China, Korea & Japan at War, 1592–1598: Eyewitness Accounts

203 Pages·2020·13.474 MB·English

by  J. Marshall Craig

China, Korea, and Japan at War,
1592–1598
The East Asian War of 1592 to 1598 was the only extended war before modern
times to involve Japan, Korea, and China. It devastated huge swathes of Korea
and led to large population movements across borders. This book draws on sur-
viving letters and diaries to recount the personal experiences of five individuals
from different backgrounds who lived through the war and experienced its
devastating effects: a Chinese doctor who became a spy; a Japanese samurai on
his first foreign expedition; a Korean gentleman turned refugee; a Korean
scholar-diplomat; and a Japanese Buddhist monk involved in the atrocities of the
invasion. The book outlines the context of the war so that readers can understand
the background against which the writers’ lives were lived, allows the individual
voices of the five men and their reflections on events to come through, and casts
much light on prevailing attitudes and conditions, including cultural interaction,
identity, cross-border information networks, class conflict, the role of religion in
society, and many others aspects of each writer’s world.
J. Marshall Craig completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford.
Asian States and Empires
Edited by Peter Lorge
Vanderbilt University
For a full list of available titles please visit: www.routledge.com/Asian-States-
and-Empires/book-series/SE900
The importance of Asia will continue to grow in the twenty-first century, but
remarkably little is available in English on the history of the polities that consti-
tute this critical area. Most current work on Asia is hindered by the extremely
limited state of knowledge of the Asian past in general, and the history of Asian
states and empires in particular. Asian States and Empires is a book series that
will provide detailed accounts of the history of states and empires across Asia
from earliest times until the present. It aims to explain and describe the forma-
tion, maintenance and collapse of Asian states and empires, and the means by
which this was accomplished, making available the history of more than half the
world’s population at a level of detail comparable to the history of Western poli-
ties. In so doing, it will demonstrate that Asian peoples and civilizations had
their own histories apart from the West, and provide the basis for understanding
contemporary Asia in terms of its actual histories, rather than broad generaliza-
tions informed by Western categories of knowledge.
14 Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia
Shepherds, Farmers and Nomads
Claudia Chang
15 Tropical Warfare in the Asia-P acific Region, 1941–45
Kaushik Roy
16 Early Modern East Asia
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Edited by Kenneth M. Swope and Tonio Andrade
17 The Collapse of China’s Later Han Dynasty, 25–200 ce
The Northwest Borderlands and the Edge of Empire
Wicky W. K. Tse
18 China, Korea, and Japan at War, 1592–1598
Eyewitness Accounts
J. Marshall Craig
China, Korea, and Japan
at War, 1592–1598
Eyewitness Accounts
J. Marshall Craig
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 J. Marshall Craig
The right of J. Marshall Craig to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-60316-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-46910-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To peace between China, Korea, and Japan
韓中日의 平和를 祈願하며
日中韓の平和を祈って
祈祷中日韩永久和平

Contents

List of figures viii

List of maps ix

Preface x

Acknowledgements xii

Stylistic conventions xiv

Prologue: witnesses to the largest conflict of the
sixteenth century 1

1 Warning of the tsunami to come: Xu Yihou, patriot in exile 22

2 Glory in defeat: Yoshino Jingozaemon, warrior of Japan 40

3 Between a tiger and wolves: Oh Hŭimun, refugee in his

own land 61

4 When peace broke: Hwang Shin, intrepid ambassador 81

5 Descent into hell: Keinen, reluctant invader 105

6 A world connected: Oh Hŭimun, one among many 127

7 Post war: stories retold, countries reimagined 147

Epilogue: the war of 1592–1598 and national identity 166

Index 185
Figures

0.1 Statue of Admiral Yi Sunshin, Seoul 2

0.2 Mimizuka, Kyoto 4

1.1 Shimazu memorial to the fallen 23

3.1 Swaemi rok manuscript 63

4.1 Tong sa rok manuscript 86

5.1 Chōsen hinikki manuscript 108

5.2 Anyōji – Keinen’s temple 120

7.1 Grave of Toyotomi Hideyoshi 148
Maps

0.1 Map showing China, Korea, and Japan, 1592–1598. Ming
administration extended to Liaodong, where it shared a
frontier, rather than a strictly demarcated border, with the
Jurchen 9
1.1 Map showing the location of Wan’an county in Ming China’s
Jiangxi province, Xu Yihou’s probable birthplace 23
2.1 Map showing Japanese and Ming Chinese military movements
within the Korean peninsula in 1593 and the location of Pusan,
in the harbour of which Yoshino wrote his diary, known as
Yoshino nikki 43
3.1 Map showing the location of Changsu, where Oh Hŭimun’s
brother-in-law was the local official and initially provided him
with daily reports of the developing situation 65
4.1 Map showing the route taken by the Chosŏn ambassadors
Hwang Shin and Pak Hongjang, who, in August 1596, sailed
from Pusan to Sakai, in order to finalize peace terms with
Hideyoshi in the nearby Japanese capital, Kyoto 84
5.1 Map showing the route taken by Keinen, who, in the summer
of 1597, set out from his hometown of Takedazu to follow the
invading Japanese forces to the Korean peninsula 109
6.1 Map showing Japanese and Ming Chinese military movements
in 1597 and the location of P’yŏnggang in Chosŏn’s Kangwŏn
province, where Oh Hŭimun and his family sought refuge 128