The Imjin War (87 page)

[510]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 10, 51 (27/10/Sonjo 26; Nov. 19, 1593);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 41 (11/Sonjo 26; Nov.-Dec. 1593). Ming envoy Si Xian, then in Seoul, recommended Yu Song-nyong for the post of prime minister, and suggested that he be given overall control of state and military affairs. This was not just a reflection of the favorable impression Si had of Yu, but also of growing irritation over what was regarded in  Beijing as King Sonjo’s over-reliance on Chinese assistance. Envoy Si in fact brought with him to Seoul a proposal that Sonjo relinquish the throne. Yu and other officials persuaded him to withdraw it. (Information provided to the author by the So-ae Memorial Foundation, Seoul.)

[511]
Yu Song-nyong, 192.

[512]
Palais,
Confucian Statecraft
, 87.

[513]
Samuel Dukhae Kim, 95-102.

[514]
Palais,
Confucian Statecraft
, 515-516 and 519.

[515]
Ibid., 88-90.

[516]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 8, 167 (29/5/Sonjo 26; June 27, 1593).

[517]
Ibid., vol. 9, 48 (15/7/Sonjo 26; Aug. 11, 1593).

[518]
Dispatch of 8/Wanli 21 (Sept. 1593), Yi Sun-sin,
Imjin changch’o
, 110.

[519]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 37 (8/Sonjo 26; Sept. 1593).

[520]
Diary entries for 15/5/Kyesa (June 13, 1593) to 28/8/Kyesa (Sept. 22,1593), Yi Sun-sin,
Nanjung ilgi
, 28-57.

[521]
Diary entries for 5, 10, and 11/6/Kyesa (July 3, 8, and 9, 1593), ibid., 36-38.

[522]
Yi Sun-sin’s letter to Dan Zongren, quoted in Yi’s dispatch of 10/3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594),
Imjin changch’o
, 161-162, and in Yi Pun, 219.

[523]
Diary entries for 3-6/3/Kabo (April 22-25, 1594), Yi Sun-sin,
Nanjung ilgi
, 78-80; dispatch of 10
/
3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594),
Imjin changch’o
, 164-170.

[524]
Diary entries for 7 and 13/3/Kabo (April 26 and May 2, 1594),
Nanjung ilgi
, 80-81.

[525]
Dispatch of 20/4/Wanli 22 (June 8, 1594),
Imjin changch’o
, 180-182.

[526]
Forged letter from Hideyoshi to the Wanli emperor, 21/12/Wanli 21 (Feb. 10, 1594), in Elisonas, “Trinity,” 283, and Stramigioli, 108. The complete text of the forged letter is quoted in Cho Kyong-nam, “Nanjung chamnok,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 195-196.

[527]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 12, 124 (24/5/Sonjo 27; July 11, 1594).

[528]
Yu Song-nyong, 192-193. For an alternate translation see Aston, 39-40.

[529]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 12, 88-90 (11/5/Sonjo 27; June 28, 1594).

[530]
Yu Song-nyong, 194;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 42 (11[interclary]/Sonjo 26; Dec. 1593-Jan. 1594); 67 (5/Sonjo 27; June-July 1594), and 76-77 (8/Sonjo 27; Sept.-Oct. 1594).

[531]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 82 (11/Sonjo 27; Dec. 1594).

[532]
Ibid.,
vol. 4, 79 (9/Sonjo 27; Oct. 1594).

[533]
Ibid., vol. 4, 89-90 (3/Sonjo 28; April 1595).

[534]
Yujong, “Bunchungseonan-nok,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 197-201.

[535]
Hideyoshi to his troops in Korea, 16/1/Bunroku 3 (Mar. 7, 1594), in Kuno, vol. 1, 332-333.

[536]
Ibid., 333.

