End of Joseon

Between 1592 and 1910 Joseon was invaded by Japan, invaded twice by the Manchus, forced open by Japan in 1876, shaken by a peasant revolution, renamed an empire and then annexed. This chapter covers that long stretch in outline. The two centuries between 1637 and 1864 get only a short reading, and I say where it is thin.

The Imjin War, 1592 to 1598

The invasions article gives 23 May 1592 to 16 December 1598, with a first invasion in 1592, a truce in 1596 and a second invasion in 1597 (the "Chŏngyu War"), and lists the result as "Joseon and Ming victory", with territorial change "status quo ante bellum". It gives several motives for Hideyoshi: legitimising his rule, reducing dependence on the imperial family, fulfilling Oda Nobunaga's plans and keeping a newly unified Japan united against an outside enemy. The lead says the invasions were launched "to conquer Korea", while the Background says the plan was ultimately to invade China; the two are not identical. It says Ming reinforcements and Joseon naval disruption of Japanese supply forced withdrawal from the northern provinces, and that civilian militias fought guerrilla campaigns.

Yi Sun-sin

The Yi Sun-sin article gives his life as 28 April 1545 to 16 December 1598. He passed the military examination in 1576 (after breaking a leg in the cavalry section and re-entering), took command of the Left Jeolla Naval District at Yeosu on 13 March 1591 and was appointed Naval Commander of the Three Provinces in 1593. The article says he "designed and built" the turtle ships, giving a length of 65 feet and a spiked, planked deck against boarding.

• Victories as given. Okpo (June 1592): 91 ships after joining Won Gyun, with 11 Japanese ships destroyed at Jeokjinpo and no Korean ship lost. Hansan Island (August 1592): about 70 Korean ships against 82 Japanese, with Japan losing 59 (47 destroyed, 12 captured). Myeongnyang (October 1597): 13 ships against about 333 Japanese (133 warships and at least 200 support ships), with about 31 destroyed or damaged and "around ten casualties" for Joseon.
• Hedges. The article says he fought "at least 23" battles and won all of them, but a cited Korean source disputes that count. It gives his birthplace two ways (Euljiro-dong in the infobox, Geoncheon-dong in the body), says he was spared execution once in one section and "twice" in another, and does not explain how the fleet rose from 13 ships after Chilcheonryang to 82 panokseon at Noryang. Several sections, including honours, are tagged for missing citations.
• Dismissal. The article says he refused a court-ordered ambush, citing sunken rocks and distrust of the message; rivals had him replaced by Won Gyun, arrested, taken to Seoul and tortured. Jeong Tak helped secure a reprieve; he was demoted to common soldier under Gwon Yul. Won Gyun's fleet was destroyed at Chilcheonryang on 28 August 1597, and Yi was reinstated.
• Noryang. He died on 16 December 1598, struck near the left armpit by a stray arquebus bullet. The article quotes him as saying: "The war is at its height – wear my armor and beat my war drums. Do not announce my death."
• Legacy. The article lists posthumous titles including Chungmugong, the 100-won coin, a 2019 Gallup Korea poll giving him 14% as the top figure, his war diary Nanjung ilgi on UNESCO's Memory of the World list, and the 2014 film The Admiral: Roaring Currents, reported as the most-watched film in South Korean history. It says Tōgō Heihachirō and other Japanese figures praised him.

The Manchu Invasions

The Qing invasion article says a Later Jin invasion in 1627 preceded the war (no month given). The main invasion ran from 9 December 1636 to 30 January 1637, and Hanseong's garrisons were defeated on 14 December. Joseon was ambivalent toward the Qing: the Later Jin accused it of harbouring fugitives and feeding Ming armies grain, and Joseon did not recognise Hong Taiji's new dynasty.

