Because Geum is not used on surnames only Kim or Gim would be used on a surname for example a person who migrated to Korea with the surname Jin from China would be a Kim in Korea..
The Geum Dynasty
- Thread starter tormsen
- Start date
Because Geum is not used on surnames only Kim or Gim would be used on a surname for example a person who migrated to Korea with the surname Jin from China would be a Kim in Korea..
This is true, but just because it's not used in surnames doesn't mean it couldn't or wouldn't be used as a dynastic name.
Okay, but there is a rumor that the Jurchen Jin dynasty founder was from Goryeo/Silla who had a Kim surname..
Yes, I've heard that.
My main problem is that when I think of the Kim dynasty I automatically think of North Korea and that Kim dynasty.
Plus, there's the fact that the Korean name for the Jin dynasty in OTL is 금나라/Geumnara, and not Kim which as far as I know is only used for surnames. The Korean name for the Manchu dynasty during the OTL invasion that I have riffed from is actually 후금/Hugeum, or Latter Jin but for reasons that will be explained they're lose the "Latter" part ITTL.
The end of the Mongol incursion did not by any means mean that the northwestern frontier was safe. Mao Wendong’s forward position at Jinzhou would see frequent raids into Manchu territory for the years ahead. However, unlike Yuan Chonghuan who had sought to retake the frontier province of Liaodong, Mao’s raids were largely a elaborate shows to maintain his reputation in the courts in Beijing without any actual disruption of the status quo. A modicum of trade even resumed, as merchants from Shandong, Tianjin and Jiangnan seeking safe passage through to Korea were accomodated on both sides of the Liao river to trade for grain, clothes, furs, handcrafted products and ginseng. However, Hong Taegeuk realized that a level of militarization along the border was going to be necessary for security, and as well that any expansion to the west would risk further alliances between the Mongols and the Ming.
Priorities had quickly changed for the Manchus, as they were now far too invested in their Korean conquests to pull out of the peninsula. After returning to Hanseong, Hong Taegeuk was requested by many of the Korean courtiers there to declare a new dynasty. This might seem surprising to modern ears, but the logic was sound. Those who had declared themselves for the Manchus preferred to be known in history as being part of a new dynasty, rather than simply the craven pawns of the Orangkae barbarians. With the unfortunate death of the Gwanghaegun there seemed little other option, and many hoped that a Manchu-dominated state would see the end of the factional politics that had wracked and paralysed the Joseon. To Hong Taegeuk, this rapidly sounded increasingly appealing. He dreamed of being Emperor, and taking the throne in Korea would ensure his power would allow his power to supercede the collegial system of rulership established by his father Nurhaci on his deathbed. Regardless, at this point the threat from both the Ming and the Mongols meant that maintaining a capital at Mukden was too precarious.
It was New Years of 1628 when Hong Taegeuk declared himself as Gan (간 | 干) of the Geum (금 | 金), or Golden, dynasty in a ceremony which saw the former courtiers of the Joseon prostrate themselves before their new leader followed by the sacrifice of an ox and a goat, and a great feast. The title of Gan was derived from both the Manchu-Mongolian title Khan as well as a title used in the ancient Korean Shilla dynasty, and it represented a reluctance to use the title of Emperor while generals such as Daisan and Manggultai remained powerful and his technical equals amongst the Manchu.
The regime's name on the other hand was a direct reference to the name of the Manchu dynasty, that of Amaga Aisin Gurun, or Later Jin Dynasty. The Later Jin dynasty was considered a successor to the Jurchen Jin dynasty that held sway over northern China in the 12th and 13th century. There were some calls to choose a new nam, but it was decided to maintain this link to the past to emphasize the Manchu nature of the government and to maintain a claimed political equality with the Ming in China and the claims of Yuan dynasty heritage held by Ejei Khagan.
The administrative capital of the state was to be shifted from Mukden to Hanseong, which was quickly renamed. Hanseong translated as “fortress/city on the Han river”, and this was rendered instead as Sancin, or simply “fortress” in the Manchu language. In future generations, this would be retroactively Koreanized as Sanshin (산신 | 山神), “Mountain God” and claimed to be a reference to Baekdusan, the legendary ancestral home of both the Manchu and Korean peoples.
A number of measures and a range of new laws were passed to ease the transition to the new system. Of particular importance was the standardization of the Eight Korean banners to fight alongside the Manchu and maintain their power on the peninsula, and to do this required the drafting of laws of military occupation, drafting and endless documentation. To serve this end, the Joseon bureaucracy was turned to the needs of the new state and would serve in many ways to define it. Though he often despised them, he used them for the most part to nurture a nascent ruling elite composed of a mixture of Manchu, Chinese and trusted Koreans. To this end, many of the Manchu elite were married with the widows or daughters of former Joseon courtiers.
Soon after the declaration of the new dynasty did the most unsettling proclamation emerge, that against the common surname Kim (김). Kim derives from the identical Chinese character, 金, as Geum, the name of the new dynasty and it was decided that that character must be reserved for the imperial house alone. This was also somewhat aimed against the powerful Andong Kim clan, which represented a signficant interest in the resistance to the Manchus. Members of Kim clans were ordered to register with a new name or to lose their family name and become slaves.
A variety of alternatives were chosen from existing family names, some chosen for their similarity: Gam (감 | 甘), Gi (기 | 奇, 箕) and Gil (길 | 吉) being common. Some attempted to use the character 琴, also pronounced Geum and requested to use that while maintaining the Kim pronounciation, but this was rejected as dangerous. Others referenced the origins of the various Kim clans. Many of the large Gyeongju Kim clan decided upon the name of Shin (신 | 新), reference to the Gyeongju Kim clans supposed origin with the royal house of the ancient Shilla dynasty, while Ga (가 | 伽) became popular among the Hamchang Kims, a reference to that branches origin in the ancient Gaya dynasty.
Despite the official pronouncements and lawmaking, however, in many ways the war against the supporters of the Neungyanggun was far from over. The mountainous south east part of the country, centred around Gyongsang province, remained a stronghold of resistance. Despite still referred as the Chinmyeong forces, they were largely isolated from China and instead relied on continued support in the form of weapons, gunpowder and supplies from Japan. The Chinmyeong forces, with an intimate knowledge of the rough terrain of Gyongsang province, were able to outmaneuver and outfight the more numerous Manchu bannermen. It was this theatre therefore, that the Korean Bannermen and as-yet unorganised Chinman forces proved crucial in the campaign. In stark contrast with the conditions in the resistance with against the Mongols, here it was that the Korean excelled and the Manchu was the weak link.
The fighting on the eastern side of the peninsula lasted until 1633 before the Geum forces finally captured Dongnae despite the remnants of the Joseon navy and Japanese supplies. The Neungyanggun continued his trend of flight, however, along with what were left of his supporters and they took refuge in exile in Tsushima at the invitation of the Shogun. Following that, the region of Gyongsang-do was finally suppressed, largely by the efforts of the Korean general Gam Sangyong (감상용 | 甘尙容), formerly Kim Sangyong a general for the Chinmyeong who had defected after the fall of Jeonju. In recognition of his efforts, he was pronounced as the Pyeongyeongnamgan (평영남간 | 平嶺南干) or the "Gan who pacifies the south of the passes" and largely allowed to set up a personal satrapy in the region to see to the further pacification of the region.
Priorities had quickly changed for the Manchus, as they were now far too invested in their Korean conquests to pull out of the peninsula. After returning to Hanseong, Hong Taegeuk was requested by many of the Korean courtiers there to declare a new dynasty. This might seem surprising to modern ears, but the logic was sound. Those who had declared themselves for the Manchus preferred to be known in history as being part of a new dynasty, rather than simply the craven pawns of the Orangkae barbarians. With the unfortunate death of the Gwanghaegun there seemed little other option, and many hoped that a Manchu-dominated state would see the end of the factional politics that had wracked and paralysed the Joseon. To Hong Taegeuk, this rapidly sounded increasingly appealing. He dreamed of being Emperor, and taking the throne in Korea would ensure his power would allow his power to supercede the collegial system of rulership established by his father Nurhaci on his deathbed. Regardless, at this point the threat from both the Ming and the Mongols meant that maintaining a capital at Mukden was too precarious.
