming in return offered gifts for their submissions.
-However, relations had soured due to Japanese piracy, a riot by Japanese traders in a Chinese port city, and the collapse of centralized power in Japan during the warring states period.
-Although the Japanese still continued to trade with Joseon, they were still butthurt that Joseon had participated in Kublai Khan's invasion of Japan.
-Joseon always viewed Japan as a backwards, superstitious barbarians. This was probably due to so many Japanese resorting to piracy over the years.
-Joseon viewed China as the pinnacle of civilization, and always tried to emulate their style and culture, seeing them as like an older brother.
-There were religious components to this too:
-Joseon wanted to be SO Confucian (like the Chinese) that they ended up being more Confucian than the Chinese actually were.
-Meanwhile, Buddhism continued to spread to Japan from the Korean peninsula, so the Japanese ended up being more hardcore about Buddhism than anyone else (like how Joseon became more Confucian than China).
-Joseon would have perhaps been a similar case to Japan regarding Buddhism, but during this time Joseon's hardcore Neo-Confucian philosophical elite suppressed the practice of Buddhism in the kingdom.
-The waegu were also becoming a problem again, especially from Tsushima Island where the lord there had lost control of the island during Japan's Warring States period, so during the chaos there the waegu were thriving.
-Because China was the center of the Asian world and the Ming dynasty its rulers, the power-hungry Hideyoshi felt that it should belong to him.
-Mounting Tensions
-Tensions rose between Joseon and Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi sent emissaries all over Asia, but Joseon didn't even know who Hideyoshi was and probably thought he was just some noob.
-After meeting his emissaries Joseon believed that Hideyoshi wasn't actually a real shogun that should be shown respect a legitimate representative of Japan (a fellow tributary state of the Ming dynasty). In their eyes, Hideyoshi was just some upstart rebel.
-1586- Hideyoshi commanded Lord Sō Yoshitoshi of Tsushima Island to go to Joseon and demand submission to Japan, and also for Joseon to begin preparations for the invasion of Ming China.
-Yoshitoshi was screwed either way because if Joseon said yes, then he would lose his trade monopoly with Joseon, but if they said no then they would then see him as their enemy and close their ports to him.
-Yoshitoshi decided to take a risk, and altered the message, saying that Joseon was to send an ambassador to Hideyoshi with a message of goodwill instead of submission.
-In order to have a degree of deniability, Yoshitoshi sent a messenger instead of himself so that he could blame the messenger in case the shit hit the fan.
-However, the messenger was a noob who acted like an asshole when he arrived in Joseon, so this naturally probably pissed off the Joseon court. Embarrassed, Yoshitoshi had the noob messenger executed when he returned to Tsushima Island.
-The Joseon court reaction about Hideyoshi was split, but to bide their time they sent a message to Yoshitoshi saying that they couldn't send a diplomatic mission to Japan because Japan was too far away and also that they were poor sailors (haha).
-Many Joseon courtiers felt that Hideyoshi was bluffing- he was still fighting resistance forces in Japan (they believed)! How could he possibly have enough power to conquer the Ming dynasty?
-Hideyoshi decided to test the Joseon defenses, and sent scouts to make light attacks against Joseon ships. The scouts reported that the Joseon ships were timid and weak.
-The Joseon response? Jack shit. Some courtiers wanted to conscript peasants to guard the coast, but there was still the threat of the Jurchen hordes in the north, and so the Joseon decided it was best to make sure that the defense of the north was their main priority.
-1588- Hideyoshi sends a new envoy to Joseon, this time Yoshitoshi himself. However, King Seonjo still refused to send a friendly envoy to Japan.
-In 1589, Yoshitoshi tried once more to persuade King Seonjo to get in bed with Japan.
-The Joseon government finally said that they would consider sending an envoy to Japan, but only if they could first receive some Korean criminals who had fled the kingdom and become waegu. Yoshitoshi arranged for some random Koreans living in Japan to be brought back (who knows if they were actually criminals), The "criminals" were then executed at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.
-At the event, King Seonjo was given a gift from the Japanese- an arquebus. In return, King Seonjo selected a beautiful warhorse from his personal stable.
-Oddly enough, the Joseon government didn't really bother to check out the arquebus with much interest, seeing it as a barbarian toy more than anything else. Big mistake!
-Meanwhile, Joseon spies began reporting back that the Japanese threat was legit- Hideyoshi was building hundreds of warships, raising a huge army!
-The Joseon court was completely paralyzed with so many options, but most of the court seemed to believe that the Japanese didn't pose a significant threat to Joseon.
-Another problem was that there was too much petty Neo-Confucian bickering and shit that obstructed any realistic, effective legislation.
-Finally, in 1590 King Seonjo agreed to send a diplomatic envoy of friendship and goodwill to Japan. Hwang Yun-gil (leader of the Western faction) and Kim Seong-il (leader of the Eastern faction) were sent from Busan to Japan. They first arrived, however, at Tsushima Island, where they stayed for a month. While they were there, there was some drama with the seating arrangements not being correct or something, and Kim Seong-il had a meltdown!
-In order to calm things down, Yoshitoshi had some servants executed, which I guess smoothed things over.
-They finally arrived in Kyoto in August, but Hideyoshi was gone, putting down some rebels. They had to wait for another few months (until December!), and during that time were forced to stay in a boring temple and eat boring food.
-Finally, they met with Hideyoshi and gave him his gifts and shit. Because of the misunderstanding due to Yoshitoshi, Hideyoshi didn't feel the need to see the envoys again due to them being there to give him tribute, and gave them a letter instead for King Seonjo warning that Joseon was to aid him in conquering Ming China, or else face obliteration!!
-Kim Seong-il felt that this wasn't serious, and that Hideyoshi was just being a moron. However, Hwang Yun-gil knew that war was imminent, and immediately sent messengers to Seoul to warn the king.
-King Seonjo finally made a decision- there was no way he could betray the Ming dynasty! They were like an older brother/father to Joseon!
-Joseon began to make preparations for war in the south, especially in Gyeongsang Province near Daegu, Dongnae, Busan, and Jinju, with earthen walls, fortifications, etc.
