Perang Dunia Timur. Jepang, Tiongkok, dan Korea/Bab 10

GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS OF COREA.

Geographical Limits of Corea—Characteristics of the Coast Line—The Surface Configuration of the Country—Isolation Made Easy by the Character of its Boundaries—Rivers of the Peninsula—The Climate—Forests, Plants, and Animals—Products of the Soil and of the Mine—Extent of Foreign Trade—The Eight provinces of Corea, Their Extent, Cities, and History—Government of the Corean Kingdom—The Dignitaries and their Duties—Corruption in the Administration of Official Duties—Buying and Selling Office—The Executive and the Judiciary.

For many a year the country of Corea has been known in little more than name. Its territory is a peninsula on the east coast of Asia, between China on the continent, and the Japanese islands to the eastward. It extends from thirty-four degrees and thirty minutes to forty-three degrees north latitude, and from one hundred and twenty-four degrees and thirty minutes to one hundred and thirty degrees and thirty minutes east longitude, between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. The Yellow Sea separates it from the southern provinces of China, while the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Corea separate it from the Japanese islands. It has a coast line of about one thousand seven hundred and forty miles, and a total area of about ninety thousand square miles. The peninsula, with its outlying islands, is nearly equal in size to Minnesota or to Great Britain. In general shape and relative position to the Asiatic continent it resembles Florida. Tradition and geological indications lead to the belief that anciently the Chinese promontory and province of Shan-tung, and the Corean peninsula were connected, and that dry land once covered the space filled by the waters joining the Gulf of Pechili and the Yellow Sea. These waters are so shallow that the elevation of their bottoms but a few feet would restore their area to the land surface of the globe. On the other side also, the Sea of Japan is very shallow and the Straits of Corea at their greatest depth have but eighty-three feet of water.

The east coast is high, mountainous, and but slightly indented, 373with very few islands or harbors. The south and west shores are deeply and manifoldly scooped and fringed with numerous islands. From these island-skirted shores, especially on the west coast, mud banks extend out to sea beyond sight. While the tide on the east coast is very slight, only two feet at Gensan, it increases on the south and west coasts in a north direction, rising to thirty-three feet at Chemulpo. The rapid rise and fall of tides, and the vast area of mud left bare at low water, cause frequent fogs, and render the numerous inlets little available except for native craft. On the west coast the rivers are frozen in winter, but the east coast is open the whole winter through.

Quelpaert, the largest island, forty by seventeen miles, lies sixty miles south of the main land. Port Hamilton, between Quelpaert and Corea, was for a time an English possession, but in 1886 was given to China. The Russians are generally believed to have an overweening desire for the magnificent harbor of Port Lazaref on the east coast of the Corean mainland. In its policy of exclusion of all foreigners, the government has had its tasks facilitated by the inaccessible and dangerous nature of the approaches to the coast. The high mountain ranges and steep rocks of the east coast, and the thousands of islands, banks, shoals and reefs extending for miles into the sea on the western and southern shores, unite to make approach exceedingly difficult, even with the best charts and surveys at hand.

In the middle of the northern boundary of Corea, is the most notable natural feature of the peninsula. It is a great mountain, the colossal Paik-tu or “ever white” mountain, as it is known from the snow that rests upon its summit. When the Manchoorians pushed the Coreans farther and farther back, they reached this mountain, which marked the natural barrier which they were able to make their permanent boundary line. According to native account, which in Corea is seriously believed, the highest peak of this mountain reaches the moderate elevation of forty-four miles. It is famous as the birthplace of Corean folk lore, and a great deal that is mythical hangs about it still. On the top of the peak is a lake thirty miles in circumference. From this lake flow two streams, one to the north-east, the Tumen, which enters the Sea of Japan; and the other to the south-west, 374the Yalu river, which flows into the Corean bay at the head of the Yellow Sea. Corea is therefore in reality an island. These two rivers and the lake forming the northern boundary are about four hundred and sixty miles from the ocean at the southern end of the peninsula. The greatest width of the country is three hundred and sixty miles and its narrowest about sixty miles.