It was New Years of 1628 when Hong Taegeuk declared himself as Gan (간 | 干) of the Geum (금 | 金), or Golden, dynasty in a ceremony which saw the former courtiers of the Joseon prostrate themselves before their new leader followed by the sacrifice of an ox and a goat, and a great feast. The title of Gan was derived from both the Manchu-Mongolian title Khan as well as a title used in the ancient Korean Shilla dynasty, and it represented a reluctance to use the title of Emperor while generals such as Daisan and Manggultai remained powerful and his technical equals amongst the Manchu.
The regime's name on the other hand was a direct reference to the name of the Manchu dynasty, that of Amaga Aisin Gurun, or Later Jin Dynasty. The Later Jin dynasty was considered a successor to the Jurchen Jin dynasty that held sway over northern China in the 12th and 13th century. There were some calls to choose a new nam, but it was decided to maintain this link to the past to emphasize the Manchu nature of the government and to maintain a claimed political equality with the Ming in China and the claims of Yuan dynasty heritage held by Ejei Khagan.
The administrative capital of the state was to be shifted from Mukden to Hanseong, which was quickly renamed. Hanseong translated as “fortress/city on the Han river”, and this was rendered instead as Sancin, or simply “fortress” in the Manchu language. In future generations, this would be retroactively Koreanized as Sanshin (산신 | 山神), “Mountain God” and claimed to be a reference to Baekdusan, the legendary ancestral home of both the Manchu and Korean peoples.
A number of measures and a range of new laws were passed to ease the transition to the new system. Of particular importance was the standardization of the Eight Korean banners to fight alongside the Manchu and maintain their power on the peninsula, and to do this required the drafting of laws of military occupation, drafting and endless documentation. To serve this end, the Joseon bureaucracy was turned to the needs of the new state and would serve in many ways to define it. Though he often despised them, he used them for the most part to nurture a nascent ruling elite composed of a mixture of Manchu, Chinese and trusted Koreans. To this end, many of the Manchu elite were married with the widows or daughters of former Joseon courtiers.
Soon after the declaration of the new dynasty did the most unsettling proclamation emerge, that against the common surname Kim (김). Kim derives from the identical Chinese character, 金, as Geum, the name of the new dynasty and it was decided that that character must be reserved for the imperial house alone. This was also somewhat aimed against the powerful Andong Kim clan, which represented a signficant interest in the resistance to the Manchus. Members of Kim clans were ordered to register with a new name or to lose their family name and become slaves.
A variety of alternatives were chosen from existing family names, some chosen for their similarity: Gam (감 | 甘), Gi (기 | 奇, 箕) and Gil (길 | 吉) being common. Some attempted to use the character 琴, also pronounced Geum and requested to use that while maintaining the Kim pronounciation, but this was rejected as dangerous. Others referenced the origins of the various Kim clans. Many of the large Gyeongju Kim clan decided upon the name of Shin (신 | 新), reference to the Gyeongju Kim clans supposed origin with the royal house of the ancient Shilla dynasty, while Ga (가 | 伽) became popular among the Hamchang Kims, a reference to that branches origin in the ancient Gaya dynasty.
Despite the official pronouncements and lawmaking, however, in many ways the war against the supporters of the Neungyanggun was far from over. The mountainous south east part of the country, centred around Gyongsang province, remained a stronghold of resistance. Despite still referred as the Chinmyeong forces, they were largely isolated from China and instead relied on continued support in the form of weapons, gunpowder and supplies from Japan. The Chinmyeong forces, with an intimate knowledge of the rough terrain of Gyongsang province, were able to outmaneuver and outfight the more numerous Manchu bannermen. It was this theatre therefore, that the Korean Bannermen and as-yet unorganised Chinman forces proved crucial in the campaign. In stark contrast with the conditions in the resistance with against the Mongols, here it was that the Korean excelled and the Manchu was the weak link.
The fighting on the eastern side of the peninsula lasted until 1633 before the Geum forces finally captured Dongnae despite the remnants of the Joseon navy and Japanese supplies. The Neungyanggun continued his trend of flight, however, along with what were left of his supporters and they took refuge in exile in Tsushima at the invitation of the Shogun. Following that, the region of Gyongsang-do was finally suppressed, largely by the efforts of the Korean general Gam Sangyong (감상용 | 甘尙容), formerly Kim Sangyong a general for the Chinmyeong who had defected after the fall of Jeonju. In recognition of his efforts, he was pronounced as the Pyeongyeongnamgan (평영남간 | 平嶺南干) or the "Gan who pacifies the south of the passes" and largely allowed to set up a personal satrapy in the region to see to the further pacification of the region.
Last edited:
maverick
Banned
That was a most interesting update. I don't know how this Korean language and naming business works but it was good to see some focus on that as opposed to the usual military and political events.
But now that the heart of the Manchu Empire is in Korea rather than in Liaodong, how will the new Dynasty develop? Will they try to build a powerful navy with which to suppress China's own naval and commercial power as opposed to smashing their cavalry against the cannons of Jinzhou and Ningyuan?
Would they have the Apartheid system of sorts that they instituted in China IOTL? Could the Manchu be absorbed by the Korean locals and forget China?
I have a theory about what will happen with Yuan, Mao and the Geum but I'm going to save it for myself in the off-chance that I'm right and end up spoiling everything.
But now that the heart of the Manchu Empire is in Korea rather than in Liaodong, how will the new Dynasty develop? Will they try to build a powerful navy with which to suppress China's own naval and commercial power as opposed to smashing their cavalry against the cannons of Jinzhou and Ningyuan?
Would they have the Apartheid system of sorts that they instituted in China IOTL? Could the Manchu be absorbed by the Korean locals and forget China?
I have a theory about what will happen with Yuan, Mao and the Geum but I'm going to save it for myself in the off-chance that I'm right and end up spoiling everything.
Yeah, as I was writing it I was thinking "Probably no one cares about this but me, but I'll include it anyway".
The Koreans certainly have naval expertise in this era, and there may be a couple of serious naval rivals appearing soon. Hell, the Ming might start getting spooked, they always considered a naval invasion up the Grand Canal a greater threat than the horse barbarians.
There will be, but it's necessarily going to develop and manifest very differently. The Qing ruled a multinational empire with the Han taking the largest component, while the Geum are mostly Korean dominated by Manchu with some Chinese off to the side. The dynamic is different.
As for China, well it really depends. It could be possible to see the Geum expand into China in ITTL as in OTL, but right now they're somewhat occupied. And they might just let the opportunity pass them by...
Tell me later, after I reveal my plans. I have dropped a couple of very subtle hints.That's a damn good question. The Joseon referred to the country as, well, Joseon. But the Geum are likely to change that. One possibility is the name Sukshin, which is based on Chinese characters taken from old Chinese records that some think relate to the ancient Koreans, others to the precursors to the Jurchen. Alternatively I could riff off the OTL Mongolian name for Korea: Solongos. I'll have to do some research into the Manchu word for Korea and Koreans.
In the West, the name for Korea derives from Marco Polo's rendering of "Goryeo": Cauli. So unless something changes their minds, this will probably end up as Corea or Korea or a variant like that.
It is an irony of history that Yuan Chonghuan would play the role that he did. By opposing Ligden Khagan, who sought to unify the Mongols under his crown, he had won the respect of the Mongol leaders and became known as the Kundulen Baatar. After exile from the Ming, he was brought to Hohhot and commiserated for a time. Humiliated and betrayed in his mind, he reinvented himself as a kind of regent figure for the young and weak Ejei Khagan. The Mongol leaders trusted and followed him, and he came not alone: a significant portion of his own force defected when it learned what had become of him. Combining Chinese and Mongol forces into a singular fighting entity was not going to be a simple matter, but it was the natural charisma and martial skill of Yuan that one the most converts. He spent a number of years among the Mongols, combining their martial skills with his own. Rebel Ming soldiers were organized into Mongol-style banners and designed to supplement the Mongol cavalry. Defecting or kidnapped gunsmiths were brought and Mongol artillery improved. Ambitious Mongol lords were warred against, as were the Western Oirats until those that remained pledged their allegiance to Yuan.