[537]
In his dispatch to Seoul of 10/3/Wanli 22 (April 29, 1594), Yi Sun-sin reported that a Korean prisoner who had escaped from the Japanese camp at Ungchon stated that “Many of [the Japanese] have died of illnesses or fled home while undergoing hardships in building houses and city walls” (
Imjin changch’o
, 163).

[538]
In his war diary Yi Sun-sin referred frequently from late 1594 onwards to “surrendered Japanese” being allocated to serve in his ranks. Yi questioned some of these men as to why they had surrendered and was told that “their commanding officer was a cruel fellow, driving them hard, so they ran away” (8/1/Pyongsin [Feb. 5, 1596],
Nanjung ilgi
, 193). Yi appointed one of their number, a man named Minami Uyemon, as unit leader, and employed them mainly as laborers. By Yi’s own account these surrendered Japanese were treated reasonably well while serving in the Korean navy. They were given a feast and gifts of wine and were allowed a good deal of latitude in governing and disciplining themselves.

On a sultry evening
in August, 1596, Yi Sun-sin wrote of the Japanese under his command putting on “a drama with the make-up of actors and actresses…to entertain themselves with their native farce for enjoyment of the day”—a rudimentary form of kabuki, one assumes, performed in the midst of a Korean naval camp (diary entry for 13/7/Pyongsin [Aug. 6, 1596], ibid., 233). It must have been a surreal sight, akin, perhaps, to turncoat Nazi soldiers singing German beer songs on a British army base during WWII.

[539]
Kenneth Lee,
Korea and East Asia
(Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997), 105.

[540]
The two letters Father de Cespedes sent home from Korea appear in full in Ralph Cory, “Some Notes on Father Gregorio de Cespedes, Korea’s First European Visitor,”
Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
27 (1937): 38-45.

[541]
Hideyoshi’s 1587 edict appears in David J. Lu,
Japan. A Documentary History
(Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), 197.

[542]
Streichen, 192; Luis de Guzman,
Historia de las Missiones
(Alcalca, por la biuda de Ian Gracian, 1601), vol. 12, chap. 37.

[543]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 79 (9/Sonjo 27; Oct. 1594); Yu Song-nyong, 194; Stramigioli, 110.

[544]
“Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung,” in Sawyer, 300.

[545]
Diary entry for 17/10/Kabo (Nov. 28, 1594), Yi Sun-sin,
Nanjung ilgi
, 126-127.

[546]
Diary entry for 3/9/Kabo (Oct. 16, 1594), ibid., 117.

[547]
Diary entries for 29/9/Kabo and 1 and 3/10/Kabo (Nov. 11, 12, and 14, 1594), ibid., 123-125.

[548]
Diary entry for 27/2/Ulmi (April 6, 1595), ibid., 142.

[549]
Yi Pun, 220.

[550]
Sonjo sillok
, vol. 14, 75-76 (1/12/Sonjo 27; Jan. 10, 1595);
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 85 (12/Sonjo 27; Jan. 1595).

[551]
Rutt,
Bamboo Grove
, poem 9.

[552]
Diary entry for 4/10/Kabo (Nov. 15, 1594), Yi Sun-sin,
Nanjung ilgi
, 124.

[553]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 45 (12/Sonjo 26; Jan. 1594); Yi Si-yang, “Chahae pildam,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 207-208; Hong Yang-ho, “Haedongmyong changjon,” ibid., 207.

[554]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 100 (2/Sonjo 29; Mar. 1596).

[555]
“Sodae kinyon,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 210.

[556]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 109-111 (8/Sonjo 29; Sept. 1596). The rebel leader with whom Kim Dong-nyong was accused of being in league was Yi Mong-hak. The antigovernment movement Yi Mong-hak led in Chungchong Province was the most serious uprising to occur during the course of the war.

Chapter 21: Meanwhile, in Manila…

[557]
Gomez Perez Dasmarinas to Hideyoshi, June 11, 1592, in Blair and Robertson, vol. 8, 266-267.

[558]
Hideyoshi to Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, no date, ibid., vol. 9, 123-124.

