From: Alexander Williamson, Journeys in North
China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia With Some Account
of Corea. Volume
2. London:
Smith, Elder & Co, 1870
(See also: Volume
1)
Alexander Williamson (December 5,
1829 – September 1890) was a Scottish
Protestant missionary to China with the London
Missionary Society. He was known for his
scholarship and translation work as well as
founding of the Society for the Diffusion of
Christian and General Knowledge Among the
Chinese or the Christian Literature Society
for China). After reaching China, for seven
years he worked in evangelism, Chinese
literary studies, and traveling. His health
and strength wore out and he came home to
Scotland on furlough from 1858-1863 to
recover. In 1863 Williamson returned to
China with the National Bible Society of
Scotland as its first agent there. He started
at Yantai in Shandong Province and then
traveled extensively distributing copies of
the Bible in Chinese. During this period he
visited Beijing, Mongolia, and Manchuria. In 1867, Alexander Williamson,
who had given Robert Jermain Thomas Bibles to
take to Korea, journeyed to northeastern China
to the border with Korea. There at “Korea
Gate,” Williamson sold Christian books to
Korean border merchants. In August 1869, his younger
brother and fellow missionary, James
Williamson (LMS Missionary) also of the London
Missionary Society, was murdered near Tianjin.
That same year, Alexander returned to Britain
and published his 2-volume work about China
and Korea. In 1871, Williamson was awarded a
Doctorate of Law by the University of Glasgow
for his writings about China. Between 1871 and
1883 he was back at Yantai with the NBSS and
in 1874 also with the Scottish United
Presbyterian Mission. In 1883 he had to return
to Scotland for health reasons. His wife,
Isabelle Williamson, then published her very
fine account of her experiences of being a
woman among the women of China, Old
Highways in China (1884).
The Williamsons returned to China again
and were living in Shanghai in 1886, when
Isabelle died. Alexander died four years later
at Yantai in 1890. He was 61. [From
Wikipedia] Pages 295 - 312 CHAPTER XV. COREA. Sources of Information —
Boundaries and Area — Mountains— Rivers —
Coasts and Harbours — Climate — Connection
with China — Character of the Natives —
History — Independent Tribes — Corean
Habitations — Treatment of Boys’Hair —
Peculiarities of Costume — Money — Mechanical
Ingenuity — Language — Minerals — Cereals and
Fruits — Cotton, Silk, and Paper — Medidnes —
Varieties of Wood — Animals, Domestic and Wild
— Restricted Commerce and Smuggling—Advantages
of Opening the Country to Foreign Intercourse
I HAVE not had the opportunity of
visiting Corea, but have seen numbers of
Coreans at the Palisade Gate on the borders of
the country, have met the annual embassy to
Peking, and have had a good deal of
intercourse with several Coreans who were on a
visit to Che-foo; moreover, I have had
information from Chinamen who have visited the
country as traders: hence the following
observations may be taken as substantially, if
not perfectly, correct. Corea is a peninsula lying
obliquely N.W. by S.E., lat. 34° 40’and 42°
30’, and long. 125° to 129° E., bounded on the
east by the Sea of Japan, on the south by the
Yellow Sea, on the west by the Yellow Sea and
the Gulf of Pe-chih-li, and on the north by
the rivers Ya-lu-kiang and Tu-mun, which
separate the country from Chinese and Russian
Manchuria respectively. The area is estimated at 79,414
square miles, exclusive of the numerous
islands which crowd its southern and western
shores, or more than one and a quarter times
larger than Shan-tung, and more than three
times larger than Scotland; this may startle
some who have looked upon Corea as an
insignificant peninsula hardly worthy of
consideration. It is a land of mountains,
which, as a rule, are higher than those of
Shan-tung; many on the seaboard reaching an
elevation of from 1,000 to 8,000 feet,
according to the measurements of our nautical
surveyors. They appear tumbled about in all
directions, but both the Chinese and Roman
Catholic missionaries coincide in affirming
that the prevailing directions of the ranges
is north and south, or N.W. by S.E. The
loftiest appear to lie on the north between
lat. 40° and 42°, where the two great rivers
take their rise. The highest mountain known is
at the south-eastern extremity of this range,
and is called Hien-fung by Europeans, after
the late Emperor of China; it reaches the
elevation of 8,114 feet; the next attains the
height of 6,810, and is called Tao-kwang after
that Emperor’s father. The valleys are said to