Meanwhile, in Korea the continued standardization of the Korean banners as a means for dominating the state continued apace. To be a bannerman, or a gi’in (기 인/旗人) became a hereditary function, making the Manchu and Koreans of the banners an elite and highly selective caste of the population. Korean bannermen were ordered to adopt Manchu fashions, including the unique hairstyle of a shaved head with a long queue at the back, and dressed in the Manchu fashion. Supplementing both the Manchu and Korea banners were created a number of new banners, the Six Superior Banners or Yukugi (육우기| 六優旗) that were constituted with a mixture of Manchu, Koreans and a small minority of Liaodong Mongols and Chinese. The Yukugi were under the direct command of Hong Taegeuk, as opposed to the other banners still under the control of other Manchu lords. This was a move calculated to assert the military dominance of the Geum Gan (and Manchu Khan) over that of the Paereuk[1], or “Lords” who technically shared administrative duties with the Khan over Manchu affairs. This state of affairs was done away with by the reforms, as the Manchu administrative functions Hong Taegeuk was obliged to share withered and were replaced by the Geum bureaucracy.
The Geum system became centred around the Gan, an absolute ruler who presided over six ministries of government known as Yukbu (육부 | 六部), which replaced the Joseon Yukjo (육조 | 六曹) ministries. In contrast with the Joseon yangban system, ethnic quotas dictated that appointments be divided between Manchu noblemen and Koreans (and, in theory, Chinese) who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations.육. In contrast with the Joseon yangban system, ethnic quotas dictated that appointments be divided between Manchu noblemen and Koreans (and, in theory, Chinese) who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations.The Joseon State Council or Uijeongbu (의정부 | 議政府) was reduced in importance and became the centre of the Geum “Outer Court” which handled routine and unimportant domestic affairs. All important matters were decided in the "Inner Court," which was dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility. A complex system of noble peerage was developed. The Imperial lineage, defined as sons of Nurhaci or otherwise related to the Manchu lords, was headedby the Chingan (친간 | 親干), or khan of the first rank. The former Manchu Paereuk lords were largely promoted to this position. This was followed by Gungan (군간 | 郡干), prince of the second blood. Below this were the Muban (무반 | 武班), the martial class divided into ranks of peerage, and further below the Munban (문반| 文班), the scholarly class who were only rarely afforded individual titles.
In order to break the Korean yangban culture, Korean men above a certain class were banned from wearing the Joseon-era aristocratic dress and ordered to wear instead variations of the rectangular and saddle-collared Manchu Qizhuang costume (though they were often coloured in a brilliant white). A dispensation was, however, made for the gat, the traditional horsehair hat worn by the nobility to maintain their topknot[2]. Women were allowed to continue dressing in the traditional Korean fashion, though at the court Manchu women made a point of sticking to their own costumes. The famous gisaeng courtesans, however, soon took an interest in the form-fitting and feminine costume of the Manchus known as gipo[2], though the gisaeng version was of a much tighter and closer fit than the original. The Liaodong Chinese under Geum domination were, for the time being, allowed to wear whatever they chose.
The Manchus ordered the renaming of the country from Joseon to Sogol (소골), reflecting the traditional Jurchen name for Korea. The Munban soon discovered Sino-Korean characters to add a deeper meaning to the Manchu word: 昭顝, or Bright Solitude or the Unrivalled Brilliance. Rebellious souls would inscribe the word as 蘇汨, or Devotion to Revival (a reference to the restoration of the Joseon) though this was a trick that became more rarely used as the literacy of the Manchu nobles increased.
Meanwhile, Mao Wenlong was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his raids into Geum-controlled Liaodong (now being referred to as the Geum province of Ryodong) small-scale due to the continued demands from the Chongzhen Emperor for the Manchu to be driven out of Ming lands. Demands from Hong Taegeuk to be recognized as a political equal with the Ming Emperor had ruffled feathers in Beijing, and Geum taxation on the Chinese merchants passing to and from Korea were increasingly unpopular. What’s more, as the Geum consolidated they showed a great willingness to counterattack across the Liao, forcing Mao’s forces to retreat closer to core Ming territories. The Ming were also concerned by the buildup of the Geum navy, which were putting experienced Korean shipwrights to work. However, this push against the Geum would be coming at the same time as at least two major rebellions in China itself, which continued to grow: that of Li Zicheng based in Henan, and that of Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan. Mao was also concerned of the increasingly organized Mongols, though they had made no threatening moves of late.
Mao soon developed a strategy, however. Ming emissaries were sent to Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1635. The timing of this visit coincided with the culmination of a round of anti-European policies by Shogun, and moves towards closing his country off to the outside world. But Tokugawa also played host to the exiled Neungyanggun and what remained of the Yi court of Joseon. On the basis of a shared friendship with the Yi court, the Ming offered rapproachment. Iemitsu’s grandfather, Tokugawa Ieyasu, had attempted to rebuild the broken ties with the Ming but was rebuffed and since that period the Japanese hadn’t pursued it. But what the Ming suggested: a joint invasion of Korea to overthrow the Geum and restore the Joseon, was intriguing, and it came accompanied by a number of sweeteners: recognition of the Shogun as King of Japan as well as the resumption of the lucrative tally trade system that had existed between Ming China and Ashikaga Japan until the mid 16th century. Japan would be recognised in the Ming’s Sinocentric world order as second in the world only to China itself, and would henceforth be entitled to recieve payments in tribute from both the Ryukyus (which it already did) as well as from Korea itself.
Thus was the plan set. Mao Wendong would march his army over the Liao river to attack the Manchu heartland, as a Japanese army with the Neungyangun in tow would invade the restive Gyeongsang province. The Japanese landings would be protected from the Geum navy through the support of the Ming “Admiral of the Coastal Regions” Zheng Zhilong[4]. Nothing could go wrong.
[1] What we know by the Chinese term Beise.
[2] There has been no hair-cutting order, and there probably won't be: the Koreans were relatively more easily cowed than the Han in OTL. But things may change.
[3] What we think of as the qipao or cheongsam, going through some cheeky early developments compared to OTL.
[4] The father of Zheng Chenggong otherwise known as Koxinga who was born prior to the PoD and at this point in OTL and ITTL is studying for the imperial examinations.
Meanwhile, in Korea the continued standardization of the Korean banners as a means for dominating the state continued apace. To be a bannerman, or a gi’in (기 인/旗人) became a hereditary function, making the Manchu and Koreans of the banners an elite and highly selective caste of the population. Korean bannermen were ordered to adopt Manchu fashions, including the unique hairstyle of a shaved head with a long queue at the back, and dressed in the Manchu fashion. Supplementing both the Manchu and Korea banners were created a number of new banners, the Six Superior Banners or Yukugi (육우기| 六優旗) that were constituted with a mixture of Manchu, Koreans and a small minority of Liaodong Mongols and Chinese. The Yukugi were under the direct command of Hong Taegeuk, as opposed to the other banners still under the control of other Manchu lords. This was a move calculated to assert the military dominance of the Geum Gan (and Manchu Khan) over that of the Paereuk[1], or “Lords” who technically shared administrative duties with the Khan over Manchu affairs. This state of affairs was done away with by the reforms, as the Manchu administrative functions Hong Taegeuk was obliged to share withered and were replaced by the Geum bureaucracy.
The Geum system became centred around the Gan, an absolute ruler who presided over six ministries of government known as Yukbu (육부 | 六部), which replaced the Joseon Yukjo (육조 | 六曹) ministries. In contrast with the Joseon yangban system, ethnic quotas dictated that appointments be divided between Manchu noblemen and Koreans (and, in theory, Chinese) who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations.육. In contrast with the Joseon yangban system, ethnic quotas dictated that appointments be divided between Manchu noblemen and Koreans (and, in theory, Chinese) who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations.The Joseon State Council or Uijeongbu (의정부 | 議政府) was reduced in importance and became the centre of the Geum “Outer Court” which handled routine and unimportant domestic affairs. All important matters were decided in the "Inner Court," which was dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility. A complex system of noble peerage was developed. The Imperial lineage, defined as sons of Nurhaci or otherwise related to the Manchu lords, was headedby the Chingan (친간 | 親干), or khan of the first rank. The former Manchu Paereuk lords were largely promoted to this position. This was followed by Gungan (군간 | 郡干), prince of the second blood. Below this were the Muban (무반 | 武班), the martial class divided into ranks of peerage, and further below the Munban (문반| 文班), the scholarly class who were only rarely afforded individual titles.
In order to break the Korean yangban culture, Korean men above a certain class were banned from wearing the Joseon-era aristocratic dress and ordered to wear instead variations of the rectangular and saddle-collared Manchu Qizhuang costume (though they were often coloured in a brilliant white). A dispensation was, however, made for the gat, the traditional horsehair hat worn by the nobility to maintain their topknot[2]. Women were allowed to continue dressing in the traditional Korean fashion, though at the court Manchu women made a point of sticking to their own costumes. The famous gisaeng courtesans, however, soon took an interest in the form-fitting and feminine costume of the Manchus known as gipo[2], though the gisaeng version was of a much tighter and closer fit than the original. The Liaodong Chinese under Geum domination were, for the time being, allowed to wear whatever they chose.