[559]
Comment made by Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas before a council of war in Manila on April 22, 1594, ibid., vol. 9, 125.

[560]
Don Luis Perez Dasmarinas to Hideyoshi, no date (the letter would have been written around April 20 or 21, 1594), ibid., vol. 9, 126- 130.

Chapter 22: “You, Hideyoshi, are hereby instructed…to cheerfully obey our imperial commands!”

[561]
Yu Song-nyong, 195;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 94-95 (8/Sonjo 28; Sept. 1595).

[562]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 98 and 102 (1 and 4/Sonjo 29; Feb. and May 1596); Aston, 41-42.

[563]
Steichen, 199-200.

[564]
Huang, “Lung-ch’ing,” 571.

[565]
Hulbert, vol. 2, 26.

[566]
Yu Song-nyong, 196-197; Han Chi-yun, “Haedong yoksa,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 211.

[567]
This follows Berry, 216.

[568]
Ibid., 228-229.

[569]
Hideyoshi to O-Ne, 5/3/Bunroku 2 (April 6, 1593), in Boscaro,
Letters
, 51.

[570]
Elison, “Hideyoshi,” 337-338, note 75.

[571]
Hideyoshi to O-Ne, no date (1594-95?), Boscaro,
Letters
, 67.

[572]
Elison, “Hideyoshi,” 244.

[573]
Hideyoshi to Yodogimi, 25/?/? (Nov. or Dec. 1593); no date (1594?); and  8/12/Keicho 2 (Jan. 15, 1598), in Boscaro,
Letters
, 62, 69, and 72.

[574]
“Daddy” (Hideyoshi) to Lord Hiroi (Hideyori), 7/?/? (1594-95?), ibid., 70.

[575]
Hideyoshi to Lord O-Hiroi, 2/1/Keicho 1 (Jan. 31, 1596), ibid., 70.

[576]
“Daddy” to Lord O-Hiroi, 17/?/? (1595-96?), ibid., 70-71.

[577]
“Daddy Taiko” to Hideyori, 3/5/Keicho 2 (June 17, 1597), ibid., 71.

[578]
“Daddy” to Hideyori, 2/12/Keicho 2 (Jan. 9, 1598), ibid., 72.

[579]
Hideyoshi to Lord Chunagon (a title granted to Hideyori in 1598), 20/?/Keicho 3 (summer 1598), ibid., 73.

[580]
Luis Frois, “The Second Epistle of the deathe of the Quabacondono,” in Berry, 221.

[581]
Steichen, 179-180.

[582]
Frois, “Second Epistle,” in Berry, 219.

[583]
Hideyoshi to Kyoto Governor Maeda Gen’i, 11/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 14, 1593): “Because the problem of
numazu
is so important for the construction of Fushimi, I would like to have the castle constructed in such a way that it will be hard to attack from the
numazu
” (Boscaro,
Letters
, 48).

[584]
Dening, 263-264; Sansom, 363.

[585]
Han Chi-yun, “Haedong yoksa,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 211-212; Yu Song-nyong, 197; Elisonas, “Trinity,” 284-285.

[586]
Imperial patent of investiture from the Wanli emperor to Hideyoshi, in Kuno, vol. 1, 335-336.

[587]
Imperial edict from the Wan-li emperor to Hideyoshi, ibid., 336-339.

[588]
An early 18th-century English translation of Luis Frois’ account, in Cooper,
Rodrigues
, 116.

[589]
Steichen, 202.

[590]
Ryocho Heijo Roku; Chosen Seibatsu-ki; Razan Hideyoshi-ju
, in Stramigioli, 114-115;
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 112-113 (9/Sonjo 29; Oct. 1596); Han Chi-yun, “Haedong yoksa,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 211-212.

[591]
Sin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in
Saryoro bonun
, 213-215.

[592]
Sonjo sujong sillok
, vol. 4, 114-115 (12/Sonjo 29; Jan.-Feb. 1597).