be fertile, and the mountains in many parts of
the country are often covered to their summits
with dense forests. The chief river is the
Ya-lu-kiang, which partly forms the northern
boundary, but which is admitted by all to
belong to Corea; it is called the Aye-kiang by
the Chinese. It has two main sources; one on
the southern slopes of those prodigious
mountains from which the Soongari takes its
rise, and the other in the north-eastern
portion of the peninsula. These unite about
lat. 40° 50’, long. 125° 16’E., and form a
stream of large dimensions, having three
mouths, the eastern, central, and western. The
first is the deepest, and has the strongest
current; the central is less powerful, and the
western is comparatively small and safe, and
is about 150 li, or 45 miles, from the harbour
of Ta-ku-shan, the emporium of the
timber-trade. The navigation of the eastern
branch is interdicted by the Coreans, and
Chinamen found attempting to use it are put to
death. Sandbanks abound in all directions, and
a bar impedes each debouchement; but Chinese
assure me that navigation is ‘comparatively
easy, and that our large steamers could enter
the eastern branch. The river should certainly
be explored, as the Chinese assert that it is
as deep and wide as the Soongari, and,
moreover, is about the only great river still
unknown to us: its great valley is extremely
fertile and thickly wooded. The second in rank
is the Tu-mun, which rises on the eastern
slopes of the northern ranges, receives many
tributaries, and flows on toward the eastern
sea — a great wide river. At the town Hunchun,
it is about 800 yards wide in summer, and
about 20 feet deep in the centre; at this
season it has 5 feet of water on the bar. One
great disadvantage pertains to both these
rivers— they are frozen for several months in
the year. The river next in importance is that
on which the capital stands. It has been
surveyed by the French. The western coast is dangerous,
owing partly to strong tides among islands and
rocks. The commander of one of her Majesty’s
gun-boats told me that, on a cruise one
summer, he anchored in deep water, and in a
few hours found himself in a shallow pool. The
Chinese, however, say that there are several
deep and well-sheltered havens on the western
side. On the eastern coast throughout there is
deep water, and not a few most excellent
harbours, among which Chosan on the south and
Broughton on the north are conspicuous. The climate is magnificent; for
Corea possesses not only all the advantages of
hill and dale, and river and sea, but lying in
the very mouth of the great Chinese channel,
it receives the full force of the south-west
monsoon, with all its fertilizing and genial
influences. As a consequence, many of its
productions reach a maturity and perfection
far surpassing that of Shan-tung or North
China. The winter is also much less severe,
and the summer far more enjoyable than on the
mainland. The country is divided into eight
provinces, and these are subdivided into
smaller jurisdictions, as in China. The
capital is called Seoul by the natives, and
King-i-tao by the Chinese. It is in the
province of Kiengieto, and has good water
communication with the sea. The King, though
in a great measure an independent Sovereign,
yet recognizes the Whang-ti of China by a
yearly tribute. This appears to a great extent
voluntary, and I am inclined to believe that,
were it not for the material advantages on the
part of the Coreans which this embassy enjoys
in the way of barter and information, it would
long since have ceased. The people clearly belong to the
same stock as the Mongols, Manchus, Japanese,
and Chinese. They are shorter than the
inhabitants of North China, and darker, bat
franker and much more like Japanese in their
manners; they are a brave people, excellent
friends, but dangerous foes. We have had
proofs of both these qualities — first, in the
way in which the converts stood by the Roman
Catholic priests in their evil hour, hiding
them and risking their lives for them, and,
finally, succeeding in conveying those who
remained after the general massacre safely to
Che-foo; and second, in the determined and
successful stand they made against the French,
who tried to punish them for these dreadful
murders, and the spirited way in which they
have repelled several other descents — among
others, the late visit of the Russian
gun-boat. The careful conveyance of
shipwrecked mariners to Newchwang, and the
destruction of the “General Sherman”* which
went into their river armed to the teeth, also
illustrate their character. Judging from what
I have seen of them, I like them, admire their
pluck, and anticipate the time when the
country will be fully opened, and we shall
have pleasant and profitable intercourse with
them. Corea appears early in Chinese
history, the first notice being B.C. 1122. The
famous Shang dynasty had been overthrown, and
the Chow dynasty had entered into power, led
on by its first king, called Woo. The Viscount
of Ke, one of the principal supporters of the
old regime, refused to acknowledge the
sovereignty of King Woo, and fled to Corea,
then called Chau-seen. The King respected his
attachment to his former master, and took a
very Chinese-like expedient at once to save
the feelings of the Viscount and assert his
own supremacy — he invested him with the
sovereignty of that territory; and from this
period the Emperors of China have claimed
supremacy over the country. Du Halde gives an
account of the history and wars of Corea in an
appendix to his great work. Mr. T. T. Meadows summarises its
history thus: — ‘‘Corea is described in the
earliest notices of authentic Chinese records
as a country inhabited by a population of
agriculturists, artisans, and traders,
dwellers in houses and living together in
villages and cities. Its geographical position
accounts for this. The bulk of it lies in the
same latitude with the original seat of the
civilizing Chinese people, the middle and
southern portions of the provinces of Chih-li
and Shan-si and the province of Shan-tung;
and, surrounded as it almost is by seas, its
climate is more equable than that of that
oldest portion of China Proper, less cold in
winter, less hot in summer; hence, Chinese
civilization there found a suitable home at a
very early period. On the other hand, its
almost insular position has served to preserve
it as the habitat of a separate nation,
distinct in manners and language. Chinese
governments have never been powerful on the
seas, and though expeditions have occasionally
been despatched by sea from the Shan-tung
peninsula to the opposite coasts of Corea,
still military operations and international
intercourse have, practically speaking, been
conducted by the northerly and, as regards the
Mongols and Manchus, exposed land route
through Southern Manchuria. Hence it is that,
though Corea has, in the past two thousand
years, been more than once occupied by Chinese
armies, and even administratively incorporated
into the directly governed dominions of the
Whang-ti of China, that state of things has
lasted only for very short periods. Corea has,
in the main, been independent as regards
internal government; though, on the other
hand, its rulers have habitually, as it were,
yielded, with rare exceptions, the homage of
vassals to each line of undoubted Whang-tis.
This has, for instance, been the case without
intermission for the last 650 years, during
the Yuen, Ming, and the present line of
Whang-tis. “In the earliest periods Corea
was called Chau-seen, and it has at times been
politically divided into several states, as
Hwuy, Shin-han, Yuh-tsoo, Pih-tse, and Sin-lo.
In the second century after Christ, a new
state, called Kaou-le, began to grow into
power, and eventually absorbing all the
others, gave its name, written by Occidentals
‘Corea’to the peninsula. About a.d. 885, at a
time when China was torn by internal
dissensions, the Coreans possessed themselves
of the whole of the country east of the
Liau-ho, which they retained for 260 years,
till a.d, 645, when they were attacked by the
then Whang-ti or Emperor of the powerful Tang
dynasty, and expelled after several years of
hard fighting. The Coreans were great in the
construction and defence of fortified places,
ruins and vestiges of which now, after a lapse
of 1,200 years, meet the eye of the traveller
on all sides as he moves through the eastern
half of this province. They are everywhere
known to the people as ‘Corean
fortresses.’They are of all sizes, from the
single round tower, with the traces of a small
encircling court, to the surrounding works of
a city, usually quadrangular in shape, and the
sides of which may measure three or four
miles, with a gateway protected by outworks on
each face, or one or two miles with only two
such gateways on opposite sides. Some of these
ruined fortresses are found in the low plain
of the Liau-ho, where they evidently depended
on their wide, wet ditches as a main source of
strength; two such lie not far from this
porttown. Others occupy the tops of isolated
hills in the plain, or the ends of spurs
jutting out into it from the mountain range
tJiat bounds it on the east. Others again
occupy lower peaks of that range itself, peaks
rising steeply to heights of 1,000 to 1,200
feet above the adjacent plains and valleys.
All these ruined fortresses are exclusive of
the existing walled cities of Southern
Manchuria, as Liau-yang, Kai-yuen, Haiching,
Kai-chow, &c., nearly all of which were
equally fortified cities in the time of the
Corean domination, and were at its close the
scenes of recorded, in some instances of
celebrated, sieges.” Among the lofty mountains which
separate Corea from Manchuria, and also in the
valley of the Ya-luMang, are independent
mountaineers who defy alike the power of China
and Corea. They have been, I believe, several
times attacked by mandarins and their forces,
but it has been found impossible to dislodge
them from their mountain fastnesses. They
appear to be Manchus, and are partially
civilized. They employ themselves in gathering
medicinal roots, cutting down trees which they
float down the rivers to the Ya-lu-kiang, and
in seeking for gold. There are certain points
of meeting between them and the Chinese and
Coreans; at these places they sell their
medicine and wood, purchase a variety of
commodities, and invariably pay the balance in
gold, which appears to be plentiful. The houses of the better classes
of Coreans, especially in the north, are
oblong, and of one story. The door is
curiously set in a corner, adjoining which is
a boiler for cooking, and a small rectangular
space for working; three or four feet inwards
the “kang” begins, which forms the floor of
the remainder of the house. At the further end
of the “ kang “ are two compartments which
constitute the sleeping-rooms of the family.
The “kang” is built and heated, generally, by
the fire which also cooks their food, as is
the practice of the Chinese. In the north the
windows are invariably of paper. The houses of the poor have also
the indispensable “kang” and the two rooms at
the end; but the door is at the side, and one
end of the house contains the hard prepared
circular indentation in which they shell and
prepare their millet; the poor have generally
a cow tied up inside in the same place. The
rich have their cattle, grinding-stones and
mills, and grain, outside the dwelling, often
in circular outhouses. They have their cities,
towns, and villages as in China, and the more
important places are all defended by walls and
towers, which are often formidable. Many of
the poor in the north build houses in the same
way as is adopted by the immigrants in
Manchuria, which I have already described. They have a curious custom
relating to boys; they allow the hair to grow
long all over the head, afterwards it is
parted in the centre and the back portion
plaited into a long tail; at marriage this
tail is cut off and sold to the Chinese; hence
the quantities of human hair for sale at the
fairs. In the north the poor do not wear
much cotton, but almost universally dress in a
species of grass-cloth made from a fibrous
plant which grows abundantly. This cloth
bleaches well like linen, and a crowd of
Coreans looks remarkably clean and pleasant.
In the south they wear cotton, and, like those
in the north, are always in white. The wealthy
wear silk dresses; sometimes their own silk
and sometimes Chinese manufacture. Their shoes
are mostly made of stout twine carefully
plaited; the soles are made first and then the
uppers are ingeniously fastened on; these
shoes wear well They have also straw and
leather shoes, as the Chinese, and these are
sharp-pointed. In the north hats are
frequently made of horse-hair; they also have
hats made of a fine grass, beautifully woven,
with broad brims and flower-pot tops; their
costume, as a whole, is after the fashion of
the late Ming dynasty in China. Their buttons
and ornaments are commonly of amber, which
must be plentiful. Their cups and dishes are,
for the most part, of copper, or rather a
composition in which that metal largely
prevails; these utensils appear to be first
cast, then turned. In the south, clay and
porcelain dishes are more in general use. The native coin is reported to be
made of a species of hard-baked clay, but they
readily use Chinese copper cash, and are also
acquainted with Japanese silver coins. They
greatly prize silver in sycee form, and buy it
by touch and weight. The value of commodities
now sold or bartered at the three fairs at the
N.W. gate of Corea each year is estimated at
not more than 800,000 taels or 100,000 l. Coreans are possessed of
considerable ingenuity, as evinced in their
garments and manufactures. Their guns and
cannon especially deserve attention; they are
all breech-loaders, and far more efficient
than the clumsy articles used by their
neighbours; some of the breech-loaders taken
by the French were of the most beautifal make
and finish. Their boats and junks are made
wholly of wood, without a nail in them; the
planks are fixed with strong tough wooden
trenails, which are most efficient. I examined
one of their junks which came across to