The Manchus ordered the renaming of the country from Joseon to Sogol (소골), reflecting the traditional Jurchen name for Korea. The Munban soon discovered Sino-Korean characters to add a deeper meaning to the Manchu word: 昭顝, or Bright Solitude or the Unrivalled Brilliance. Rebellious souls would inscribe the word as 蘇汨, or Devotion to Revival (a reference to the restoration of the Joseon) though this was a trick that became more rarely used as the literacy of the Manchu nobles increased.
Meanwhile, Mao Wenlong was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his raids into Geum-controlled Liaodong (now being referred to as the Geum province of Ryodong) small-scale due to the continued demands from the Chongzhen Emperor for the Manchu to be driven out of Ming lands. Demands from Hong Taegeuk to be recognized as a political equal with the Ming Emperor had ruffled feathers in Beijing, and Geum taxation on the Chinese merchants passing to and from Korea were increasingly unpopular. What’s more, as the Geum consolidated they showed a great willingness to counterattack across the Liao, forcing Mao’s forces to retreat closer to core Ming territories. The Ming were also concerned by the buildup of the Geum navy, which were putting experienced Korean shipwrights to work. However, this push against the Geum would be coming at the same time as at least two major rebellions in China itself, which continued to grow: that of Li Zicheng based in Henan, and that of Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan. Mao was also concerned of the increasingly organized Mongols, though they had made no threatening moves of late.
Mao soon developed a strategy, however. Ming emissaries were sent to Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1635. The timing of this visit coincided with the culmination of a round of anti-European policies by Shogun, and moves towards closing his country off to the outside world. But Tokugawa also played host to the exiled Neungyanggun and what remained of the Yi court of Joseon. On the basis of a shared friendship with the Yi court, the Ming offered rapproachment. Iemitsu’s grandfather, Tokugawa Ieyasu, had attempted to rebuild the broken ties with the Ming but was rebuffed and since that period the Japanese hadn’t pursued it. But what the Ming suggested: a joint invasion of Korea to overthrow the Geum and restore the Joseon, was intriguing, and it came accompanied by a number of sweeteners: recognition of the Shogun as King of Japan as well as the resumption of the lucrative tally trade system that had existed between Ming China and Ashikaga Japan until the mid 16th century. Japan would be recognised in the Ming’s Sinocentric world order as second in the world only to China itself, and would henceforth be entitled to recieve payments in tribute from both the Ryukyus (which it already did) as well as from Korea itself.
Thus was the plan set. Mao Wendong would march his army over the Liao river to attack the Manchu heartland, as a Japanese army with the Neungyangun in tow would invade the restive Gyeongsang province. The Japanese landings would be protected from the Geum navy through the support of the Ming “Admiral of the Coastal Regions” Zheng Zhilong[4]. Nothing could go wrong.
[1] What we know by the Chinese term Beise.
[2] There has been no hair-cutting order, and there probably won't be: the Koreans were relatively more easily cowed than the Han in OTL. But things may change.
[3] What we think of as the qipao or cheongsam, going through some cheeky early developments compared to OTL.
[4] The father of Zheng Chenggong otherwise known as Koxinga who was born prior to the PoD and at this point in OTL and ITTL is studying for the imperial examinations.
maverick
Banned
Exciting indeed. Love the Yuan Chonghuang-wank, much better than my own and pretty much what I expected (except that he hasn't marched on Beijing to finish his revenge, yet)
Although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong weren't much of a threat yet, as the Rebel armies in Shanxi were led by an obscure rebel-bandit by the name of Gao Yingxiang, who apparently led the rebel armies until his death in 1636, after which Li Zicheng inherited command and the title of Chuan Wang (Dashing Prince); not a complaint, since I know that simplifying this stuff is necessary to keep the story going, but an interesting piece of trivia nonetheless.
Love the political and social developments in Korea too, and the use of Korean and Manchu. Do you know Korean or are you getting help from somewhere? If you do, I'd like some help for my own TL, as I lack knowledge or advisors that know Korean.
That's very interesting.
Note: the Tokugawa Shogun was allegedly planning to conquer the Philippines in his effort to drive the Europeans from East Asia, but the Shimabara Rebellion of 1636 kept the Shogunate otherwise occupied. I can only assume that's what'll ruin the Ming plans and that this is a spoiler?
Although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong weren't much of a threat yet, as the Rebel armies in Shanxi were led by an obscure rebel-bandit by the name of Gao Yingxiang, who apparently led the rebel armies until his death in 1636, after which Li Zicheng inherited command and the title of Chuan Wang (Dashing Prince); not a complaint, since I know that simplifying this stuff is necessary to keep the story going, but an interesting piece of trivia nonetheless.
Love the political and social developments in Korea too, and the use of Korean and Manchu. Do you know Korean or are you getting help from somewhere? If you do, I'd like some help for my own TL, as I lack knowledge or advisors that know Korean.
.
That's very interesting.
Note: the Tokugawa Shogun was allegedly planning to conquer the Philippines in his effort to drive the Europeans from East Asia, but the Shimabara Rebellion of 1636 kept the Shogunate otherwise occupied. I can only assume that's what'll ruin the Ming plans and that this is a spoiler?
Exciting indeed. Love the Yuan Chonghuang-wank, much better than my own and pretty much what I expected (except that he hasn't marched on Beijing to finish his revenge, yet)
Yet...
Indeed you're right. But I was just name-dropping for future reference, by the time they become important Gao will be dead. I've been having a hard time finding more information about the rebellions in this period, any suggestions?
I know Korean at a lower-advanced level, and Chinese at a high-beginner/would-be-high-intermediate-if-I-hadn't-kept-flaking-out level, which helps a lot. I'm slightly cheeky with the names, just taking the terms that the Qing dynasty used OTL and converting the relative characters from Chinese to Sino-Korean words. It seems to work OK though.Love the political and social developments in Korea too, and the use of Korean and Manchu. Do you know Korean or are you getting help from somewhere? If you do, I'd like some help for my own TL, as I lack knowledge or advisors that know Korean.
You have figured out one of the major contributing factors, yes.
maverick
Banned
I found Gao Yingxian in this book, which I linked before.
Stuff on Li Zicheng here, here and here.
Although I apparently lost some links, because I can't find the ones going to his 1630s life. I had more on Zhang too, but not too many details.
The war against the Geum had a handful of objectives that were to be achieved with as minimal a cost as possible. Ming finances and the restive countryside being what it was, the Chinese could barely afford a long campaign. The recovery of the frontier provinces and the demilitarization of the region was the number one priority for the Ming, and following that was the cowing of the Geum. Restoration of the Joseon was a preferred but, according to records from the period, not a required option. If the Geum relinquished their control of rightfully Chinese areas, and paid tribute to the Ming it was possible they would be permitted to survive.
For the Japanese, on the other hand, there were greater ambitions. Hideyoshi had once proposed to the Ming to divide the Korean peninsula between themselves, which was rejected during the interlude in the Imjin War of the 1590s. Tokugawa Ieyasu is believed to have harbored similar ambitions, seeking to sieze the Korea island of Jeju and to establish control over the southern provinces of the peninsula. However, this ambition conflicted with the stated justification of the war, the restoration of the Neungyangun and the Joseon. Thus, the war began with the allies having a highly schizophrenic view of their objectives and end results.
The Ming navy was able to provide the naval support for Japanese and Joseon loyalist landings in Gyeongsan-do, however the islands and complex coastline of Jeolla-do in the southwest proved more difficult. The Geum had not rebuilt the strong Korean navy that had existed generations before, but enough ships and expertise remained to complicate the allies plans. No Chinese troops were landed, as expenses to raise an army in the southern provinces was not raised, the Japanese were expected to push north alone and sieze Sanshin, while Mao Wenlong defeated the Manchus in the north and then pushed across the Yalu.
