Early in the seventeenth century, Northeast Asian politics hung in a delicate balance among the Chosŏn dynasty in Korea, the Ming in China, and the Manchu. When a Chosŏn faction realigned Korea with the Ming, the Manchu attacked in 1627 and again a decade later, shattering the Chosŏn-Ming alliance and forcing Korea to support the newly founded Qing dynasty.
The Korean scholar-official Na Man’gap (1592–1642) recorded the second Manchu invasion in his Diary of 1636, the only first-person account chronicling the dramatic Korean resistance to the attack. Partly composed as a narrative of quotidian events during the siege of Namhan Mountain Fortress, where Na sought refuge with the king and other officials, the diary recounts Korean opposition to Manchu and Mongol forces and the eventual surrender. Na describes military campaigns along the northern and western regions of the country, the capture of the royal family, and the Manchu treatment of prisoners, offering insights into debates about Confucian loyalty and the conduct of women that took place in the war’s aftermath. His work sheds light on such issues as Confucian statecraft, military decision making, and ethnic interpretations of identity in the seventeenth century. Translated from literary Chinese into English for the first time, the diary illuminates a traumatic moment for early modern Korean politics and society. George Kallander’s critical introduction and extensive annotations place The Diary of 1636 in its historical, political, and military context, highlighting the importance of this text for students and scholars of Chinese and East Asian as well as Korean history.
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Dramatis Personae
- Translator’s Note
- Early Complications
- Daily Records After Urgent Reports from the Frontier
- Record of Loyalists Everywhere
- Kanghwa Island Records
- Records of Several People Who Rejected Peace Negotiations and Died of Righteousness
- Miscellaneous Notes Concerning What Happened After the Upheaval
- Record of Ch’ŏngŭm’s Slandering
- Humiliation Received from the Qing
- Glossary of Names, Terms, and Places
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Text
Àudio
Adobe DRM
Introduïu al vostre compte