• Siege. King Injo took refuge at Namhansanseong with about 13,800 people and short provisions, besieged by Hong Taiji's main division of about 70,000. Dorgon occupied Ganghwa Island on 27 January 1637, and Injo surrendered the next day (28 January is my inference).
• Terms. Injo gave up his Ming seals and three pro-war officers and performed the kowtow ritual (three kneels, nine bows) at Samjeondo. The seven terms, paraphrased: drop Ming naming and seals; send two royal princes as hostages and adopt the Qing calendar; receive Qing envoys with Ming-style ritual; supply troops; build no new fortresses; refuse Qing defectors; pay annual tribute.
• Hostages. The article never names Crown Prince Sohyeon; it says "the crown prince of Joseon and his younger brother were taken as hostages", the younger brother later becoming Hyojong, who spent seven years in Mukden.
• Effects. Joseon became a Qing tributary and cut ties with the Ming. The article says many Korean women were kidnapped and raped, that families often rejected them and that the government refused divorce requests; in 1648 Joseon was forced to provide royal princesses as concubines to Dorgon. A Manchu-language interpreter corps was trained from 1639 to 1894. The article claims the invasion had a deeper psychological impact on Korea than the Japanese invasions, citing Lee (2017).
• Figures. Qing strength 100,000 (infobox); Joseon 80,000 to 90,000 (tagged [citation needed] and not reconciled with the 13,800, 15,000 and 5,000 in the text); casualties "Unknown".

Late Joseon, 1637 to 1864: A Short Reading

This section is short because my sources were thin. The Joseon article's late-period text (read through to Gojong's accession) covers the kings and a few themes; the pages I tried for the Uniform Land Tax Law (Daedongbeop), "sedo politics", the Andong Kim clan and Hong Gyeong-nae's rebellion returned errors, so those topics rest on one-line mentions at most. It should not be read as a full account of the period.

• After the invasions. The Joseon article says Hyojong (r. 1649 to 1659) "tried to form an army to keep his enemies away and conquer the Qing for revenge, but could never act on his designs". It describes the "Little China ideology, known as sojunghwa", adopted after the Qing overthrew the Ming, and says the court kept using Ming reign periods long after submitting to the Qing. Hendrick Hamel left Korea in 1666 "after more than thirteen years of captivity" (the person behind the spelling "Korea" in Korean History 1). The Kyŏngsin and Eulbyeong famines "may have killed 23–33%" of the population, with "hundreds of thousands" of deaths possible; the portion read gives no years for them.
• Yeongjo (r. 1724 to 1776). The Yeongjo article gives 11 October 1724 to 22 April 1776. It describes the Tangpyeong policy as one of reconciling factions, with "a strict numerical balance of officials from opposing factions in key government offices", and gives no start date. It says he "reduced the military service tax by half", with the shortfall to be covered by taxes on fisheries, salt and vessels and an added land tax. In 1762 he ordered Crown Prince Sado "into a wooden rice chest on a hot July day"; Sado was declared dead on the eighth day, and the article notes that a nineteenth-century rumour of a court plot is contradicted by Lady Hyegyeong's memoirs and the Annals. His mother, Concubine Suk, is described as "low-born". The article's claim that he was "the first king to take action against" Catholic activity has no citation. His accession followed the 1721 Shinim literati purge, and the article says many historians now believe food poisoning caused his predecessor Gyeongjong's death, which the Soron had blamed on him.
• Jeongjo (r. 1776 to 1800). The Jeongjo article gives 22 April 1776 to 18 August 1800 (the coronation is dated 10 March 1776 in the body and 27 April in the infobox). He founded Kyujanggak as a royal library, and the Joseon article says he opened some government posts to people previously barred by status. He moved the court to Suwon near his father's grave and built Hwaseong Fortress to guard it; the article gives no construction dates. The 1791 Sinhae Tonggong law let anyone sell goods at market, ending a right reserved to capital merchant groups, but the article sources this to a page it tags as possibly unreliable. Opponents called him "Son of a prisoner" or "Son of a madman". He died "suddenly under uncertain circumstances".
• Silhak. The Silhak article describes "practical learning" as a late-Joseon reform movement responding to Neo-Confucianism's "increasingly metaphysical nature" between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, led by scholars mostly from excluded factions. Figures it names: Yu Hyeong-won (1622 to 1673, "sometimes considered" first generation, proposing a public land system), Yi Ik (1681 to 1764), Pak Chiwon (Park Ji-won, 1737 to 1805), Pak Chega (Park Je-ga, 1750 to 1815) and Chŏng Yagyong (Jeong Yak-yong, "Dasan", 1762 to 1836). It lists land reform, science, technology exchange and human equality among their arguments. It says nothing on commerce by name, barely covers Western learning and Catholicism, and gives no scholarly debate over the term. The Joseon article names Kim Yuk (1570 to 1658) as a Silhak leader but calls him chief minister of King Hyeonjong, whose reign the article does not date; the tool noted that this does not fit his dates.
• Sunjo and in-law rule (r. 1800 to 1834). The Sunjo article gives 18 August 1800 to 13 December 1834 and says he came to the throne at 10. It names Queen Dowager Yesun as regent from 1800 to 1804, whereas the Joseon article says the Noron gained power under Queen Dowager Jeongsun; I do not know whether these are the same person and show both. In 1802 he married a daughter of Kim Jo-sun, a leader of the Andong Kim clan, who the Joseon article says came to dominate the court, adding "These kings had no monarchic authority" and that the period "spanned 60 years". It names no start and end dates and does not name Heonjong or Cheoljong. Sunjo's article says "Despite Sunjo's efforts to reform politics, the fundamental principles of governing deteriorated". Crown Prince Hyomyeong acted as regent from 1827 to 1830 and died on 25 June 1830, with no cause given.
• Unrest and persecution. The Joseon article mentions "ceaseless rebellions in various parts of the country" without naming Hong Gyeong-nae's. The Sunjo article dates a rebellion by Hong Gyeong-nae to 1812 (not 1811) and links wider unrest to disordered state examinations and government corruption, and I read no more. The Joseon article says the Noron regency "initiated a persecution of Catholics" in 1801, and that the Daewongun was "the instrument of the persecution of native and foreign Catholics" leading to the unsuccessful French campaign of 1866. It dates the Donghak insurgency of 1862 to 1864 under Choe Je-u, executed in 1864. It does not mention Jinju, the Uniform Land Tax Law or the 1839 persecution.
• Gojong. The Joseon article says Queen Sinjeong "selected Gojong" and that he "took the throne" in 1863, while its infobox gives 1864 to 1897.