Problems began in the initial invasion, as the Japanese soldiers behaved in a similarly brutal fashion to their earlier invasion during the Imjin war. Common people were often killed and their ears and noses collected as trophies, towns were burned and artifacts stolen. This behaviour quickly enraged the Joseon loyalists who were fighting alongside the Japanese, and soon squabbles broke out amongst them. The Gyeongsang-do region prior to the invasion had been a restive one, home to significant feelings of Joseon loyalism, but the brutality of the Japanese invasion meant that these feelings could not be manipulated. Instead, the population began to rally behind the Geum, as Korean banner armies moved south to meet the invading forces. And here things took a very different turn from the Imjin War. Unlike the earlier invasion, where poor commanders and worse discipline had led to routs for the Koreans, the military elan and organization of the Geum banner armies made them formidable foes. Their numbers began to tell against the Japanese, who fell back to Donghae. The city and it’s population rebelled, as did the Joseon loyalists who had accompanied the Japanese. In retaliation and in revenge for being pushed back, the Japanese turned against their hapless allies and the local population. The Neungyangun was killed by his supposed allies mere hours before the Geum took back the city. Those Japanese who were unable to escape back to their vessels were rapidly killed.
The Japanese soon found, however, that their return was to be more fraught than their arrival. Zheng Zhilong had heard of the ignomous Japanese defeat, and having secured little plunder of his own from the Korean coast decided to withdraw back to Taiwan. As the hundreds of ships of the Ming sailed away, a number of Korean vessels that had been making the long journey from northeastern ports of Hamgyeong and Kangwon provinces arrived to find the Japanese transports vulnerable. What remained of the fleeing Japanese fleet fought off opportunistic Korean attacks but lost thousands of men. This, as much as the losses and expenses of the failed Korean invasion, would prove devastating in quelling the rising rebellion in Japan.
Meanwhile, in the north Mao Wenlong was in dire straits. The Manchu had already possessed a formidable knowledge and skill with artillery, accrued from the Chinese themselves. After taking control of Korea, they became aware of the existance of three foreigners, the Dutchmen Jan Weltevree, Dirk Gijsbertsz and Jan Verbaest, who had become shipwrecked on Jeju-do in 1627 and handed over to the Joseon authorities by their treacherous Chinese crew[1]. During the chaos of the Manchu invasion, their presence had largely been forgotten and they absconded into the countryside. They were discovered several years later by a Munban sent into the Jeju countryside to distribute the new laws of the land as decreed by the Gan, where they had all married Korean women and taken Korean names. They were ordered brought to Sanshin, more out of a sense of curiosity than any xenophobia, and it was discovered that they possessed expert knowledge of firearm manufacture and training. Combined with Chinese expertise, the Dutchmen were able to fashion ever more modern weapons for the Geum and were rewarded with ranks in the Muban class. This meant that Geum firearms and artillery were more than a match for those brought by Mao Wenlong in his invasion. Combined with the limited access to cavalry for the Ming, the Manchu and Korean forces of the Geum had routed his forces and sent pushed them back across the Liao river.
The recriminations were fast in coming, and Mao is said to have arrived back in safe territory white as a sheet, fearing the inevitable censure and punishment of the furious Chongzhen Emperor. However, as he arrived he recieved far worse news. A vast Mongol army under Yuan Chonghuan had stormed the Shanhai Pass and was laying siege to the crucial fortress of Jinzhou...
[1] This happened OTL, they were exploited by the Joseon in a similar fashion.
For the Japanese, on the other hand, there were greater ambitions. Hideyoshi had once proposed to the Ming to divide the Korean peninsula between themselves, which was rejected during the interlude in the Imjin War of the 1590s. Tokugawa Ieyasu is believed to have harbored similar ambitions, seeking to sieze the Korea island of Jeju and to establish control over the southern provinces of the peninsula. However, this ambition conflicted with the stated justification of the war, the restoration of the Neungyangun and the Joseon. Thus, the war began with the allies having a highly schizophrenic view of their objectives and end results.
The Ming navy was able to provide the naval support for Japanese and Joseon loyalist landings in Gyeongsan-do, however the islands and complex coastline of Jeolla-do in the southwest proved more difficult. The Geum had not rebuilt the strong Korean navy that had existed generations before, but enough ships and expertise remained to complicate the allies plans. No Chinese troops were landed, as expenses to raise an army in the southern provinces was not raised, the Japanese were expected to push north alone and sieze Sanshin, while Mao Wenlong defeated the Manchus in the north and then pushed across the Yalu.
Problems began in the initial invasion, as the Japanese soldiers behaved in a similarly brutal fashion to their earlier invasion during the Imjin war. Common people were often killed and their ears and noses collected as trophies, towns were burned and artifacts stolen. This behaviour quickly enraged the Joseon loyalists who were fighting alongside the Japanese, and soon squabbles broke out amongst them. The Gyeongsang-do region prior to the invasion had been a restive one, home to significant feelings of Joseon loyalism, but the brutality of the Japanese invasion meant that these feelings could not be manipulated. Instead, the population began to rally behind the Geum, as Korean banner armies moved south to meet the invading forces. And here things took a very different turn from the Imjin War. Unlike the earlier invasion, where poor commanders and worse discipline had led to routs for the Koreans, the military elan and organization of the Geum banner armies made them formidable foes. Their numbers began to tell against the Japanese, who fell back to Donghae. The city and it’s population rebelled, as did the Joseon loyalists who had accompanied the Japanese. In retaliation and in revenge for being pushed back, the Japanese turned against their hapless allies and the local population. The Neungyangun was killed by his supposed allies mere hours before the Geum took back the city. Those Japanese who were unable to escape back to their vessels were rapidly killed.
The Japanese soon found, however, that their return was to be more fraught than their arrival. Zheng Zhilong had heard of the ignomous Japanese defeat, and having secured little plunder of his own from the Korean coast decided to withdraw back to Taiwan. As the hundreds of ships of the Ming sailed away, a number of Korean vessels that had been making the long journey from northeastern ports of Hamgyeong and Kangwon provinces arrived to find the Japanese transports vulnerable. What remained of the fleeing Japanese fleet fought off opportunistic Korean attacks but lost thousands of men. This, as much as the losses and expenses of the failed Korean invasion, would prove devastating in quelling the rising rebellion in Japan.
Meanwhile, in the north Mao Wenlong was in dire straits. The Manchu had already possessed a formidable knowledge and skill with artillery, accrued from the Chinese themselves. After taking control of Korea, they became aware of the existance of three foreigners, the Dutchmen Jan Weltevree, Dirk Gijsbertsz and Jan Verbaest, who had become shipwrecked on Jeju-do in 1627 and handed over to the Joseon authorities by their treacherous Chinese crew[1]. During the chaos of the Manchu invasion, their presence had largely been forgotten and they absconded into the countryside. They were discovered several years later by a Munban sent into the Jeju countryside to distribute the new laws of the land as decreed by the Gan, where they had all married Korean women and taken Korean names. They were ordered brought to Sanshin, more out of a sense of curiosity than any xenophobia, and it was discovered that they possessed expert knowledge of firearm manufacture and training. Combined with Chinese expertise, the Dutchmen were able to fashion ever more modern weapons for the Geum and were rewarded with ranks in the Muban class. This meant that Geum firearms and artillery were more than a match for those brought by Mao Wenlong in his invasion. Combined with the limited access to cavalry for the Ming, the Manchu and Korean forces of the Geum had routed his forces and sent pushed them back across the Liao river.
The recriminations were fast in coming, and Mao is said to have arrived back in safe territory white as a sheet, fearing the inevitable censure and punishment of the furious Chongzhen Emperor. However, as he arrived he recieved far worse news. A vast Mongol army under Yuan Chonghuan had stormed the Shanhai Pass and was laying siege to the crucial fortress of Jinzhou...
[1] This happened OTL, they were exploited by the Joseon in a similar fashion.
The Kirishitan Rebellion
Starting in the mid-1630’s, cruelly exacted overtaxation and the effects of famine was causing mass dissatisfaction among the peasant population of Japan, particularly in regions formerly ruled by Christian daimyo overthrown and replaced by the Tokugawa. Roaming masterless samurai in these regions felt resentment against their new lords, while the peasant populations chafed under taxation collection methods that often left them destitute or starving. These pressures, however, went unnoticed among the new lords as they raised armies of loyal warriors for the planned joint invasion of the Korean peninsula along with the Ming in 1636. It’s disastrous failure had severe costs in blood and treasure, and the lords quickly raised their levels of taxation again to make up for the losses. This soon had negative effects, however, as rebellions began in the Shimabara peninsula and the Amakusa islands in early 1637 and began to slowly spread. The nucleus in Shimabara was led by a charismatic and visionary youth, Amakusa Shiro, and what was mostly inspired by economic reasons soon began to take on a religious tone. The rebels were largely Christians who had been suffering from chronic repression by the Tokugawa, and as the rebellion gained momentum even those who were rebelling simply in response to government policy were soon caught up in the religious fervour.
