A Korean War Captive in Japan, 1597–1600

The Writings of Kang Hang

JaHyun Kim Haboush, Kenneth Robinson

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780231535113
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia giapponese

Kang Hang was a Korean scholar-official taken prisoner in 1597 by an invading Japanese army during the Imjin War of 1592–1598. While in captivity in Japan, Kang recorded his thoughts on human civilization, war, and the enemy's culture and society, acting in effect as a spy for his king. Arranged and printed in the seventeenth century as Kanyangnok, or The Record of a Shepherd, Kang's writings were extremely valuable to his government, offering new perspective on a society few Koreans had encountered in 150 years and new information on Japanese politics, culture, and military organization.

In this complete, annotated translation of Kanyangnok, Kang ruminates on human behavior and the nature of loyalty during a time of war. A neo-Confucianist with a deep knowledge of Chinese philosophy and history, Kang drew a distinct line between the Confucian values of his world, which distinguished self, family, king, and country, and a foreign culture that practiced invasion and capture, and, in his view, was largely incapable of civilization. Relating the experiences of a former official who played an exceptional role in wartime and the rare voice of a Korean speaking plainly and insightfully on war and captivity, this volume enables a deeper appreciation of the phenomenon of war at home and abroad.

1

Encounters with the Adversities of War

ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE SECOND MONTH OF THE CHŎNGYU year [1597], I was granted leave from my post of Assistant Section Chief in the Board of Punishments.¹ I returned home and was looking after my farm in my hometown, Yubong.² On the seventeenth day of the fifth month, Commander Yang [Yuan],³ the Ming general, leading 3,000 soldiers, left Seoul and pressed south to defend Namwŏn against a Japanese attack.⁴ Yi Kwangjŏng, after receiving an order to become the Second Minister of a branch office of the Board of Taxation, was placed in charge of transporting army provisions in Chŏlla Province.⁵ He petitioned the court for personnel. The court assigned the task [of recruiting them] to me and Yun Sŏn,⁶ an Assistant Section Chief in the Board of Rites who lived in Samga [County].⁷ Toward the end of the fifth month, I reported for duty, sending out letters of exhortation [to join the army] (K. kyŏksŏ)⁸ as I went to my post. Lord Yi was busy overseeing food operations at Namwŏn, and he ordered me to hasten the transport [of provisions]. Toward the end of the seventh month, Regional Navy Commander Wŏn Kyun suffered total defeat at Hansan Island,⁹ and the island fell to the enemy.¹⁰ In the middle of the eighth month, enemy troops attacked Namwŏn, and after three days under siege Commander Yang broke through the blockade and escaped to the north. Namwŏn fell.

I was an assistant to the Deputy Minister [Yi Kwangjŏng], and I realized that I did not know the whereabouts of my superior. I ran all day and all night from Hamp’yŏng to Sunch’ang,¹¹ where I learned that Lord Yi had left for the north. I returned to the county and, together with Kim Sangjun, the former magistrate [of Yŏnggwang County] and attendant to the governor, traveled through many towns to distribute letters of exhortation to raise volunteers for the army.¹² Several hundred patriotic scholars came forward. However, a battalion of the enemy already had crossed the Noryŏng mountains,¹³ and there was nowhere along the coastline that they had not infiltrated. The volunteer army of untrained civilians dispersed rapidly. Upon leaving the fort, Master Kim went north, and I returned home. With my elderly parent and children,¹⁴ I went to Nonjap Port.¹⁵ I was in the midst of negotiations to procure a boat when the new governor, Hwang Sin,¹⁶ summoned me to be his assistant. Land routes were already blocked, and I was unable to go.

On the fourteenth day of the ninth month, the enemy was already burning Yŏnggwang, searching every cranny of the mountains and the seas, indiscriminately killing anyone they found. Around ten at night, I boarded a boat. I thought that since my father suffered from seasickness¹⁷ he would have more difficulty in a smaller boat, so I had him go with my uncle’s family. That boat did not have enough room, so my cousins could not board it.¹⁸ They boarded our boat, which already had my family—three sisters-in-law, including the widow of my eldest brother;¹⁹ my wife’s parents and grandparents;²⁰ my wife; and my concubine. My brother-in-law’s father, Sim Anp’yŏng,²¹ and his family were in a desperate situation with nowhere to go, and so, unable to leave them behind, we asked them to come on board. Since the boat was small, with many people aboard, it moved extremely slowly.