Opening the Ports: 1876

• Background. Cheoljong died in January 1864 and Gojong became king at age 12, with his father the Daewongun ruling in his name and pursuing isolation. The General Sherman affair (1866) and the 1871 US expedition failed to open Korea; Japan's 1869 letter was rejected because it implied Japanese superiority.
• Ganghwa incident. On 20 September 1875 the Japanese gunboat Un'yō surveyed the coast; a shore party landed on Ganghwa Island and fighting followed. The article says 35 Korean soldiers died.
• The treaty. Signed 26 February 1876 by Kuroda Kiyotaka and Shin Heon, with "gunboat diplomacy". Article 1 declared Korea "an independent state enjoying the same sovereign rights as does Japan"; Article 4 ended Tsushima's intermediary role; Article 5 opened Pusan and provided for surveys to select two more ports; Article 7 let Japanese mariners survey Korean coastal waters; Article 10 granted extraterritoriality to Japanese nationals.
• Characterisation. The article calls it "unequal" and "the first of many unequal treaties", saying it made Korea vulnerable. That is the article's assessment. It names Pusan only in the treaty section and says in the Aftermath that three ports opened, Busan, Incheon and Wonsan, without explaining how the other two were chosen.

The Donghak Revolution, 1894 to 1895

The article describes Donghak as a religion founded by Choe Je-u, a syncretic mix of monotheism, shamanism and folk belief that promoted equality; the government banned it and executed him (1864 in one place, 1863 in another). The immediate cause of the revolt was the conduct of the magistrate Jo Byeong-gap at Gobu. About a thousand rebels gathered there on 10 January 1894 (11 January in the infobox), led by Jeon Bong-jun, and took Jeonju Fortress. The Treaty of Jeonju (7 May 1894) ended the fighting; Hong Gye-hun accepted twelve rebel demands, including punishing corrupt officials, freeing slaves and lowering taxes.