With the forces of the local pro-Tokugawa forces severely depleted, the rebellion began to spread beyond those initial areas. The Christian ronin numbers did not outnumbered those that remained behind, but initial attempts at organization seemed to fail, perhaps due to the deaths of key military leaders in the Korean invasion. Soon, there was even unrest in the city of Nagasaki itself. The local authorities requested that the Dutch traders based use their ships to attack the rebel stronghold at Hara castle, this attack had seemingly little effect as the majority of the rebel forces were now in the field and after losing a seaman to rebel fire the Dutch withdrew in seeming prudence.
Things started to go out of control for the authorities as it somehow became revealed that Tokugawa Iemitsu had made a deal with the Ming to provide support for the botched Korean invasion in order to gain recognition as “king” of Japan. This became used as a piece of propaganda that turned a number of daimyo against the shogun, in a mock defence of the position of the Empress Meisho. The daimyo Arima Naozumi of Hyuga province, son of a prominent Christian daimyo who had abandoned the foreign faith and turned against the Christians in his domains, rapidly changed his mind and aligned himself with the growing rebel forces. Demands for reinforcements to suppress the rebellion were ignored. Thus it was that the rebellion soon engulfed the entirety of Kyushu and was being reflected in unrest throughout the country. Government forces lost control of Nagasaki entirely by early in the following year, and it was through this port that the “messenger of heaven” tried to negotiate with the Portugeuse for succor from the king of Spain. News of the Dutch attack and their anti-Catholic policies having reached the rebels (possibly from Jesuit priests in the city who had been imprisoned by the authorities or were in hiding, but revealed themselves after the city fell), the Dutch were attacked here as well and forced to flee.
At Nagasaki, Amakusa Shirō was declared the Kampaku of Japan, but the position reinvented as both nominal secular ruler of the country as well as supposed religious “advisor” to the Imperial House. With the Imperial House under Tokugawa protection, this was largely lip service. To the Spanish and Portugeuse, however, Shirō was considered as the ‘king’ of Kyushu and arrangements were made in Macau and Manila to extend a degree of assistance to the rebels against the anti-Christian Tokugawa. Calls to use the rebellion as a way to invade and subjugate the country to the Hapsburg throne were spurious and unrealistic, given the current wars in Europe. However, some small numbers of soldiers, supplies and weapons that arrived further bolstered the forces of the rebels. Meanwhile, the Dutch attempted to make contact with the Tokugawa via other ports, and found themselves under attack there as well. Tokugawa had apparentally decided to blame these misfortunes on all foreigners, and the Dutch were the nearest scapegoat. The Dutch found themselves banned from trading and contact with both Japanese powers, while the Portugeuse and Spanish were able to position themselves in a position of near-open access to Kyushu, with missionaries and military trainers moving without fear amongst the peasant and ronin armies, helping to fuse them into an organized and ideologically united force.
During this uprising, another threat presented itself as the Geum sought to gain revenge against the Japanese. Using intelligence gained from the former Joseon loyalists who had switched sides to the Geum following Japanese atrocities in Gyeongsang-do, a banner army was landed on the island of Tsushima. This invasion was, by all accounts, absolutely successful as the local authorities did not possess sufficient manpower to oppose the invasion, and the government was too distracted by the Christian rebellion. Some of the Geum generals called for a general invasion of Japan to make use of their weakness, but Hong Taegeuk observed the disturbances near Korea’s northwest border and wisely chose not to commit to a full invasion. Tsushima was simply renamed Daema-do (대마도 | 對馬島) and began redevelopment as a forward naval port to guard against future Japanese or Chinese naval aggression. It is through Daema-do that contact was made, quite accidentally, with a Dutch ship returning from a failed mission to re-establish contact with the Tokugawa.
Starting in the mid-1630’s, cruelly exacted overtaxation and the effects of famine was causing mass dissatisfaction among the peasant population of Japan, particularly in regions formerly ruled by Christian daimyo overthrown and replaced by the Tokugawa. Roaming masterless samurai in these regions felt resentment against their new lords, while the peasant populations chafed under taxation collection methods that often left them destitute or starving. These pressures, however, went unnoticed among the new lords as they raised armies of loyal warriors for the planned joint invasion of the Korean peninsula along with the Ming in 1636. It’s disastrous failure had severe costs in blood and treasure, and the lords quickly raised their levels of taxation again to make up for the losses. This soon had negative effects, however, as rebellions began in the Shimabara peninsula and the Amakusa islands in early 1637 and began to slowly spread. The nucleus in Shimabara was led by a charismatic and visionary youth, Amakusa Shiro, and what was mostly inspired by economic reasons soon began to take on a religious tone. The rebels were largely Christians who had been suffering from chronic repression by the Tokugawa, and as the rebellion gained momentum even those who were rebelling simply in response to government policy were soon caught up in the religious fervour.
With the forces of the local pro-Tokugawa forces severely depleted, the rebellion began to spread beyond those initial areas. The Christian ronin numbers did not outnumbered those that remained behind, but initial attempts at organization seemed to fail, perhaps due to the deaths of key military leaders in the Korean invasion. Soon, there was even unrest in the city of Nagasaki itself. The local authorities requested that the Dutch traders based use their ships to attack the rebel stronghold at Hara castle, this attack had seemingly little effect as the majority of the rebel forces were now in the field and after losing a seaman to rebel fire the Dutch withdrew in seeming prudence.
Things started to go out of control for the authorities as it somehow became revealed that Tokugawa Iemitsu had made a deal with the Ming to provide support for the botched Korean invasion in order to gain recognition as “king” of Japan. This became used as a piece of propaganda that turned a number of daimyo against the shogun, in a mock defence of the position of the Empress Meisho. The daimyo Arima Naozumi of Hyuga province, son of a prominent Christian daimyo who had abandoned the foreign faith and turned against the Christians in his domains, rapidly changed his mind and aligned himself with the growing rebel forces. Demands for reinforcements to suppress the rebellion were ignored. Thus it was that the rebellion soon engulfed the entirety of Kyushu and was being reflected in unrest throughout the country. Government forces lost control of Nagasaki entirely by early in the following year, and it was through this port that the “messenger of heaven” tried to negotiate with the Portugeuse for succor from the king of Spain. News of the Dutch attack and their anti-Catholic policies having reached the rebels (possibly from Jesuit priests in the city who had been imprisoned by the authorities or were in hiding, but revealed themselves after the city fell), the Dutch were attacked here as well and forced to flee.
At Nagasaki, Amakusa Shirō was declared the Kampaku of Japan, but the position reinvented as both nominal secular ruler of the country as well as supposed religious “advisor” to the Imperial House. With the Imperial House under Tokugawa protection, this was largely lip service. To the Spanish and Portugeuse, however, Shirō was considered as the ‘king’ of Kyushu and arrangements were made in Macau and Manila to extend a degree of assistance to the rebels against the anti-Christian Tokugawa. Calls to use the rebellion as a way to invade and subjugate the country to the Hapsburg throne were spurious and unrealistic, given the current wars in Europe. However, some small numbers of soldiers, supplies and weapons that arrived further bolstered the forces of the rebels. Meanwhile, the Dutch attempted to make contact with the Tokugawa via other ports, and found themselves under attack there as well. Tokugawa had apparentally decided to blame these misfortunes on all foreigners, and the Dutch were the nearest scapegoat. The Dutch found themselves banned from trading and contact with both Japanese powers, while the Portugeuse and Spanish were able to position themselves in a position of near-open access to Kyushu, with missionaries and military trainers moving without fear amongst the peasant and ronin armies, helping to fuse them into an organized and ideologically united force.
During this uprising, another threat presented itself as the Geum sought to gain revenge against the Japanese. Using intelligence gained from the former Joseon loyalists who had switched sides to the Geum following Japanese atrocities in Gyeongsang-do, a banner army was landed on the island of Tsushima. This invasion was, by all accounts, absolutely successful as the local authorities did not possess sufficient manpower to oppose the invasion, and the government was too distracted by the Christian rebellion. Some of the Geum generals called for a general invasion of Japan to make use of their weakness, but Hong Taegeuk observed the disturbances near Korea’s northwest border and wisely chose not to commit to a full invasion. Tsushima was simply renamed Daema-do (대마도 | 對馬島) and began redevelopment as a forward naval port to guard against future Japanese or Chinese naval aggression. It is through Daema-do that contact was made, quite accidentally, with a Dutch ship returning from a failed mission to re-establish contact with the Tokugawa.