On the fifteenth, both of our boats docked at Myodu. There were many hundreds of boats with refugees. We stayed the night there, and the night of the sixteenth, but reached Piroch’o for the night of the seventeenth.²² On the eighteenth, my cousin Hyŏp, serving as a royal messenger, delivered a royal appointment to Yi Sunsin to serve as the new Regional Navy Commander,²³ and he hurriedly left the Right Naval Headquarters to come join us.

On the twentieth, we heard that an enemy fleet of 1,000 ships had come to the Right Naval Headquarters, and Regional Navy Commander Yi, deciding that it was impossible to fight so many with only a few ships, made a strategic move to the west coast. My family—all the men of my father’s and my generations—discussed our destination. Some suggested that we abandon ship and go by land, while some argued that we should go to Hŭksan Island.²⁴ I and two of my cousins, Hyŏp and Hong, forcefully argued: “There are about forty strong men among us in these two boats. We should join Admiral Yi. There is no guarantee that we will be successful in battle, but neither is it true that we will all die.” Thus, we decided [to go to Admiral Yi].

The boatman Mun’gi heard our discussion and decided to take along his four children, who were on Ŏŭi Island at the time.²⁵ In the middle of the night of the twenty-first, while we were sound asleep, taking advantage of a strong wind, he untied the boat. In a split second, our boat separated from my father’s boat. When the boat arrived at Chinwŏl Island,²⁶ we heard that more than ten ships under Admiral Yi had passed by Kakssi Island. We sternly ordered the boatman to turn the ship around to head west. The north wind was so fierce that we could not go up the coast. With the enemy encroaching, father and son were separated from each other. In this desperate situation, we had only boatmen to rely upon. Scolding them was not possible.

On the twenty-second, having heard that my father’s boat had headed toward the salt fields—wrong information, as it turned out—we went to Tangdu in the salt fields,²⁷ but it was not there. Sim Anp’yŏng’s family, thinking that the boat was too crowded, disembarked. Manch’un, a male slave whom I had cared for and relied upon, said that he would fetch water, but ran away.

On the twenty-third, in broad daylight, we headed toward Nonjap Port in the hope of finding my father’s boat. In the fog, a strange-looking ship appeared and approached. The boatman shouted in panic that it was a Japanese ship. Thinking that I had no chance to avoid capture, I threw off my clothes and leaped into the sea. More than half of my family—siblings and their spouses—jumped into the sea with me.

The water was shallow, however. The enemy scooped us all up with hooks, tied us [with rope], and made us stand up. Only two of my maternal cousins, Kim Chuch’ŏn and his brother, and several slaves climbed up a hill, thus managing to escape. When he jumped into the sea, my second eldest brother had on his back the spirit tablets of our deceased mother and eldest brother,²⁸ but when the enemy scooped him up, the tablets were not saved. We had lost our living father and the tablets of our deceased, failing in all our filial duties!

This was not all. We left my young son Yong and my daughter by my concubine, Aesaeng, on the sand at the beach, but they were swallowed by the returning tides. Their cries lasted a while and then went silent. Yong was a child that I had at the late age of thirty. When he was conceived, I had dreamt of a dragon child floating in the water and so named him “Dragon” (K. Yong). Who could have known that he would drown? Everything in this floating life has been destined. It is simply that we do not know.

Attaching our boat to theirs, the Japanese enemy headed south. The wind was strong, and we seemed to be moving as fast as an arrow.

On the twenty-fourth, we arrived ...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents 
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Encounters with the Adversities of War
• 2. An Exhortation to Koreans Still Held Prisoner in Japan
• 3. A Report to the Royal Secretariat on Japanese Social Practices
• 4. A Memorial Sent from Captivity
• 5. Postscript
• Appendix 1. The Eight Circuits and Sixty-six Provinces of Japan
• Appendix 2. Japanese Government Offices
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index