-One official who oversaw these preparations was one of the greatest naval commanders / Korean heroes of all time- Yi Sun-sin!!
-Born to an upper-middle class family in Seoul. Had served the government since the Goryeo dynasty until his grandfather had been purged from service in 1519, and afterwards the family had declined a bit.
-Yi Sun-sin went into the military because he had older brothers who were prepping for the civil service exam, and his family couldn't support all of them doing so.
-In the military he became renowned as a skilled swordsman and archer.
-Established himself early as a capable military officer when he was stationed in Hamgyong Province (in modern-day North Korea) fighting the Jurchen.
-1580- Became a naval officer and was stuck in Jeolla Province.
-Although he was obviously a badass, his stubbornness and unwavering ethics/morals caused the higher-ups to dislike him since he was not susceptible to corruption.
-1583- Sent back to the north to fight the Jurchen again.
-Actually managed to capture a Jurchen chief- Mu Pai Nai.
-Had to leave the army for 3 years (because his father died), but he returned in 1586.
-He had further success against the Jurchen and was noted for his bravery, but the other officers were jealous assholes and so they lied and had claimed that Yi Sun-sin had deserted a battle, so he was demoted, imprisoned, and tortured. He continued to serve after this, however, as a normal soldier.
-However, Yi Sun-sin's luck changed when his old childhood friend, Ryu Seong-ryong, had become a high-ranking minister who decided to help him out.
-1590- Yi Sun-shin was appointed as a military commander in Jeolla Province, stationed at a garrison on Wan Island.
-Before that he had also been appointed as a garrison commander at several other places too, but this was his first big position before finally hitting it big as an admiral.
-1591- Yi Sun-sin was appointed as naval commander of the "Left Jeolla" (eastern half of Jeolla Province) thanks to Ryu Seong-ryong's favor with King Seonjo.
-This was considered a cushy job since the Left Jeolla navy was kind of a joke and poorly managed.
-However, Yi Sun-sin immediately began to turn things around by running it pretty tightly, with harsh punishments, executions (for major defenses), but also rewards as well.
-Also began to repair badly maintained ships, construct new ships, and build fortifications and defensive stations and weapons.
-Soon, Yi Sun-sin had transformed the navy under his command into the best in the kingdom, and also had a strength of 24 panokseon ships.
-Why didn't the Ming dynasty combine forces with Joseon to fight Japan?
-Because the Ming found out about what was going on via messengers from the Ryukyu Islands, who had heard from the Japanese messengers that Joseon had allegedly agreed to attack the Ming along with Hideyoshi.
-This was because Hideyoshi had believed Joseon had sent him tribute, not a "good will" mission like Joseon had thought they were doing.
-The Ming, naturally, were really pissed off! Joseon hadn't mentioned anything to them about this, so they felt betrayed!
-Finally, soon after the Ming found out about what was going on from the Ryukyu messengers, the Joseon messengers arrived. Japan was about to attack Joseon!
-Joseon had many allies in the Ming court, but the Wanli Emperor was still very suspicious.
-1591- Ming sent diplomats twice to Joseon to see when the deal was.
-Fall of 1591- Hideyoshi had finally had enough of Joseon, and soon Japanese merchants and travelers began to be mysteriously absent from Busan...
-Hideyoshi's plan:
-Initially wanted to invade the Ryukyu Islands before hitting Taiwan and then southern China, which at the same time another force would travel through Joseon (assuming they were friendly) and attack Beijing.
-Finalized plan: the above was too complicated. Just go straight through Joseon, full-strength!
-After taking Joseon and the Ming, Hideyoshi had his sights set on conquering Vietnam, Thailand, and even India!
-Hideyoshi then changed his HQ from Kyoto to Karatsu, Kyushu, and constructed Karatsu Castle as his center of power.
-He raised a massive army of 335,000 men. 100,000 were to remain in Japan as a defensive force should the Ming decide to launch a counterattack.
-3 divisions leading the attack:
-First division:
-Led by Konishi Yukinaga (AKA Agostinho (converted to Catholicism), from Osaka, Kansai region) and Sō Yoshitoshi (AKA Dario (converted to Catholicism under the influence of Konishi Yukinaga), from Tsushima Island), and some other minor generals.
-Second Division:
-Led by Katō Kiyomasa (from Nagoya, Chūbu region), Nabeshima Naoshige (from Hizen, Kyushu). and other minor generals.
-Third Division:
-Led by Kuroda Nagamasa (from Himeji, Kansai region), and some dude named Otomo Yoshimada.
-During this time, some of the commanders were Christians (see above), and many of the Japanese soldiers actually were as well. These were not the samurai of the Japanese old days- this was the NEW Japanese army, made up of both samurai and peasants, some of whom were Christian.
-Hideyoshi actually hated Christianity himself, but saw Christians as important in his success. However, some speculate that Hideyoshi sent many of these Christian commanders and troops as the first in line during the invasion (shock troops, kind of) so that they'd die before the non-Christian troops.
-Before the arrival of the Japanese troops, the Joseon court was still discussing the potential threat. General Sin Rip believed that the Japanese were short, weak, and bad fighters. Also, he believed that their guns were lousy and inferior to Korean bows.
-The main problem and reason for why the Japanese were so dangerous to Joseon was because of incompetence.
-Too many government officials stupidly believed that Hideyoshi was an idiot and didn't have the strength or intelligence to pull off an invasion.
-Also, the generals or officials in charge of preparations were incompetent, or didn't believe the Japanese were a threat.
-Meanwhile, Yi Sun-sin had been developing an experimental new ship, which was to be revealed very soon...
-April 13, 1592- Hideyoshi launches his attack from Tsushima Island!
-Due to bad tower upkeep and management, the tower beacon warning system wasn't able to carry the message to Seoul and was only confined to Gyeongsang Province.
-The Japense ships (about 90) began to group at Busan Harbor.
-By evening, around 300 had arrived. By night, 400!
-Both Gyeongsang navies (right and left) didn't attack and just watched, unable to believe the size.
-They believed that maybe it was a huge tribute mission from Japan as an apology (yeah fucking right!).
-They had 150 panokseon ships that could have easily taken on the shitty Japanese ships (which didn't even have cannons).