Just stumbled across this, and I'm impressed, look forward how this develops
One of the earlier posts mentioned instead using the Kim Dynasty instead of Geum. Just looked up in my 한자 사전 and it seems that they both can share a hanja, namely 金. Wonder if that has any significance.
On the other hand, 금 could also go to at least 5 other hanja, maybe I'm reading too deeply into a dynastic name ㅋㅋ
One of the earlier posts mentioned instead using the Kim Dynasty instead of Geum. Just looked up in my 한자 사전 and it seems that they both can share a hanja, namely 金. Wonder if that has any significance.
On the other hand, 금 could also go to at least 5 other hanja, maybe I'm reading too deeply into a dynastic name ㅋㅋ
Just stumbled across this, and I'm impressed, look forward how this develops
One of the earlier posts mentioned instead using the Kim Dynasty instead of Geum. Just looked up in my 한자 사전 and it seems that they both can share a hanja, namely 金. Wonder if that has any significance.
On the other hand, 금 could also go to at least 5 other hanja, maybe I'm reading too deeply into a dynastic name ㅋㅋ
No, it's definately 金, which is normally pronounced 금 and only pronounced as 김 when it's used as a surname. The 한자사전 probably says something like 금속 금, 성씨 김 in it's entry for 金, signifying this. This is why both Geum and Kim become Jin in Chinese.
Later Yuan and Southern Ming
Beginning in the 1620’s, China had been wracked by famine and peasant discontent, which was made worse by military levies that were enacted to fund the struggles with the northern barbarians and abortive attempts to intervene in Korea. Disorder and sectarianism was evident not just in the starving peasant population but also among soldiers along the frontier who recieved pay and rations intermittently if at all and discontent even among disaffected members of the elite, many of whom blamed the headstrong leadership of the Emperor Chongzhen, or sought moralistic reasons for the malaise. Epidemic disease spread like wildfire through the population, and local military forces found it increasingly difficult to suppress banditry in the Central Plains. It is against this background that the invasion of the ex-Ming general Yuan Chonghuan, or Baatar, must be judged. The armies of Yuan consisted not only of Mongolian troops, but a fair number of Chinese defectors from Ming armies.
The siege of the fortress of Jinzhou along the Shanhai Pass was a case in point. Yuan Chonghuan's armies contained among their ranks a number of Chinese who had formerly been based along the northern defences of the Ming frontier. There was therefore a healthy knowledge of Ming defences and force strength. Militarily, the Mongols matched the Ming in every respect. Control of the Mongolian plains meant that the Mongols fielded much larger cavalry forces than the Ming could, and Chinese defectors had brought with their expertise with constructing artillery that matched that of the Ming. To make matters worse for the Ming, a great number of Ming soldiers charged with defending the pass ended up defecting to the side of Mongols, with promises of rations in the form of fresh mutton and horsemeat from the steppe. Tales of the generosity of Yuan Chonghuan were to spread beyond the lines and encourage dissent among beleaguered Ming forces in the interior as well. It is likely, however, that with reinforcement the Ming could have repelled the invasion, but the nearest source of succor was in the East at the strongholds of Mao Wenlong. Mao, for his part, found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. He was obligated to march west to offer succor to the defenders of Shanhai Pass, but to do so would leave the cities under his command vulnerable to a punitive invasion from the Geum. His armies were wearied from their defeat at the hands of the Manchu and Korean banner forces, and dreaded another encounter with artillery-supported nomad cavalry. Mao made a characteristic decision to remain where he was, and only to move against the Mongols if they were routed. Lacking reinforcement, the local commander of Jinzhou, Zu Dashou (who had earlier served under Yuan Chonghuan) felt all hope was lost until the Mongols offered honorable surrender. Unwilling to die for a lost cause, Zu surrendered the fortress and the vast majority of his men joined with the army of Yuan Chonghuan.
The Ming were now largely defenseless, as they had been involved in a major struggle against rebel forces led by Gao Yingxiang in the Central Plain, a campaign which had been somewhat successful due to the efforts of local commanders but had been weakened by the diversion of troops to participate in the attempted restoration of the Joseon [1]. As troops were frantically called back from the front to deal with the Mongol invasion, rebel bands in numbers tens of thousands strong under Gao and others rapidly took back the gains the government troops had made against them, so that Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi were soon hives of rebellious activity. The Chongzhen Emperor demanded all commanders march north to defend Beijing, but local commanders vacillitated as they feared the homes and families being ravaged by the rebels. Most important was the decision of the local commander Hong Chengchou to remain in Shanxi with his army of 130,000 to combat the rebels. This division of forces weakened the Ming defences at a crucial moment, as the Mongol-Chinese army of almost 100,000 descended like a wolf in the fold upon Beijing.
The speed of the advance startled the Ming, and the army was quickly routed outside the capital. The Emperor Chongzhen, fearing the worst, attempted to assemble his family together in order to kill them and prevent their falling into the hands of the invading forces. In his haste, however, his chief consort realized his intent and informed the Empress. The members of the Imperial household attempted to flee, creating an atmosphere of chaos in the palace that would later be immortalized in Chinese plays and motion pictures. When Yuan Chonghuan dramatically entered the imperial household and confronted the Chongzhen Emperor, he found the man covered in blood and engaged in the grim task of hacking his youngest son to death with a sword. While some have claimed the scene apocryphal, it formed a large part of the justification for Yuan Chonghuan's decision to have the emperor executed by beheading in the streets of Beijing, surrounded by a braying crowd.
Rather than forming a new dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan decided instead to restore the ancient Mongol dynasty of the Yuan to power. The Later Yuan (Hou Yuan 后元) dynasty was to be ruled nominally by the Ejei Khan, who was proclaimed as the Emperor Qinzong (亲宗) in 1638. Real power, however, rested almost entirely with the Baatar Yuan Chonghuan, who was soon given the title "Protector of the State" (監國) as a Chinese title. It was to be an essentially military government, maintaining a fiction of Mongol domination while establishing an almost entirely Han Chinese government. This method, however, seemed to satisfy all relevant parties: the military, the Mongols and the masses. The only group that opposed this was the educated elite. The practice of military arts, or wu, therefore gained an ascendancy over the practice of the literary arts, or wen. This development was a very close parallel to that of the Geum dynasty in Korea, and diverged from earlier Chinese dynasties and even from the previous Yuan dynasty in that precious little respect was paid to the educated Chinese elite. Unlike the Geum and the previous Yuan dynasty, the Later Yuan did not concern itself greatly with ethnic matters, prefering to use mixed garrisons throughout it's empire to encourage amity between the Mongols and Chinese, while absorbing the Mongol tribes into a Chinese administrative structure.
The issue of the Central Plains was solved through Hong Chengchou's submission to Later Yuan authority and a combined force of Chinese infantry and Mongol cavalry decisively defeated the rebel forces in Henan and Shanxi. Following this victory, Yuan Chonghuan turned decisively against the educated elites of Beijing by stripping the city of it's status as national capital, and creating two separate capitals for the Empire: the Imperial Capital of Dijing (帝京, formerly Chagan) and the military-administrative capital of Zhengjing (政京, formerly Xi'an). In Wangjing, the place of Confucian scholars was soon taken over by Buddhist priests, who would provide an ideological basis for the military rule. With Beijing reverting to a town of merchants, the traditional Confucian scholars found there was little place for them remaining for them. Some retire to the countryside, forming centres of learning known as Shuyuan (書院). The others fled south to Nanjing, the new capital of the Ming dynasty.
For Yuan Chonghuan's conquest of China was by no means complete. From Nanjing, the Southern Ming retained control of most of the south, including Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan. The Chongzhen Emperor's third son, Zhu Ci Jiong, had been carried from the capital by his mother and some courtiers in the confusion of the invasion and had been proclaimed as the Tianwu Emperor, meaning "Heavenly Light" at the age of 7. True rule was held by local officials, chief among them the Ma Shiying. However, others also held strong power among the Southern Ming. One, a former rebel who had marched south and declared the support of his 130,000 strong army for the Ming after the defection of Hong Chengchou to the Later Yuan: Zhang Xianlong. The other, a former pirate and commander of the southern Ming fleet: Zheng Zhilong. The rivalry of Zheng and Zhang would color the history of the Southern Ming for centuries to come.
