Migrant and Border Subjects in Late Chosŏn Korea by Adam Clarence Immanuel Bohnet A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto @ Copyright by Adam Clarence Immanuel Bohnet ABSTRACT Migrant and Border Subjects in Late Chosŏn Korea Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Adam Clarence Immanuel Bohnet East Asian Studies University of Toronto This thesis explores the changing approach of the Chosŏn state to subjects with foreign lineages in the period between the Imjin War (1592-98) and the early nineteenth century. Chosŏn Korea underwent considerable upheaval during the Imjin War and the wars of the Ming-Qing transition. Many Jurchen subjects of the Chosŏn court were forced from their homes in the Tumen Valley into the banner armies of the rising Qing state, with only a remnant persisting in Chosŏn. Additionally, large numbers of Ming Chinese entered Chosŏn either with the Ming army or as refugees from war in Liaodong. Initially, the Chosŏn state responded to its Jurchen and Ming Chinese subjects primarily through pragmatic concern about the loyalty of these subjects to the Chosŏn and the burden they imposed on the agricultural economy. As a result, the Chosŏn court welcomed and even defended the Jurchen as established Chosŏn subjects but was cautious of the more alien Ming deserters and refugees. Ming migrant status did not improve during the remainder of the seventeenth century. Ming Chinese lineages were considered, along with Jurchen and Japanese, within the same invidious submitting foreigner tax category. During the same period fraudulent Ming migrants became a focus for sedition among non-elites. The eighteenth century rise of Ming Loyalist ritualism transformed the response of the Chosŏn court to such foreign lineages as ii Ming migrant lineages were encouraged to participate in court-sponsored Ming loyalist rituals. Along with this ritual participation Ming migrant status was transformed from that of submitting foreigners to that of imperial subjects, while Jurchen and Japanese lineages disappeared. At the same time, hagiographic biographies were written of the original Ming Chinese refugees which praised them for coming to Chosŏn because of Neo-Confucian loyalty to the Ming. The Chosŏn state responded to foreign lineages according to changing circumstances. Neo-Confucian ritualism only played a role in response to Ming lineages in the eighteenth century when earlier concerns about disloyalty and social disruption had largely passed. iii Acknowledgements Numerous people have helped me complete this dissertation. Especially, I thank my supervisor, Prof. Andre Schmid, whose scholarly rigour and friendly nature have made him an ideal supervisor. Many thanks are also due to my external examiner, Prof. Pamela Kyle Crossley, whose work I have admired since my first year at the University of Toronto, and who kindly took the time to comment on my dissertation. I am also in debt to my advisors, Prof. Robert Binnick, who taught me the Manchu language and made enormous efforts on my behalf, and Prof. Vincent Shen, who has fed my interest in Confucianism and Daoism, and who has saved me from numerous errors in my translations from Classical Chinese. I also received considerable assistance from Prof. Rick Guisso and Prof. Timothy Brook. During my research year in Sogang University, Prof. Kim Han’gyu and Prof. Chung Doohee of Sogang University, Prof. Jung Ji-Young of Ehwa Women’s University and Prof. Kenneth Robinson of International Christian University all took time out of their busy schedules to help me with my project. I also owe gratitude to Prof. Kenneth Swope of Ball State University who has been providing me with useful advice since I met him in Seoul, as well as to Prof. Gari Ledyard of Columbia University and Prof. Han Myŏng’gi of Myongji University. As I finish this dissertation, I also think back on my time as an MA student in Kangwon National University under Prof. Lee Kwang-Rae. I still owe enormous thanks to Prof. Kwang- Rae Lee for encouraging me to grow as a scholar, Prof. Lee Ae-hee and Dr. Kim Ch’ŏrhun for teaching me classical Chinese, Prof. Nam Sang-Ho for his inspiring instruction on Confucianism and Daoism, Prof. Yu Sŏngsŏn and Prof. Ch’oi Hee-bong for scholarly inspiration, friendship, iv and editing help, and finally numerous graduate and undergraduate students, in particular Ŏm Myŏngsu and Paek Sungyŏn, for camaraderie and frequent editing help. My research in the University of Toronto was made possible by the University of Toronto Fellowship and also by a grant from the OGS. My research in Seoul was made possible by the grant, for a year, of the Korea Foundation Fellowship for Field Research, and by a half-year fellowship from the Yonsei University