The Tumen river separates Corea from Manchooria, except in the last few miles of its course, when it flows by Russian territory, the south-eastern corner of Siberia. The Yalu river also divides Corea from Manchooria. The rivers of Corea are not of great importance except for drainage and water supply, being navigable but for short distances. On the west coast the chief rivers are the Yalu, the Ching-chong, the Tatong, the Han, the Kum; the Yalu is navigable for about one hundred and seventy miles and is by far the greatest of all in the peninsula. The Han is navigable to a little above Seoul, eighty miles; the Tatong to Ping-Yang, seventy-five miles; and the Kum is navigable for small boats for about thirty miles. In the south-eastern part of the peninsula the Nak-tong is navigable for small boats to a distance of one hundred and forty miles. The Tumen river, which forms the north-eastern boundary between Corea and Siberia, is not navigable except near the mouth. It drains a mountainous and rainy country. Ordinarily it is shallow and quiet, but in spring its current becomes very turbulent and swollen.

Occupying about the same latitude as Italy, Corea is also, like Italy, hemmed in on the north by mountain ranges, and traversed from north to south by another chain. The whole peninsula is very mountainous, some of the peaks rising to a height of eight thousand feet.

The climate of the country is excellent, bracing in the north, with the south tempered by the ocean breezes in summer. The winters in the north are colder than those of American states in the same latitude, and the summers are hotter. The heat is tempered by sea breezes, but in the narrow enclosed valleys it becomes very intense. The Han is frozen at Seoul for three months in the year, sufficiently to be used as a cart road, while the Tumen is usually frozen for five months.

Various kinds of timber abound, except in the west, where 375wood is scarce and is sparingly used; and in other parts the want of coal has caused the wasteful destruction of many a forest. The fauna is very considerable and besides tigers, leopards, and deer, includes pigs, wild cats, badgers, foxes, beavers, otters, martens, bears, and a great variety of birds. The salamander is found in the streams as in western Japan. The domestic animals are few. The cattle are excellent, the bull being the usual beast of burden, the pony very small but hardy, fowls good, the pigs inferior.

Immense numbers of oxen are found in the south, furnishing the meat diet craved by the people, who eat much more of fatty food than the Japanese. Goats are rare. Sheep are imported from China only for sacrificial purposes. The dog serves for food as well as for companionship and defense. Of birds the pheasants, falcons, eagle, crane, and stork are common.

Among the products are rice, wheat, beans, cotton, hemp, corn, sesame, and perilla. Ginseng grows wild in the Kange mountains and is also much cultivated about Kai-seng, the duties upon it, notwithstanding much smuggling, yielded about half a million dollars annually.

Iron ore of excellent quality is mined; and there are copper mines in several places. The output of the silver mines is very small, but the customs returns for 1886 show the value of gold exported that year to be $503,296. The principal industries are the manufacture of paper, mats woven of grass, split bamboo blinds, oil paper, and silk. The total value of the foreign imports in 1887 was $2,300,000, two-thirds representing cotton goods; the native exports reached about $700,000, chiefly beans and cow hides. The foreign vessels entering the treaty ports yearly number about seven hundred and fifty, of some two hundred 376thousand tons burden. Three-fourths of the trade is with Japan and more than one-fifth with China; British goods go by way of these countries. Until 1888 business was done chiefly by barter, imports being exchanged largely for gold dust, and Japanese silk piece goods being a current exchange for trade inland. In that year the mint at Seoul was completed, and a beneficial effect on commerce resulted from the introduction of a convenient and sufficient coinage. Seoul is connected by telegraph with Taku, Port Arthur, Chemulpo, Gensan, and Fusan.

Corea is divided into eight provinces, three on the east coast and five on the west coast. These eight provinces are divided into sixty districts with about three hundred and sixty cities, only sixty of which however are entitled to the name, the remainder distinguishing themselves from the larger hamlets and villages merely by the walled-in residence of the chief government official. Only a portion of each real city is walled in; but it must not be thought that these walls are in any way similar to those to be found in China, where even second and third rate cities are protected by high and strong fortifications with moats. Corean walls are usually about six feet high, miserably constructed, of irregular and uneven stone blocks, and nearly every one of them would tumble down at the first shock of a ball fired from a modern gun.

Corea has for centuries successfully carried out the policy of isolation. Instead of a peninsula, her rulers strove to make her an accessible island, and insulate her from the shock of change. She has built, not a great wall of masonry, but a barrier of sea and river-flood, of mountain and devastated land, of palisade and cordon of armed sentinels. Frost and snow, storm and winter, she hailed as her allies. Not content with the sea border, she desolated her shores lest they should tempt the foreigner to land. In addition to this, between her Chinese neighbor and herself she placed a neutral space of unplanted, unoccupied land. This strip of forest and desolated plain twenty leagues wide, has stretched for three centuries between Corea and Manchooria. To form it, four cities and many villages were suppressed and left in ruins. The soil of these former solitudes is very good, the roads easy, and the hills not high. The southern boundary of this neutral ground has been the boundary of Corea, while the northern boundary has been a wall of stakes, palisades and stone. Two centuries ago, this line of walls was strong, high, guarded and kept in repair, but year by year at last, during a long era of peace, they were suffered to fall into decay, and except for their ruins exist no longer. For centuries only the wild beasts, fugitives from justice, and outlaws from both countries have inhabited this fertile but forbidden territory. Occasionally borderers would cultivate portions of it, but gathered the produce by night or stealthily by day, venturing on it as prisoners would step over the dead line. Of late years the Chinese government has respected the neutrality of this barrier less and less. Within a generation large portions of this neutral strip have been occupied; parts of it have been surveyed and staked out by Chinese surveyors, and the Corean government has been too feeble to prevent the occupation. Though no towns or villages are marked on the map of this neutral territory, yet already a considerable number of small settlements exist upon it, and it was through them that the overland marches of the Japanese army from Corea into Manchooria had to be made.

The province which borders this neutral territory, is that of Ping-Yang or “Peaceful Quiet.” It is the border land of the kingdom, containing what was for centuries the only acknowledged 380gate of entrance and outlet to the one neighbor which Corea willingly acknowledged as her superior. The battle of Ping-Yang recently fought, is only one of many which have interrupted the harmony of the province of “Peaceful Quiet.” The town nearest the frontier and the gateway of the kingdom is Wi-ju. It is situated on a hill overlooking the Yalu river, and surrounded by a wall of light colored stone. The annual embassy always departed for its overland journey to China through its gates. Here also are the custom house and vigilant guards, whose chief business it was to scrutinize all persons entering or leaving Corea. Nevertheless most of the French missionaries have entered the mysterious peninsula through this loop-hole, disguising themselves as wood cutters, crossing the Yalu river on the ice, creeping through the water drains in the grand wall, and passing through this town, or they have been met by friends at appointed places along the border, and thence have traveled to the capital. Further details as to the political condition of this neutral strip will be included in a succeeding chapter, preliminary to the outbreak of the war. The Tatong river, which forms the southern boundary of the province, is the Rubicon of Corean history. At various epochs in ancient times it was the boundary river of China or of the rival states within the peninsula. About fifty miles from its mouth is the city of Ping-Yang, the metropolis and capital of the province and the royal seat of authority from before the Christian era to the tenth century. Its situation renders it a natural stronghold. It has been many times besieged by Chinese and Japanese armies, and near it many battles have been fought.

The next province to the south is that of Hwanghai or the “Yellow Sea” province. This is the land of Corea that projects into the Yellow Sea directly opposite the Shan-tung promontory of China, on which are the ports of Chefoo and Wei-hai-wei. Tien-tsin, the seaport of Peking, is a little farther east. From these ports since the most ancient times, the Chinese armadas have sailed and invading armies have embarked for Corea. Over and over again has the river Tatong been crowded with fleets of junks, fluttering the dragon banners at their peaks. To guard against these invasions signal fires were lighted on the hill-tops 381which formed a cordon of flame and sped the alarm from coast to capital in a few hours. This province has been the camping ground of the armies of many nations. Here, beside the border forays which engaged the troops of the rival kingdom, the Japanese, Chinese, Mongols, and Manchoos have contended for victory again and again. The principal cities of this province are Hai-chiu the capital, Hwang-ju an old baronial walled city, and the commercial city of Sunto or Kai-seng. Rock salt, flints, ginseng, varnish, and brushes made of the hair of wolf tails, are the principal products of the province.

Kiung-kei is the province which contains the national capital, although it is the smallest of all. The city of Han Yang, or Seoul, is on the north side of the river, forty or fifty miles from its mouth. The name Han Yang means “the fortress on the Han river,” while the common term applied to the royal city is Seoul, which means “the capital.” The population of the city is between two hundred thousand and two hundred and fifty thousand. The natural advantages of Seoul are excellent, as it is well protected by surrounding mountains, and its suburbs reach the navigable river. The scenery from the city is magnificent. The walls are of masonry, averaging about twenty feet in height, with arched stone bridges over the water courses. The streets are narrow and tortuous. The king’s castle is in the northern part. The islands in the river near the capital are inhabited by fishermen.