-That night, the Japanese met with the commander of the forces of Busan one last time to demand that Joseon allow the Japanese passage into Ming China. Joseon officials refused, so the Japanese decided that time was up and war had begun!
-The Japanese troops began to disembark and lay siege to Busan.
-While Sō Yoshitoshi laid siege to Busan, Konishi Yukinaga laid siege to Dadaejin Fortress.
-At Busan, Sō Yoshitoshi asked the Busan commander (Jeong Bal) one last, final time to surrendur to the Japanese, but Jeong Bal refused. So, the Japanese attacked!
-Joseon quickly realized that their poorly-trained conscripts, armed with bows and spears, were no match for the Japanese arquebus firepower.
-By the next morning, Busan had fallen and Jeong Bal was dead, and the Japanese had really fucked up the city, killing men, women, and even dogs and cats!
-During this time, the Japanese ships remained unprotected in the harbor, but the cowardly Park Hong was not too scared to strike and fled north with his fleet.
-There was also a sea battle fought against Won Gyun of the Gyeongsang Right Navy, but he was defeated due to the aggressive Japanese tactics of assaulting the ships and drawing them into hand-to-hand combat.
-40 panokseon were destroyed.
-Won Gyun led the retreat to Geoje Island, and then Hansan Island. As boats loomed closer, Won Gyun believed they were Japanese, so he began sinking the panokseons...but stopped when he found out that they were just Joseon fishing boats.
-Only 4 panokseons remained lol.
-Only the Jeolla commanders remained now, and they only had 100 panokseons between them.
-Also, even though Busan had fallen, Dongnae Fortress nearby remained as a rallying point for Joseon forces.
-However, once the poorly-trained conscript peasant forces realized that Busan had been crushed, the army began to dissolve as people panicked and fled.
-The governor of the area even declared Dongnae as officially fucked, and fled to Seoul.
-Forces remained at Dongnae Fortress, however, but refused to submit to the Japanese and were quickly annihilated :(
Monday, February 20, 2017
Joseon - Part 8
-During the reign of King Jungjong, weapon development produced notable improvements in cannon and fire arrow technology. They also invented a longbow, and a special piercing arrow that was super aerodynamic. They also acquired compass technology from the Ming dynasty.
-Scholars established Confucian academies to train students throughout the countryside.
-Usually established by Sarim yangban to expand their influence.
-Also during this time, a female doctor, Jang Geum, was appointed as the king's personal physician. This was actually the only time in Korean history that a woman was appointed as the king's personal doctor.
-King Jungjong died in 1544, replaced by his son, King Injong.
-Unsure as to what exactly happened, but he only ruled for 1 year.
-Either had deep depression after his father died, OR he was poisoned by the rival Yoon clan in order to have his half-brother ascend the throne.
-So, King Injong died in 1545, replaced by his half-brother King Myeongjong.
-Reign started with some bad omens... there was an avalanche at Bukhansan (near Seoul), and there was also a bunch of floods and shit in the city.
-He was also too young to rule, so his mother, Queen Moonjong, ruled as regent.
-During this time, the powerful Yoon faction had split into 2 factions- Greater Yoon and Lesser Yoon.
-Greater Yoon was led by Yoon Im, King Injong's maternal uncle.
-Lesser Yoon was led by King Myeongjong's maternal uncles, Yoon Won-hyeok and Yoon Won-ro.
-Lesser Yoon were able to win over the queen's favor.
-Greater Yoon were purged, with the leaders arrested on trumped-up charges.
-Greater Yoon members were forced to flee to the countryside to try and recuperate.
-Lesser Yoon then split into sub-factions, with the faction led by Yoon Won-hyeong having the queen's favor.
-Yoon Won-hyeong was a really shitty politician, but unfortunately no one noticed this because they were a misogynistic Confucian society that blamed everything on the fact that the regent was a queen, which I guess was something they believed the Divine Powers That Be disapproved of. Yoon Won-hyeong was able to climb the ranks of government and thus accumulated a lot of power, even though he was completely incompetent when it came to actually doing his job well.
-1548- meanwhile, a Tsushima Island representative arrived in the capital, claiming that Tsushima had nothing to do with the recent raids seemingly by Japanese troops, instead blaming the raids on waegu pirates. Therefore, the Japanese soldiers who were wrongfully imprisoned in Joseon on charges of piracy should be let go and be allowed to return to Busan.
-Also, during this time Queen Moonjong lifted the censoring or banning of Buddhism, and there was a massive Buddhism revival! Some of the art was even patronized by the crown itself.
-Only a few of these works survive today, but most of them are in Japan :(
-Also introduced a standardized test for those who wanted to be monks.
-Moral legislation was also introduced.
-A dude named Bo Woo was assigned as Chief Monk during this time, and revived an official system of training and selecting monks in both the Seon (meditation) and Gyo (doctrinal, scholastic) sects of Korean Buddhism.
-1551- Bongeun-sa became the main temple of the Jogye Seon Order and the main base for the overall restoration of Korean Buddhism.
-1554- King Myeongjong finally came of age during this time, and Queen Moonjong stepped down as regent.
-Lesser Yoon power was diminished as he tried to demonstrate his power. However, King Myeongjong was still heavily influenced by his mother, and Yoon Won-hyeong kept his position as a powerful government figure.
-There were also a variety of existential threats to Joseon at this time.
-The Jurchen hordes remained a volatile threat in the north.
-The waegu continued to be a threat.
-In Japan it was the Warring States Period (1568-1615), and many Japanese turned to piracy in order to survive.
-One notable pirate threat was in Jeolla Province, where the pirate leader had a huge white horse and cool armor and actually defeated the Joseon army sent there to fuck them up.
-Joseon was finally able to put them down by utilizing psychological warfare and their new arrow technology.
-The pirates fled to Jeju-do, where they tried to raid again, but were run off.
-Meanwhile, the Ming dynasty were fighting barbarians on all sides.
-Life was hard in China, and many Chinese turned to piracy to survive (similar to the situation in Japan).
-Joseon records falsely state that all the pirates came from Japan, when really many/most were actually from China during this time.
