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 surviving 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.
Author(s): J. Marshall Craig
Series: Asian States and Empires
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 202
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of maps
Preface
Acknowledgements
Stylistic conventions
Prologue: witnesses to the largest conflict of the sixteenth century
Never-ending stories
Alternative perspectives on a major historical moment
A question of us and them
Dramatis personae
Xu Yihou, patriot in exile
Yoshino Jingozaemon, warrior of Japan
Oh Hŭimun, refugee in his own land
Hwang Shin, intrepid ambassador
Keinen, reluctant invader
Setting the scene
Japan, Korea, and China ante bellum
War and peace
Notes
References
1 Warning of the tsunami to come: Xu Yihou, patriot in exile
Calm before the storm
Loyalty behind enemy lines
Xu’s actions in his own words
Xu’s intelligence report
Xu on Hideyoshi and Japan
Xu’s view of the world from Japan
China among equals?
Concluding remarks
Notes
References
2 Glory in defeat: Yoshino Jingozaemon, warrior of Japan
Yoshino’s diary
Survival of the text
Yoshino’s story
Japan against the world
Three lands
Land of the Gods and Korea
Past glory and present defeat
The Japanese in Chosŏn
Gods of war
Us and them
Enter the dragon
Honourable discharge
One tale among many
Conclusions
Notes
References
3 Between a tiger and wolves: Oh Hŭimun, refugee in his own land
The author
The diary
1592–1593, ‘over by new year’
1593, Chinese insult to Japanese injury
1593–1594, surviving disease and famine
1594, living with the Japanese
1594–1595, everyday life continues
1596, the prospect of peace
Reflections
Notes
References
4 When peace broke: Hwang Shin, intrepid ambassador
Peace process 1593–1596
Two ambassadors, two diaries
The diary of Hwang Shin
The diary of Pak Hongjang
Osaka and Hideyoshi’s wrath
Return from Japan
Attitudes towards Koreans in Japan
Japan and the Japanese
Conclusions
Notes
References
5 Descent into hell: Keinen, reluctant invader
The author
The diary
Keinen’s journey: through hell to paradise
Crossing into the unknown
Witness to suffering
Victims and perpetrators
Axis mundi
Enemy at the gates
Land of the Gods
Return
Afterword
Notes
References
6 A world connected: Oh Hŭimun, one among many
1597, the second invasion
Joined in communication
Separated by class
1597–1598, end game
1598, peace at last
The Ming in Chosŏn: a dangerous spectacle
A Ming monument in Chosŏn
Chosŏn for the Chinese
Further thoughts
China experienced and imagined
A connected world
Class and country
Postscript – beyond the war
Notes
References
7 Post war: stories retold, countries reimagined
Post war
Selective memories
Reversion to type: un-learning about the Japanese
China the unassailable: from might to right
When China bowed to Japan: a story long in the making
China, Korea, and Japan lived and imagined
Notes
References
Epilogue: the war of 1592–1598 and national identity
Defining the ‘nation’
Culture as identity
Imagined communities
Mass participation
To be or not to be a nation
The limits of definition
Notes
References
Index