[1] Gao was killed in 1636 in OTL, but he dodged that ITTL due to butterflies. Li Zixiang, of OTL Shun fame, has not risen to prominence.
Beginning in the 1620’s, China had been wracked by famine and peasant discontent, which was made worse by military levies that were enacted to fund the struggles with the northern barbarians and abortive attempts to intervene in Korea. Disorder and sectarianism was evident not just in the starving peasant population but also among soldiers along the frontier who recieved pay and rations intermittently if at all and discontent even among disaffected members of the elite, many of whom blamed the headstrong leadership of the Emperor Chongzhen, or sought moralistic reasons for the malaise. Epidemic disease spread like wildfire through the population, and local military forces found it increasingly difficult to suppress banditry in the Central Plains. It is against this background that the invasion of the ex-Ming general Yuan Chonghuan, or Baatar, must be judged. The armies of Yuan consisted not only of Mongolian troops, but a fair number of Chinese defectors from Ming armies.
The siege of the fortress of Jinzhou along the Shanhai Pass was a case in point. Yuan Chonghuan's armies contained among their ranks a number of Chinese who had formerly been based along the northern defences of the Ming frontier. There was therefore a healthy knowledge of Ming defences and force strength. Militarily, the Mongols matched the Ming in every respect. Control of the Mongolian plains meant that the Mongols fielded much larger cavalry forces than the Ming could, and Chinese defectors had brought with their expertise with constructing artillery that matched that of the Ming. To make matters worse for the Ming, a great number of Ming soldiers charged with defending the pass ended up defecting to the side of Mongols, with promises of rations in the form of fresh mutton and horsemeat from the steppe. Tales of the generosity of Yuan Chonghuan were to spread beyond the lines and encourage dissent among beleaguered Ming forces in the interior as well. It is likely, however, that with reinforcement the Ming could have repelled the invasion, but the nearest source of succor was in the East at the strongholds of Mao Wenlong. Mao, for his part, found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. He was obligated to march west to offer succor to the defenders of Shanhai Pass, but to do so would leave the cities under his command vulnerable to a punitive invasion from the Geum. His armies were wearied from their defeat at the hands of the Manchu and Korean banner forces, and dreaded another encounter with artillery-supported nomad cavalry. Mao made a characteristic decision to remain where he was, and only to move against the Mongols if they were routed. Lacking reinforcement, the local commander of Jinzhou, Zu Dashou (who had earlier served under Yuan Chonghuan) felt all hope was lost until the Mongols offered honorable surrender. Unwilling to die for a lost cause, Zu surrendered the fortress and the vast majority of his men joined with the army of Yuan Chonghuan.
The Ming were now largely defenseless, as they had been involved in a major struggle against rebel forces led by Gao Yingxiang in the Central Plain, a campaign which had been somewhat successful due to the efforts of local commanders but had been weakened by the diversion of troops to participate in the attempted restoration of the Joseon [1]. As troops were frantically called back from the front to deal with the Mongol invasion, rebel bands in numbers tens of thousands strong under Gao and others rapidly took back the gains the government troops had made against them, so that Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi were soon hives of rebellious activity. The Chongzhen Emperor demanded all commanders march north to defend Beijing, but local commanders vacillitated as they feared the homes and families being ravaged by the rebels. Most important was the decision of the local commander Hong Chengchou to remain in Shanxi with his army of 130,000 to combat the rebels. This division of forces weakened the Ming defences at a crucial moment, as the Mongol-Chinese army of almost 100,000 descended like a wolf in the fold upon Beijing.
The speed of the advance startled the Ming, and the army was quickly routed outside the capital. The Emperor Chongzhen, fearing the worst, attempted to assemble his family together in order to kill them and prevent their falling into the hands of the invading forces. In his haste, however, his chief consort realized his intent and informed the Empress. The members of the Imperial household attempted to flee, creating an atmosphere of chaos in the palace that would later be immortalized in Chinese plays and motion pictures. When Yuan Chonghuan dramatically entered the imperial household and confronted the Chongzhen Emperor, he found the man covered in blood and engaged in the grim task of hacking his youngest son to death with a sword. While some have claimed the scene apocryphal, it formed a large part of the justification for Yuan Chonghuan's decision to have the emperor executed by beheading in the streets of Beijing, surrounded by a braying crowd.
Rather than forming a new dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan decided instead to restore the ancient Mongol dynasty of the Yuan to power. The Later Yuan (Hou Yuan 后元) dynasty was to be ruled nominally by the Ejei Khan, who was proclaimed as the Emperor Qinzong (亲宗) in 1638. Real power, however, rested almost entirely with the Baatar Yuan Chonghuan, who was soon given the title "Protector of the State" (監國) as a Chinese title. It was to be an essentially military government, maintaining a fiction of Mongol domination while establishing an almost entirely Han Chinese government. This method, however, seemed to satisfy all relevant parties: the military, the Mongols and the masses. The only group that opposed this was the educated elite. The practice of military arts, or wu, therefore gained an ascendancy over the practice of the literary arts, or wen. This development was a very close parallel to that of the Geum dynasty in Korea, and diverged from earlier Chinese dynasties and even from the previous Yuan dynasty in that precious little respect was paid to the educated Chinese elite. Unlike the Geum and the previous Yuan dynasty, the Later Yuan did not concern itself greatly with ethnic matters, prefering to use mixed garrisons throughout it's empire to encourage amity between the Mongols and Chinese, while absorbing the Mongol tribes into a Chinese administrative structure.
The issue of the Central Plains was solved through Hong Chengchou's submission to Later Yuan authority and a combined force of Chinese infantry and Mongol cavalry decisively defeated the rebel forces in Henan and Shanxi. Following this victory, Yuan Chonghuan turned decisively against the educated elites of Beijing by stripping the city of it's status as national capital, and creating two separate capitals for the Empire: the Imperial Capital of Dijing (帝京, formerly Chagan) and the military-administrative capital of Zhengjing (政京, formerly Xi'an). In Wangjing, the place of Confucian scholars was soon taken over by Buddhist priests, who would provide an ideological basis for the military rule. With Beijing reverting to a town of merchants, the traditional Confucian scholars found there was little place for them remaining for them. Some retire to the countryside, forming centres of learning known as Shuyuan (書院). The others fled south to Nanjing, the new capital of the Ming dynasty.
For Yuan Chonghuan's conquest of China was by no means complete. From Nanjing, the Southern Ming retained control of most of the south, including Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan. The Chongzhen Emperor's third son, Zhu Ci Jiong, had been carried from the capital by his mother and some courtiers in the confusion of the invasion and had been proclaimed as the Tianwu Emperor, meaning "Heavenly Light" at the age of 7. True rule was held by local officials, chief among them the Ma Shiying. However, others also held strong power among the Southern Ming. One, a former rebel who had marched south and declared the support of his 130,000 strong army for the Ming after the defection of Hong Chengchou to the Later Yuan: Zhang Xianlong. The other, a former pirate and commander of the southern Ming fleet: Zheng Zhilong. The rivalry of Zheng and Zhang would color the history of the Southern Ming for centuries to come.
[1] Gao was killed in 1636 in OTL, but he dodged that ITTL due to butterflies. Li Zixiang, of OTL Shun fame, has not risen to prominence.
Last edited:
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
Awesome update!
With the Mongols in charge of northern China, am I right to expect some campaigning against the Oirats and involvement in the affairs of Tibet?
With the Mongols in charge of northern China, am I right to expect some campaigning against the Oirats and involvement in the affairs of Tibet?
I know "jing" means "capital," but what do "wang" and "chong" mean?
What other provinces do they control? I know Nanjing is to the north of those.
Highly likely, and may prove a timely distraction if I decide I want to retain the Southern Ming
I actually made a mistake and got my Korean and Chinese mixed up: Chongjing should be Zhengjing, "zheng" meaning politics or government. Wangjing was "royal capital" but I'm going to retcon that as well while I'm at it, changing it to Dijing "Imperial Capital".
Everything south of Shanxi and Shandong, pretty much. Henan is being contested atm but mostly small-scale warfare. Not sure how long they'll keep the capital in Nanjing, it's very vulnerable to attacks down the Grand Canal. Jiangsu, Nanjing, Anhui and Zhejiang are pretty solid. Sichuan is a bit iffy.