-The Yangban then began to grow in power and gobble up more land, which caused many families to lose their farmlands and turn to banditry themselves, which became increasingly problematic.
-1565- Queen Moonjong dies. Soon after this, Bo-woo is killed by anti-Buddhist government officials.
-1567- King Myeongjong dies but he has no heir, as his only son died when he was a young boy. Eventually, King Seonjo (King Myeongjon's half-nephew) takes the throne after several months.
-In the beginning of his reign, King Seonjo looked to secure the realm from the dangerous Jurchen hordes of the north.
-They pushed the Jurchen back, but went in too far and were ambushed and massacred. A second force was then sent in and were more successful, and the north was temporarily secured.
-1570s- There was much turmoil in the Joseon court.
-The Sarim and Hoongu factions had faded, and new political parties had formed.
-Not so much focused on dogma or philosophical differences, just more like personal alliances, and was the result of the power struggle between all the rural Confucian academies.
-The major political factions:
-Dong-in ("Easterners")
-Seo-in ("Westerners")
-Eventually, both the Dong-in and Seo-in split in half, forming:
-"The Old Party"
-"The New Party"
-Buk-in ("The Northerners")
-Nam-in ("The Southerners")
-Scholars established Confucian academies to train students throughout the countryside.
-Usually established by Sarim yangban to expand their influence.
-Also during this time, a female doctor, Jang Geum, was appointed as the king's personal physician. This was actually the only time in Korean history that a woman was appointed as the king's personal doctor.
-King Jungjong died in 1544, replaced by his son, King Injong.
-Unsure as to what exactly happened, but he only ruled for 1 year.
-Either had deep depression after his father died, OR he was poisoned by the rival Yoon clan in order to have his half-brother ascend the throne.
-So, King Injong died in 1545, replaced by his half-brother King Myeongjong.
-Reign started with some bad omens... there was an avalanche at Bukhansan (near Seoul), and there was also a bunch of floods and shit in the city.
-He was also too young to rule, so his mother, Queen Moonjong, ruled as regent.
-During this time, the powerful Yoon faction had split into 2 factions- Greater Yoon and Lesser Yoon.
-Greater Yoon was led by Yoon Im, King Injong's maternal uncle.
-Lesser Yoon was led by King Myeongjong's maternal uncles, Yoon Won-hyeok and Yoon Won-ro.
-Lesser Yoon were able to win over the queen's favor.
-Greater Yoon were purged, with the leaders arrested on trumped-up charges.
-Greater Yoon members were forced to flee to the countryside to try and recuperate.
-Lesser Yoon then split into sub-factions, with the faction led by Yoon Won-hyeong having the queen's favor.
-Yoon Won-hyeong was a really shitty politician, but unfortunately no one noticed this because they were a misogynistic Confucian society that blamed everything on the fact that the regent was a queen, which I guess was something they believed the Divine Powers That Be disapproved of. Yoon Won-hyeong was able to climb the ranks of government and thus accumulated a lot of power, even though he was completely incompetent when it came to actually doing his job well.
-1548- meanwhile, a Tsushima Island representative arrived in the capital, claiming that Tsushima had nothing to do with the recent raids seemingly by Japanese troops, instead blaming the raids on waegu pirates. Therefore, the Japanese soldiers who were wrongfully imprisoned in Joseon on charges of piracy should be let go and be allowed to return to Busan.
-Also, during this time Queen Moonjong lifted the censoring or banning of Buddhism, and there was a massive Buddhism revival! Some of the art was even patronized by the crown itself.
-Only a few of these works survive today, but most of them are in Japan :(
-Also introduced a standardized test for those who wanted to be monks.
-Moral legislation was also introduced.
-A dude named Bo Woo was assigned as Chief Monk during this time, and revived an official system of training and selecting monks in both the Seon (meditation) and Gyo (doctrinal, scholastic) sects of Korean Buddhism.
-1551- Bongeun-sa became the main temple of the Jogye Seon Order and the main base for the overall restoration of Korean Buddhism.
-1554- King Myeongjong finally came of age during this time, and Queen Moonjong stepped down as regent.
-Lesser Yoon power was diminished as he tried to demonstrate his power. However, King Myeongjong was still heavily influenced by his mother, and Yoon Won-hyeong kept his position as a powerful government figure.
-There were also a variety of existential threats to Joseon at this time.
-The Jurchen hordes remained a volatile threat in the north.
-The waegu continued to be a threat.
-In Japan it was the Warring States Period (1568-1615), and many Japanese turned to piracy in order to survive.
-One notable pirate threat was in Jeolla Province, where the pirate leader had a huge white horse and cool armor and actually defeated the Joseon army sent there to fuck them up.
-Joseon was finally able to put them down by utilizing psychological warfare and their new arrow technology.
-The pirates fled to Jeju-do, where they tried to raid again, but were run off.
-Meanwhile, the Ming dynasty were fighting barbarians on all sides.
-Life was hard in China, and many Chinese turned to piracy to survive (similar to the situation in Japan).
-Joseon records falsely state that all the pirates came from Japan, when really many/most were actually from China during this time.
-The Yangban then began to grow in power and gobble up more land, which caused many families to lose their farmlands and turn to banditry themselves, which became increasingly problematic.
-1565- Queen Moonjong dies. Soon after this, Bo-woo is killed by anti-Buddhist government officials.
-1567- King Myeongjong dies but he has no heir, as his only son died when he was a young boy. Eventually, King Seonjo (King Myeongjon's half-nephew) takes the throne after several months.
-In the beginning of his reign, King Seonjo looked to secure the realm from the dangerous Jurchen hordes of the north.
-They pushed the Jurchen back, but went in too far and were ambushed and massacred. A second force was then sent in and were more successful, and the north was temporarily secured.
-1570s- There was much turmoil in the Joseon court.
-The Sarim and Hoongu factions had faded, and new political parties had formed.
-Not so much focused on dogma or philosophical differences, just more like personal alliances, and was the result of the power struggle between all the rural Confucian academies.
-The major political factions:
-Dong-in ("Easterners")
-Seo-in ("Westerners")
-Eventually, both the Dong-in and Seo-in split in half, forming:
-"The Old Party"
-"The New Party"
-Buk-in ("The Northerners")
-Nam-in ("The Southerners")
-Competition was fierce, with lots of backstabbing, character assassination, etc.