Institute of Korean Studies. I am extremely grateful for that support. I have also tested the patience of numerous librarians, especially those in the University of Toronto East Asian Library, the Kyujanggak Library in Seoul National University, and the Asian Library in the University of British Columbia. Much of the second chapter of this dissertation was previously published as “ ‘On either side the River:’ The rise of the Manchu State and Chosŏn’s Jurchen Subjects,” in Toronto Studies in Central and Inner Asia 9 (2008). I thank Ms. Gillian Long and Prof. Michael Gervers for allowing me present the paper at their annual conference, for providing considerable editing support as I prepared the paper for publication, and finally, for permitting me to republish substantial portions of that article in my dissertation. Portions of the fifth and sixth chapters were presented orally at the Second International Korean Studies Workshop at Kyushu University (2007), the Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) at the University of Victoria (2008), the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Conference (2007), and a panel organized by Dr. Isabelle Sancho in the 2008 AAS in Atlanta. I thank many commentators for their criticisms during these conferences. I also acknowledge the generous support of the University of Toronto East Asian Studies Department and Northeast Asia Council of the AAS which made my trip to Atlanta possible, and that of the Korea Foundation and Kyushu University which made my trip to Japan possible. v I owe enormous debts of friendship to my fellow graduate students at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, including, but not limited to, Dr. Gwen Guo, Darryl Sterk, Dr. Ihor Pidhainy, Lidu Yi, Merose Hwang, Desmond Cheung, Christina Han, Ko Sunho and Timothy Sedo; I would thank them all individually but then this list would become much too long. I also received considerable assistance from graduate students at other institutions including Yi Kyŏngsun, Pu Misŏn and Dr. Chŏng Myŏn, all of Sogang University, Joshua Van Lieu of the University of Washington, and Dane Hunter Alston of Australian National University. I have been receiving love and scholarly encouragement throughout my life from my family, including my parents Artur and Sarah, my sisters Tamsin, Felicity and Gillian, my nephew Griffin and my niece Anthea. I would like to thank my wife’s parents, her brother, Hong Ch’ihwa and her sister, Hong Ŭnhwa, for their help during my recent stays in Korea. Especially, however, I thank my wife, Young-Hwa, for sharing all my joys and hardships and for enduring me and my dissertation for these years. Without her unflagging support this thesis could never have been written. I dedicate this dissertation to her. vi Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….ii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………………………….iv Chosŏn Reign Dates…………………………..……………………………………………………………………….ix Late Ming Reign Titles…………………………………………………………………………………………………x Later Jin and Qing Reign Titles…………………………………………………………………………………….x English Translations of Titles……………………………………………………………………………………….x Citation Conventions…………………………………………………………………………………………………...xiv Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..…1 1.1) Ming Chinese and Jurchen in Late Chosŏn Korea……………………….…..……1 1.2) Sino-Korean Relations and Migrant Communities………………….………….…3 1.3) Aliens and Subjects : Social Status and Belonging in Late Chosŏn………12 1.4) Migrant Lineage and Ming Loyalism……………………….…………….……………24 1.5) Conclusion: Approaches and Sources……………………………….…………………27 Chapter 2: Chosŏn’s Jurchen Subjects and the Rise of the Manchu State…………………..36 2.1) Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….36 2.2) Porous Frontier: the Pŏnho and the Six Garrisons……………………..……………40 2.3) Han of All the Jurchen……………………………………………………………………………..59 2.4) Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..……………………..74 Chapter 3: Ming Chinese in Chosŏn……………………………………………………………………………78 3.1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………….….78 3.2) Ming Deserters during the Imjin War………………………………………………..…….81 3.3) Liaodongese Refugees Following the Battle of Fushun………………………..….92 3.4) Changing Clothes: Flexible Cultural and Political Loyalties……………………109 3.5) Whose Subject? International Conflict and Ming Migrant Communities…137 3.6) Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….………..152 Chapter 4: From Transforming Foreigners to Imperial Subjects – the Ritual Transformation of Migrant Communities………………………………………………………………………………………………….154 vii 4.1) Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………154 4.2) Transforming Foreigner Status in the Late Chosŏn……………………………………157 4.3) Rectification of Names: