Bridled Tigers: the Military at Korea's Northern Border, 1800–1863
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 Bridled Tigers: The Military At Korea’s Northern Border, 1800–1863 Alexander Thomas Martin University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Alexander Thomas, "Bridled Tigers: The Military At Korea’s Northern Border, 1800–1863" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3499. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3499 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3499 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bridled Tigers: The Military At Korea’s Northern Border, 1800–1863 Abstract The border, in late Chosŏn rhetoric, was an area of pernicious wickedness; living near the border made the people susceptible to corruption and violence. For Chosŏn ministers in the nineteenth century, despite two hundred years of peace, the threat remained. At the same time, the military institutions created to contain it were failing. For much of the late Chosŏn the site of greatest concern was the northern border in P’yŏngan and Hamgyŏng provinces, as this area was the site of the largest rebellion and most foreign incursions in the first half of the nineteenth century. This study takes the northern border as the most fruitful area for an inquiry into the Chosŏn dynasty’s conceptions of and efforts at border defense. Using government records, reports from local officials, literati writings, and local gazetteers, this study provides a multifaceted image of the border and Chosŏn policies to control it. This study reveals that Chosŏn Korea’s concept of border defense prioritized containment over confrontation, and that their policies were successful in managing the border until the arrival of Western imperial powers whose invasions upended Chosŏn leaders’ notions of national defense. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Siyen Fei Keywords Borders, Bureaucracy, Korea, National Defense, Qing Subject Categories Asian History | History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3499 BRIDLED TIGERS: THE MILITARY AT KOREA’S NORTHERN BORDER, 1800–1863 Alexander Thomas Martin A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Supervisor of Dissertation ____________________________ Siyen Fei Associate Professor of History Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________________ Benjamin Nathans, Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Christopher P. Atwood, University of Pennsylvania Professor, Mongolian and Chinese Frontier & Ethnic History Sun Joo Kim, Harvard University Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History This work is dedicated to: My wife, Audrey, whose unstinting love and support over these many years has made all of this possible. My children, Wencel and Lewan, so they can finally see what dad’s work entailed. And to my parents, Patrick and Loraine, whose confidence in their son’s abilities never waned. ii iii ABSTRACT BRIDLED TIGERS: THE MILITARY AT KOREA’S NORTHERN BORDER, 1800–1863 Alexander Thomas Martin Siyen Fei The border, in late Chosŏn rhetoric, was an area of pernicious wickedness; living near the border made the people susceptible to corruption and violence. For Chosŏn ministers in the nineteenth century, despite two hundred years of peace, the threat remained. At the same time, the military institutions created to contain it were failing. For much of the late Chosŏn the site of greatest concern was the northern border in P’yŏngan and Hamgyŏng provinces, as this area was the site of the largest rebellion and most foreign incursions in the first half of the nineteenth century. This study takes the northern border as the most fruitful area for an inquiry into the Chosŏn dynasty’s conceptions of and efforts at border defense. Using government records, reports from local officials, literati writings, and local gazetteers, this study provides a multifaceted image of the border and Chosŏn policies to control it. This study reveals that Chosŏn Korea’s concept of border defense prioritized containment over confrontation, and that their policies were successful in managing the border until the arrival of Western imperial powers whose invasions upended Chosŏn leaders’ notions of national defense. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................................. VI INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 I. Isolation and Reform............................................................................................................................. 5 II. Borders of Empire ............................................................................................................................. 10 III. Regional Discrimination................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 1: PROTECTION FOR WHOM? ................................................................ 22 I. The Provincial Military ....................................................................................................................... 23 II. Rethinking National Defense ............................................................................................................. 37 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 64 CHAPTER 2: THE VALUE OF VIRTUE ....................................................................... 67 I. The Border Counties ........................................................................................................................... 69 II. Official Appointments at the Border ................................................................................................ 79 III. Tenure and Removal ........................................................................................................................ 85 IV. Age and Experience .......................................................................................................................... 90 V. Multiple Border Postings and the Benefits of Specialization ........................................................... 98 VI. Career Paths and the Value of Virtue ........................................................................................... 101 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 110 CHAPTER 3: THE THREAT OF ILLEGALS ............................................................. 113 I. Drawing Borders ............................................................................................................................... 115 v II. Border Violations ............................................................................................................................. 123 III. The Four Abandoned Counties and Kanggye ............................................................................... 133 IV. A Breach of the Border .................................................................................................................. 142 V. Ch’osan’s Mistakes Exposed ........................................................................................................... 153 VI. Destruction in Earnest .................................................................................................................... 155 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 162 CHAPTER 4: A LIFE SO ORDINARY .......................................................................... 167 I. Hoeryŏng Defense Command ........................................................................................................... 169 II. Local Life ......................................................................................................................................... 173 III. Bureaucratic Connections .............................................................................................................. 189 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................ 216 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ 216 Primary Sources ................................................................................................................................... 216 Secondary Sources ...............................................................................................................................