-Corruption was a horrible problem and was fucking up the government with gridlock and overall incompetence.
-Meanwhile, the Jurchen hordes were rapidly becoming more and more of a threat in the north.
-The Ming dynasty was also spending a ton of resources combating other dangerous Manchurian hordes.
-During this time, Joseon was not properly equipped to defend itself.
-The army was too small due to the people being either too poor to be soldiers, too rich to be bothered to serve (buying their way out).
-There were efforts for military reform, but these were blocked due to petty government squabbling.
-Meanwhile in Japan, around this time a low-born commoner named Toyotomi Hideyoshi had risen up to become a powerful daimyo, unifying Japan and bringing an end to the Warring States Period!
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Joseon - Part 7
-1506- King Jungjong is enthroned.
-Rebel soldiers led by 3 merit courtiers (Seong Hi-an, Park Won-jong, and Yu Sun-jeong) enthroned him after the tyrannical rule of his half-brother, the brutal King Yeonsan.
-King Jungjong was very unlike King Yeonsan, but was dominated by the courtiers that had gotten him into power.
-Immediately there was a bunch of drama between the courtiers and the old guard that had benefited under King Yeonsan's rule.
-1509- A courtier named Jo Gwang-jo, very smart and hungry for power, began to rise up through the ranks. More on him later.
-Meanwhile in the south, many ex-waegu began to settle around Busan after all the raiding and shenanigans had stopped.
-The Joseon officials sent from Seoul took advantage of these waegu immigrants by over-taxing them and just being shitty to them.
-These ex-waegu tried to complain to the Joseon government about it, but to no avail. So, they went to Tsushima Island (Daema Island in Korean), where they were able to raise a strong navy! They then attacked Busan, killing the officials, and sacking the city!
-In response, Joseon sent a force down and crushed the rebellion.
-Diplomatic relations between the Ashikaga shogunate and Joseon were icy after that for about 50 years, and most Japanese living in the south were deported.
-In preparation for a possible war with the Ashikaga Shogunate, King Jungjong ordered that temples in Gyeongju be gutted, in case the temple artifacts were needed to be melted down to create weapons.
-King Jungjong didn't give a fuck because he wasn't Buddhist, but this obviously upset many of the largely Buddhist common folk.
-This was arguably the nadir of the history of Korean Buddhism.
-Meanwhile, Jo Gwang-jo continued to rise in the ranks, gaining recognition from the king personally.
-Finally, he was appointed a junior censor.
-He immediately created controversy by confronting the elite in government about corruption and the limited power of the censors. He was also mostly supported by the Sarim.
-This was surprisingly supported by King Jung-jong, who seemed to have a mancrush on Jo Gwang-jo.
-There was a huge political gridlock in the court, but ultimately Jo Gwang-jo was able to dominate.
-1518- The Jurchen began to get rowdy again north of the Yalu River.
-The war council had planned for a sneak attack, but Jo Gwang-jo thought that a truly civilized people like Joseon didn't stoop to such low tactics, and convinced the court not to go ahead with this plan.
-1519- Jo Gwang-jo is appointed as official tutor of the crown prince. He also continued to grow in power.
-Introduced new government policies- streamlined the provincial governorship process and position.
-Introduced a harsh system of justice based around public shaming.
-Allegedly, crime went down!
-Ceased public gender segregation.
-Made people wear different clothing to indicate social status.
-Introduced the Hyangyak ("Village Code"), rooted in Neo-Confucian philosophy.
-Gave local power to rural officials, and gave the yangban power to enforce local governments.
-This made the realm more secure too, because the local officials could use the money to raise local armies.
-This was a big reason why Joseon survived as a distinct political entity into modern times.
-However, Jo Gwang-jo went too far in his will to power by trying to purge the rival Hungu yangban.
-Tried to prove that the entire faction of Hoongu were fake or undeserving of their position via personal attacks, etc.
-This initially worked, and more than half of the Hungu were stripped of their ranks, but the Hungu struck back by manipulating King Jungjong's favorite concubine into speaking badly of Jo Gwang-jo.
-They also allegedly spread the rumor that the common folk were clamoring for Jo Jung-gwan to take the throne himself...but maybe this also wasn't a rumor?
-They also allegedly tried to make supernatural tricks happen to suggest that ill omens from heaven were trying to show that Jo Gwang-jo was evil.
-Finally, the Hungu spread a rumor that Jo Jung-gwan was about to attack and usurp the throne, and then convinced the king to take immediate action.
-The Sarim and Jo Gwang-jo were then summoned to the court.
-A bunch of Jo Gwang-jo supporters showed up to protest, but the damage had already been done.
-Jo Gwang-jo was beaten and exiled. He tried to clear his name and communicate with the king, but to no avail. Finally, soldiers were sent to execute Jo Gwang-jo by making him drink poison :(
-The king believed that Jo Gwang-jo in the end was just more trouble than he was worth. However, his legacy would prove quite venerable, and he would be seen as a Neo-Confucian hero for future generations to come.
-Rebel soldiers led by 3 merit courtiers (Seong Hi-an, Park Won-jong, and Yu Sun-jeong) enthroned him after the tyrannical rule of his half-brother, the brutal King Yeonsan.
-King Jungjong was very unlike King Yeonsan, but was dominated by the courtiers that had gotten him into power.
-Immediately there was a bunch of drama between the courtiers and the old guard that had benefited under King Yeonsan's rule.
-1509- A courtier named Jo Gwang-jo, very smart and hungry for power, began to rise up through the ranks. More on him later.
-Meanwhile in the south, many ex-waegu began to settle around Busan after all the raiding and shenanigans had stopped.
-The Joseon officials sent from Seoul took advantage of these waegu immigrants by over-taxing them and just being shitty to them.
-These ex-waegu tried to complain to the Joseon government about it, but to no avail. So, they went to Tsushima Island (Daema Island in Korean), where they were able to raise a strong navy! They then attacked Busan, killing the officials, and sacking the city!
-In response, Joseon sent a force down and crushed the rebellion.