Che-foo, and it was a very fair specimen of
such craft as is found in the East. They have a language of their own
which is alphabetical, and resembles the
Japanese in many respects; now, however, the
Chinese characters and classics are taught in
their schools, and every Corean who wishes to
rise must master the sacred books of China. Chinese and natives agree in
declaring that the country is rich in
minerals. Coal is in common use in many parts;
iron is mined and manufactured; silverore and
galena are common; one hill is reported to be
composed of silver! Gold was early known, to
the Coreans; Koeemfer tells us, in his account
of Japan, that the first gold brought into
that country was from Corea, a.d. 605, during
the reign of the Empress Suiko. It must be
very plentiful; they do not set the value upon
it which the Chinese do; and it is surmised
that its value, as compared with silver, must
be low, as it was in Japan when European
traders first went there. There appear to be a variety of
clays from which excellent pottery is made;
the manufactory best known to Europeans is
that near Ghosan, from whence pottery is said
to be exported to Japan across the narrow
channel. All the chief cereals are found in
abundance, and vegetables of endless variety
grow as in Shan-tung; grapes, apricots,
peaches, plums, apples, pears, and cherries
are indigenous throughout the country, and
gooseberries, ctirrants, and strawberries are
found in the north. The cotton produced in Corea is
far superior to that in any part of China; it
is long in the staple, and fine in quality,
just like the best kinds of Carolina cotton;
it appears to be very expensive. They are very
fond of foreign cotton cloth, and buy it
largely from the Chinese at the gates, as well
as smuggle considerable quantities every year
on the coast. A merchant in Passiette assured
me of their great desire for cheap cotton
goods, aiid said that there would be a large
demand were the country opened up; this is
extremely probable, as cotton is a
much safer and more pleasant dress than
grass-cloth for a climate like Corea; the
Coreans at the gate alleged that they formerly
purchased 80,000 pieces of foreign
manufactures yearly. They do not appear to
have any woollen manufactures; the only thing
I could hear of in this way was coarse matting
for sleeping on in winter. The mulberry-tree
is cultivated in many places, and they produce
silk, but manufacture it to a very limited
extent; they, however. sell fine coloured silk
thread at the gates to the Chinese, and weave
it for their own use. Looking at the position
and climate of Corea, there can he no doubt
that the best qualities of silk could be
raised there in great quantities, and also
that the eggs of their silk-worms would be
valuable for exportation. Corean paper is made chiefly
firom the bark of the mulberry-tree, and is
famous all over the north of China, especially
for its texture and strength; it is exported
in large quantities at the gates, and smuggled
on the sea-coast. They use it for
handkerchiefs, partitionwalls, windows,
umbrellas, &c. &c. Medicines are
produced in innumerable variety; the most
renowned is Gensing, a famous tonic, which
constitutes one of the most important articles
of barter with the Chinese. The better
qualities are of higher value than gold, and
so it forms a convenient substitute for money.
The medicinal plants and preparations are
highly prized by the neighbouring Celestials.
Tobacco is grown in many places, and widely
used by the natives. Trees are numerous and various.
The elm attains a great height, rising fifty
feet without a branch, and attaining three
feet diameter at the butt; next in importance
are pines, of which there are three kinds, in
addition to the cedar. There are three species
of oak, but only one of any commercial value;
three varieties of birch; and cork-trees are
abundant, as well as a tree in colour like the
beech, the wood of which is hard, dry and
heavy, like iron. The hawthorn is common, and
the wild fig not infrequent; and several kinds
of nutbearing trees and bushes are found in
many places. The valley of the Ya-lu-kiang has
attained a wide celebrity for its massive
pines; and in view of its contiguity to the
great iron and coal districts in Manchuria,
and of its grand water communication with the
Gulf of Pe-chih-li, it may yet become one of
the chief buildingyards in China, in the grand
future which unquestionably lies before this
country. Several of the islands are also
renowned for their trees, and Chinese sailors
often land, and try either to steal or
purchase; one trader told me, you had nothing
to do but climb the mountain and cut down a
tree, when it rolled of itself into the sea. The domestic animals resemble the
Chinese, but there are some singular
divergences, which we have before referred to.