• Foreign troops. In late April 1894 the government asked China and Japan for help. The lead says 2,700 Qing soldiers; the body says 1,500 Qing troops and 6,000 Japanese landed at Incheon on 3 May. The article says this led to the First Sino-Japanese War, which ended Chinese influence in Korea.
• Ugeumchi. The second revolt met defeat at Ugeumchi (8 to 10 November 1894), where Japanese firepower was decisive. Jeon dissolved the army on 28 November, and an attack at Jonggok on 18 December 1894 killed most of the remaining Northern rebels.
• Figures. The infobox gives 6,000 Korean soldiers killed, about 200 Japanese killed and "tens to hundreds of thousands" killed from both rebel groups; strength ranges are very wide (15,000 to 300,000 southern rebels), and the Ugeumchi army is variously 25,000 to 200,000.
• Not read. The Gabo Reforms are only linked in the article, and I read none; the "Fall", "Legacy" and "Controversies" sections were cut off.

The Korean Empire, 1897 to 1910

• Proclamation. Gojong was crowned at Hwangudan in October 1897 and named the state Daehan. The article says officials urged an empire to strengthen the country and keep independence after the First Sino-Japanese War, and that the 1899 constitution gave the emperor full authority. Its claim that the Qing opposed the empire most explicitly is tagged [citation needed].
• Gwangmu Reform. The article's section on it is empty. The only figures I have are its table: tax revenue rising from about 4.56 million won (1895) to about 14.96 million won (1905).
• 1904 and 1905. On 22 August 1904 the First Japan–Korea Convention allowed a Japanese garrison. The Taft–Katsura memorandum (17 July 1905) was, the article says, "not actually a secret pact". The Eulsa Treaty was signed on 17 November 1905; of the eight ministers present, the article says three opposed it, and Itō Hirobumi became Resident-General on 1 February 1906. The article reports that Gojong sought "to manifest the invalidity" of the treaty and that Koreans resisted, some by suicide; it does not state Japan's position.
• 1907. Gojong sent emissaries to the Hague (infobox: 15 June 1907) to repudiate the Eulsa Treaty; they were "not accorded recognition". Gojong abdicated on 19 July 1907 and was succeeded by Sunjong. The article links the abdication to the emissary affair and protests but does not use the word "forced". The army was disbanded on 1 August 1907 (31 July in another section); Major Park Seung-hwan's suicide sparked a revolt and the battle at Namdaemun Gate.

Annexation, 1910

The annexation treaty was signed on 22 August 1910 and proclaimed on 29 August 1910, which the article says "officially start[ed]" Japanese rule. The signatories were Yi Wan-yong (spelled Ye Wanyong, Yi Wan-yong and Lee Wan-yong in the same article), Prime Minister of the Korean Empire, and Count Terauchi Masatake, Resident-General. The article says the 1905 treaty made Korea a protectorate and the 1907 treaty removed its administration of internal affairs.

What to Take from This

My own reading, unverified: three of the chapter's turning points share a feature, a document whose legal force is argued about afterwards, the 1876 treaty's "independent state" clause, the 1905 treaty without Gojong's consent and the 1910 treaty's signatures. The sources give the argument; the pattern is mine.

What the Sources Left Open

• Every Imjin War figure: forces, losses, the first phase's end, and whether Hideyoshi's aim was Korea or China.
• How many battles Yi Sun-sin fought, and how his fleet recovered from 13 ships.
• The Joseon and Qing strengths in 1636 to 1637, and Sohyeon's name.
• Most of 1637 to 1864: the Uniform Land Tax Law, sedo politics, Heonjong and Cheoljong, the Jinju uprising, and the Gabo and Gwangmu Reforms.
• Whether the 1905 and 1910 treaties were valid, and what Sunjong signed.
• Choe Je-u's execution year (1863 or 1864) and the Qing troop count in 1894.

Exercises

Next: Korean History 8 follows Japanese rule from 1910 to liberation in 1945.