-Diplomatic relations between the Ashikaga shogunate and Joseon were icy after that for about 50 years, and most Japanese living in the south were deported.
-In preparation for a possible war with the Ashikaga Shogunate, King Jungjong ordered that temples in Gyeongju be gutted, in case the temple artifacts were needed to be melted down to create weapons.
-King Jungjong didn't give a fuck because he wasn't Buddhist, but this obviously upset many of the largely Buddhist common folk.
-This was arguably the nadir of the history of Korean Buddhism.
-Meanwhile, Jo Gwang-jo continued to rise in the ranks, gaining recognition from the king personally.
-Finally, he was appointed a junior censor.
-He immediately created controversy by confronting the elite in government about corruption and the limited power of the censors. He was also mostly supported by the Sarim.
-This was surprisingly supported by King Jung-jong, who seemed to have a mancrush on Jo Gwang-jo.
-There was a huge political gridlock in the court, but ultimately Jo Gwang-jo was able to dominate.
-1518- The Jurchen began to get rowdy again north of the Yalu River.
-The war council had planned for a sneak attack, but Jo Gwang-jo thought that a truly civilized people like Joseon didn't stoop to such low tactics, and convinced the court not to go ahead with this plan.
-1519- Jo Gwang-jo is appointed as official tutor of the crown prince. He also continued to grow in power.
-Introduced new government policies- streamlined the provincial governorship process and position.
-Introduced a harsh system of justice based around public shaming.
-Allegedly, crime went down!
-Ceased public gender segregation.
-Made people wear different clothing to indicate social status.
-Introduced the Hyangyak ("Village Code"), rooted in Neo-Confucian philosophy.
-Gave local power to rural officials, and gave the yangban power to enforce local governments.
-This made the realm more secure too, because the local officials could use the money to raise local armies.
-This was a big reason why Joseon survived as a distinct political entity into modern times.
-However, Jo Gwang-jo went too far in his will to power by trying to purge the rival Hungu yangban.
-Tried to prove that the entire faction of Hoongu were fake or undeserving of their position via personal attacks, etc.
-This initially worked, and more than half of the Hungu were stripped of their ranks, but the Hungu struck back by manipulating King Jungjong's favorite concubine into speaking badly of Jo Gwang-jo.
-They also allegedly spread the rumor that the common folk were clamoring for Jo Jung-gwan to take the throne himself...but maybe this also wasn't a rumor?
-They also allegedly tried to make supernatural tricks happen to suggest that ill omens from heaven were trying to show that Jo Gwang-jo was evil.
-Finally, the Hungu spread a rumor that Jo Jung-gwan was about to attack and usurp the throne, and then convinced the king to take immediate action.
-The Sarim and Jo Gwang-jo were then summoned to the court.
-A bunch of Jo Gwang-jo supporters showed up to protest, but the damage had already been done.
-Jo Gwang-jo was beaten and exiled. He tried to clear his name and communicate with the king, but to no avail. Finally, soldiers were sent to execute Jo Gwang-jo by making him drink poison :(
-The king believed that Jo Gwang-jo in the end was just more trouble than he was worth. However, his legacy would prove quite venerable, and he would be seen as a Neo-Confucian hero for future generations to come.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Joseon - Part 6
-1469- King Seongjong is enthroned, but is too young, so the regency goes to his grandmother, Queen Jeonghee, and his mom, Queen Insu.
-During this time, the number of merit scholars surged, entering into a special rank of royal subjects that enjoyed a very privileged life.
-The old-school Confucian literati hated these new-school privileged chumps, especially because they had to compete with them for government administration jobs.
-King Seongjong grew up to be a hardcore Confucian.
-First law he implemented was the identity card system, which was a joke.
-He also reinvested in the government branches in order to strengthen each department, as their power had been stripped under King Sejo.
-Also for fun acquired a huge collection of monkeys from the Ryukyu Islands.
-Also began to crack down on Buddhism in order to promote Confucianism.
-1472- King Seongjong orders the banishment of all Buddhist monks, fortune tellers, and shamans out of the capital. He also gutted 23 temples and convents, either converting them into schools, or just demolishing them completely.
-1474- The new law code (started being written during the reign of King Sejo) was finally finished.]
-Under the guidance of King Seongjong, conservative social laws were implemented, such as the outlaw of couples dancing together. In ceremonial dancing, young boys were to play the female roles.
-Raunchy language from popular folk songs was banned.
-Widows were not allowed to remarry.
-Etc.
-Also during this time, Joseon allied with the Ming dynasty to fight against the Jurchen hordes.
-King Seongjong also loved debate, and his court became quite intellectual and surprisingly "liberal".
-Joseon began printing many books during this time, including texts on history, poetry, geography, etc.
-There was also some court drama too, involving the crown prince, concubines, etc.
-During this time emerged the elite yangban class, who had even existed before this time (ever since Goryeo) but just hadn't been as powerful.
-During the Goryeo dynasty, it seemed like overall the military had dominated the government, but with the Joseon dynasty the power shifted to civilian elites who were strictly Confucian, and this class status was hereditary.
-Obviously there were lots of opportunities to be had by staying close to all the drama and intrigue in Seoul, but the crafty knew that the key to power was really to go out and amass power in the provinces.
-This was during peacetime too, so the yangban were able to grow in power since no one was busy serving in the army.
-They were always trying to undermine each other and shit, really vicious.
-There were 2 main factions- the Hoonggu and the Sarim.
-The Hoonggu were more old-school elites, and the Sarim were new-money elites.
-1494- King Seongjong dies. His reign was long, but he died young for whatever reason. He was replaced by his son, King Yeonsan ("Yeonsangun"), who was a really shitty king.
-Had a really bad temper, which was kept in check when he was a prince, but as king he had full rein.
-Had his tutor executed.
-Also, as a kid, loved to torture animals :(
-He gutted the Confucian college, Seonggyeonggwan, and converted it into his pleasure palace, filled with babes and animals for hunting.
-His agents scoured the land for the hottest girls and the best horses, and they would then capture them and take them back to his pleasure palace.
-While he didn't have any violent outbursts against his brothers or other family members, he would steal his courtiers' wives for sex whenever he wanted. He also replaced many of his father's old concubines.