The horse is not larger than an ass, and is
not like a pony, but is a miniature horse, and
when properly cared for is the very effigy of
a diminutive hunter. The bullock, on the other
hand, is a giant among its kind — as large as
an ordinary horse, and is shod and harnessed
for agricultural purposes. The Coreans have
also the dog and cat, and the pig, but smaller
than on the mainland. They have their share of
wild beasts; wolves and tigers abounding in
the north; their skins form part of the
tribute to China, and constitute a portion of
the barter which goes on at the gates and on
the coast. The commerce of the country is
hampered by most pernicious laws and
regulations; there are only three places where
trade with Chinese is allowed, and only for
brief seasons at stated intervals. These
trading places are called “gates,” the chief
of which is on the south of Fung-whang-chung;
the second is near Hunohun, not far from
Passiette; and the third is now hardly
anything else than a military station. The
consequence is that a large amount of illicit
traffic goes on between the ports on the east
of Shan-tung and Corea; the traders have
signals which are faithfully observed, and
Manchester cloth and other foreign articles
thus find their way from Che-foo into the
country. In presenting these remarks I
wish to draw attention not so much to what
Corea is, as to what it could be made.
Obviously it is a country of great
capabilities. The people possess capacities of
no mean description; they are intelligent,
acute, and ingenious, and, what is better, of
a resolute character. The climate is extremely
salubrious; the resources of the country are
manifold, embracing all kinds of grain, fruit,
vegetables, and wood, with coal, iron, and the
most important metals. The water communication
is fair, and the harbours, especially on the
south and east, most excellent. Nothing is
wanting for the advancement of the country but
the stimulus and guidance of western religion
and civilization. It ought to be opened to
European intercourse; it is the only country
of any importance which remains closed against
us. One party says we have no right to force
ourselves upon an unwilling people; another,
that the Coreans are happy as they are; while
a third looks partly at the evils and partly
at the expenses of war. It strikes me that
mankind have common interests in each other
and duties towards one another, and that it is
the duty of the strong to help the weak; the
intelligent, the ignorant; and the civilized,
those who are lower in the scale of
advancement. Hence, I believe, it is at once
the duty and privilege of such countries as
Great Britain and America to lead the van, and
use the power God has given them to open up
countries which are stupidly and ignorantly
closed against them like Corea. War is a terrible evil in every
aspect, but it seems a condition of progress
in this fallen world; and, in view of the
advantages, moral, intellectual, and
spiritual, which would accrue to a people
brought into full contact with the blaze of
true civilization, the cost would be
immeasurably counterbalanced. But the opening
up of this country might be eflfected without
war. Representations of such a character might
be made through the Chinese Government as
would, perhaps, accomplish the object; or
negotiations might be entered into, directly,
with the annual Corean Embassy at Peking; or,
if diplomacy failed, a resource still remains,
which might obviate any great loss of life, if
not bloodshed altogether. Let a large force,
naval and military, which clearly — in the
eyes of the Coreans themselves — would be
irresistible, appear at their capital, explain
our motives, and demand such concessions as
are consistent with natural justice. Let it be
seen that we are in earnest, and let such
arrangements be made as would secure peace
until the natives had discerned our true
motives and the advantages of dealing with us,
and then intercourse would go on of its own
accord. This, of course, would entail some
expense, though not so much as appears at
first sight; for it is just about as cheap to
keep our ships on duty as laid up in idleness
or stationed in unimportant quarters. And then
the profit would soon appear in the shape of
increased demands for our manufactures. A
little additional outlay is a poor excuse for
neglecting such an undertaking; and sad will
it be for Great Britain if the day comes when
charges of this kind will weigh against deeds
of enterprise and philanthropy. If Prussia
wishes territory in the East, Corea is
infinitely preferable to Formosa.