-His rule is said to have been a "long carnival of murder, lust, and oppression".
-Of course, he also had violent purges of perceived political rivals, including the prime minister and a bunch of Sarim yangban via disgusting executions and other gross shit that everyone in the court was forced to watch (and those who looked away or failed to show up were punished, obviously).
-He also tried to suppress the power of the Office of the Censors, whose job it was to criticize or keep in check the power of the king. He made the ministers wear a sign that said "A mouth is a door that brings in disaster, a tongue is a sword that cuts off a head. A body will be in peace as long as its mouth is closed and its tongue is deep within."
-This event is known as the First Literati Purge.
-During this time, there was an eerie calm in the capital, as anyone smart (or who could afford it, at least) had fled the capital. Schools also had closed.
-1504- King Yanseon found out about how his mother had been executed during the reign of his father. This really pissed him off, especially since everyone else knew the truth and no one had ever told him (including who his true mother really was). Thus, the Second Literati Purge took place, with much violence.
-Over 200 scholars (and even their families in some instances) were executed.
-Meanwhile, anonymous posters began to pop up around the city, critical of the king (and written in Hangul, which King Yanseon hated).
-1506- A group of courtiers (Park Won-jong, Seong Hui-an, Yoo Soon-jeong, and Hong Gyeong-ju) plotted to overthrow the king.
-They initially plotted to surprise the king outside the palace gates, but I guess somehow people sensed what was up, and there was soon a huge mob that had gathered demanding the ousting of the king. The mob broke down the gates and stormed the palace.
-The king's inner circle was executed, political prisoners were set free, and there was little overall resistance against this revolution since King Yeonsan was a such a shitbag.
-King Yeonsan was captured, exiled to Ganghwa Island, and eventually died of illness. He was replaced by his half-brother, King Jungjong.
-During this time, the number of merit scholars surged, entering into a special rank of royal subjects that enjoyed a very privileged life.
-The old-school Confucian literati hated these new-school privileged chumps, especially because they had to compete with them for government administration jobs.
-King Seongjong grew up to be a hardcore Confucian.
-First law he implemented was the identity card system, which was a joke.
-He also reinvested in the government branches in order to strengthen each department, as their power had been stripped under King Sejo.
-Also for fun acquired a huge collection of monkeys from the Ryukyu Islands.
-Also began to crack down on Buddhism in order to promote Confucianism.
-1472- King Seongjong orders the banishment of all Buddhist monks, fortune tellers, and shamans out of the capital. He also gutted 23 temples and convents, either converting them into schools, or just demolishing them completely.
-1474- The new law code (started being written during the reign of King Sejo) was finally finished.]
-Under the guidance of King Seongjong, conservative social laws were implemented, such as the outlaw of couples dancing together. In ceremonial dancing, young boys were to play the female roles.
-Raunchy language from popular folk songs was banned.
-Widows were not allowed to remarry.
-Etc.
-Also during this time, Joseon allied with the Ming dynasty to fight against the Jurchen hordes.
-King Seongjong also loved debate, and his court became quite intellectual and surprisingly "liberal".
-Joseon began printing many books during this time, including texts on history, poetry, geography, etc.
-There was also some court drama too, involving the crown prince, concubines, etc.
-During this time emerged the elite yangban class, who had even existed before this time (ever since Goryeo) but just hadn't been as powerful.
-During the Goryeo dynasty, it seemed like overall the military had dominated the government, but with the Joseon dynasty the power shifted to civilian elites who were strictly Confucian, and this class status was hereditary.
-Obviously there were lots of opportunities to be had by staying close to all the drama and intrigue in Seoul, but the crafty knew that the key to power was really to go out and amass power in the provinces.
-This was during peacetime too, so the yangban were able to grow in power since no one was busy serving in the army.
-They were always trying to undermine each other and shit, really vicious.
-There were 2 main factions- the Hoonggu and the Sarim.
-The Hoonggu were more old-school elites, and the Sarim were new-money elites.
-1494- King Seongjong dies. His reign was long, but he died young for whatever reason. He was replaced by his son, King Yeonsan ("Yeonsangun"), who was a really shitty king.
-Had a really bad temper, which was kept in check when he was a prince, but as king he had full rein.
-Had his tutor executed.
-Also, as a kid, loved to torture animals :(
-He gutted the Confucian college, Seonggyeonggwan, and converted it into his pleasure palace, filled with babes and animals for hunting.
-His agents scoured the land for the hottest girls and the best horses, and they would then capture them and take them back to his pleasure palace.
-While he didn't have any violent outbursts against his brothers or other family members, he would steal his courtiers' wives for sex whenever he wanted. He also replaced many of his father's old concubines.
-His rule is said to have been a "long carnival of murder, lust, and oppression".
-Of course, he also had violent purges of perceived political rivals, including the prime minister and a bunch of Sarim yangban via disgusting executions and other gross shit that everyone in the court was forced to watch (and those who looked away or failed to show up were punished, obviously).
-He also tried to suppress the power of the Office of the Censors, whose job it was to criticize or keep in check the power of the king. He made the ministers wear a sign that said "A mouth is a door that brings in disaster, a tongue is a sword that cuts off a head. A body will be in peace as long as its mouth is closed and its tongue is deep within."
-This event is known as the First Literati Purge.
-During this time, there was an eerie calm in the capital, as anyone smart (or who could afford it, at least) had fled the capital. Schools also had closed.
-1504- King Yanseon found out about how his mother had been executed during the reign of his father. This really pissed him off, especially since everyone else knew the truth and no one had ever told him (including who his true mother really was). Thus, the Second Literati Purge took place, with much violence.
-Over 200 scholars (and even their families in some instances) were executed.
-Meanwhile, anonymous posters began to pop up around the city, critical of the king (and written in Hangul, which King Yanseon hated).
-1506- A group of courtiers (Park Won-jong, Seong Hui-an, Yoo Soon-jeong, and Hong Gyeong-ju) plotted to overthrow the king.
-They initially plotted to surprise the king outside the palace gates, but I guess somehow people sensed what was up, and there was soon a huge mob that had gathered demanding the ousting of the king. The mob broke down the gates and stormed the palace.
-The king's inner circle was executed, political prisoners were set free, and there was little overall resistance against this revolution since King Yeonsan was a such a shitbag.
-King Yeonsan was captured, exiled to Ganghwa Island, and eventually died of illness. He was replaced by his half-brother, King Jungjong.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Joseon - Part 5
-1450- King Munjong is enthroned.
-Sickly, perhaps also broken mentally by the death of his father (King Sejong).
-1452- King Munjong dies, replaced by his son, King Danjong (age 11).
-Only ruled in name, as the real power lay with 2 generals- Hwangbo In and Kim Jongseo.
-Another problem for King Danjong was his uncle, Yi Yu (the future King Sejo), who was a charismatic leader, a powerful archer, and a Buddhist. He also believed that the king should have all the power, contrary to the Confucian belief that a king should be a benevolent ruler who allocated governmental responsibilities to his courtiers.
-1453- possibly believing that the elite had too much power, Yi Yu uncovered an alleged plot by the 2 generals to take over the throne, so he organized a band of warriors to go to the house of Hwangbo In and killed him, then they went back to the palace to inform the king about what had happened.
-King Danjong realized that Yi Yu was making a power grab, seeing through his ruse, but begged for his life.
-Yi Yu let the king live, but used him to lure the other courtiers back to the palace, where they were ambushed and murdered (along with, eventually, their families). This included the murder of Kim Jongseo. Yi Yu also killed Kim Jongseo's younger brother, exiling him to Ganghwa Island and then poisoning him.
-The rival courtiers executed, the Hall of Worthies brought under control, and the king's power completely neutered, Yi Yu sent King Danjong to another palace, from the main Gyeongbeok Palace to Changdeok Palace.
-Yi Yu then rewarded all of his own flunkies with land and slaves.
-Eventually Yi Yu completely stripped King Danjong of his royal title, and then crowned himself as King Sejo!
-He immediately consolidated power by demoting officials and centralized the six main ministries to be under his control.
-King Sejo also sent out many officials as "governors" of provinces, but really this was just to get them out of Seoul.
-Of course, during this time many plots to overthrow King Sejo began to form, but they never got off the ground and were always busted.
-Many officials and their families were either killed or exiled. As a final precaution, (King?) Danjong was stripped of all of his titles and exiled to Gangwon-do, but this still proved to be troublesome to King Sejo, so he finally just had him killed!
-As king, King Sejo reorganized the military and made it more professional, and also cut down on excesses in the court to make more money and cut overall waste.
-Also tried to streamline the cumbersome legal code.
-Also established a government bureau of medicine, and set up pharmacies.
-Also set up a historical records system.
-During this time there were some clashes with the Jurchen as well, who were sometimes accompanied by allied Ming forces.
-Sometimes the Ming dynasty felt that Joseon was getting too authoritative towards the Jurchen, and would attack Joseon in order to warn them to back off of Manchuria since China considered this region to be Chinese territory.
-1467- a rebellion broke out in Hamgyeong Province, but this was quickly quelled.
-1468- King Sejo dies, replaced by his son, King Yejong.
-However, King Yejong was sickly and weak, so his mother, Queen Jeonghee, ruled in his stead.
-1469- King Yejong dies, replaced by his nephew, King Seongjong.
-Sickly, perhaps also broken mentally by the death of his father (King Sejong).
-1452- King Munjong dies, replaced by his son, King Danjong (age 11).
-Only ruled in name, as the real power lay with 2 generals- Hwangbo In and Kim Jongseo.
-Another problem for King Danjong was his uncle, Yi Yu (the future King Sejo), who was a charismatic leader, a powerful archer, and a Buddhist. He also believed that the king should have all the power, contrary to the Confucian belief that a king should be a benevolent ruler who allocated governmental responsibilities to his courtiers.
-1453- possibly believing that the elite had too much power, Yi Yu uncovered an alleged plot by the 2 generals to take over the throne, so he organized a band of warriors to go to the house of Hwangbo In and killed him, then they went back to the palace to inform the king about what had happened.
-King Danjong realized that Yi Yu was making a power grab, seeing through his ruse, but begged for his life.
-Yi Yu let the king live, but used him to lure the other courtiers back to the palace, where they were ambushed and murdered (along with, eventually, their families). This included the murder of Kim Jongseo. Yi Yu also killed Kim Jongseo's younger brother, exiling him to Ganghwa Island and then poisoning him.
-The rival courtiers executed, the Hall of Worthies brought under control, and the king's power completely neutered, Yi Yu sent King Danjong to another palace, from the main Gyeongbeok Palace to Changdeok Palace.
-Yi Yu then rewarded all of his own flunkies with land and slaves.
-Eventually Yi Yu completely stripped King Danjong of his royal title, and then crowned himself as King Sejo!
-He immediately consolidated power by demoting officials and centralized the six main ministries to be under his control.
-King Sejo also sent out many officials as "governors" of provinces, but really this was just to get them out of Seoul.
-Of course, during this time many plots to overthrow King Sejo began to form, but they never got off the ground and were always busted.
-Many officials and their families were either killed or exiled. As a final precaution, (King?) Danjong was stripped of all of his titles and exiled to Gangwon-do, but this still proved to be troublesome to King Sejo, so he finally just had him killed!
-As king, King Sejo reorganized the military and made it more professional, and also cut down on excesses in the court to make more money and cut overall waste.
-Also tried to streamline the cumbersome legal code.
-Also established a government bureau of medicine, and set up pharmacies.
-Also set up a historical records system.
-During this time there were some clashes with the Jurchen as well, who were sometimes accompanied by allied Ming forces.
-Sometimes the Ming dynasty felt that Joseon was getting too authoritative towards the Jurchen, and would attack Joseon in order to warn them to back off of Manchuria since China considered this region to be Chinese territory.
-1467- a rebellion broke out in Hamgyeong Province, but this was quickly quelled.
-1468- King Sejo dies, replaced by his son, King Yejong.
-However, King Yejong was sickly and weak, so his mother, Queen Jeonghee, ruled in his stead.
-1469- King Yejong dies, replaced by his nephew, King Seongjong.
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