Four great fortresses guard the approaches to the royal city, 382all of which have been the scene of siege and battle in time past. The fortresses in succession are Suwen to the south, Kwang-chiu to the south-east, Sunto to the north and Kang-wa to the west. On the walls of the first three have been set the banners of the hosts of Ming from China and of Taiko from Japan, in the wars at the close of the sixteenth century. The Manchoo standard in 1637 and the French eagles in 1866 were planted on the ramparts of Kang-wa. Beside these castled cities there are forts and redoubts along the river banks crowning most of the commanding headlands. Over these the stars and stripes floated for three days in 1871 when the American forces captured the strongholds.

Sunto is one of the most important, if not the chief commercial city in the kingdom, and from 960 to 1392 it was the national capital. The chief staple of manufacture and sale is the coarse cotton cloth which forms the national dress. Kang-wa on the island of the same name, at the mouth of the Han river, is the favorite fortress to which the royal family are sent for safety in time of war, or are banished in case of deposition.

The province Chung Chong or “Serene Loyalty” is the next one to the southward facing the Yellow Sea. In the history of Corean Christianity this province will be remembered as the nursery of the faith. Here were made the most converts to the teachings of the French missionaries, and here persecutions were most violent. When the Japanese armies of invasion reached the capital in 1592, it was over the great highways from Fusan which cross this province. Chion-Chiu, the fortress on whose fate the capital depended, lies in the north-east of the province. The province contains ten walled cities, and like all its fellows it is divided into departments, right and left.

The most southern of the eight provinces, Chulla or “Complete Network” is also the warmest and most fertile. It is nearest to Shanghai and to the track of foreign commerce. Considerable quantities of hides, bones, horns, leather, and tallow are exported to Japan. The beef supplied from the herds of cattle in the pastures of Chulla is famous, and troops of horses graze on the pasture land. The province is well furnished with ports and harbors. Christianity had quite a hold in this province, and when Corea 385was partly opened to the world there were many believers found in the north who were descendants of Christian martyrs. The capital is Chon-chiu. The soil of the province was the scene of many battles during the Chinese invasions of 1592-97.

The island of Quelpaert is about sixty miles south of the mainland. It is mountainous, with one peak called Han-ra more than six thousand five hundred feet high. On its top are three extinct craters within each of which is a lake of pure water. Corean children are taught to believe that the three first created men of the world still dwell on these lofty heights.

The most south-easterly province of Corea, and therefore the nearest to Japan, is Kiung-sang or the “Province of Respectful Congratulation.” It is one of the richest of the eight provinces as well as the most populous, and the seat of many historical associations with Japan. The city of Kion-chiu was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Shinra, and from here to Kioto, from the third to the tenth century, the relations of war and peace, letters and religion were continuous and fruitful. The province has always been the gateway of entrance and exit to the Japanese. Fusan, the port which was held by the Japanese from very ancient times, is well at the south-eastern extremity of the peninsula. Its fortifications are excellent, and its harbor well protected. Populous cities encircle the bay on which Fusan stands, and from this point extend two great roads to Seoul. The influence of centuries of close intercourse with their neighbors, the Japanese, is strongly marked in this province.

The “River Meadow,” or Kang-wen province fronts Japan from the middle of the eastern coast directly north of Kiung-sang. It is a province of beautiful scenery and precipitous mountains. The capital is Wen-chiu. The women of the province are said to be the most beautiful in Corea.

Ham-kiung, or complete view, is that part of Corean territory adjoining the boundary of Russia. The south-eastern boundary of Siberia, which has been pushed farther south after every European war with China, touched the Tumen river, the northern boundary of Corea, in 1858. It is but a little ways from the mouth of the Tumen river to the forts of Vladivostok and Possiet in Russian territory. From these cities extends a telegraph 386across Siberia to the cities of European Russia, and here will be the terminus of the great Trans-Siberian railway now under construction. Possiet is connected with Nagasaki by an electric cable. In the event of a war between China and Russia, the Czar would most probably make Corea the basis of operations. Thousands of Coreans have left their own country to dwell in the neighboring portions of Siberia, and most of them are from the province of Ham-kiung. Persecuted Christians from all over the Corean peninsula have however escaped to Russia for protection for many years. The port of Gensan near Port Lazaref, fronting Broughton’s Bay has been opened for trade since May 1, 1880, and has been an important strategic and commercial point ever since. The capital city of this province is Ham-hung and there are fourteen other walled cities within its limits. Until the Russians occupied the adjoining territory, an annual fair was held at the Corea city of Kion-wen which lies close to the border. Here the Manchoo and Chinese merchants bartered their wares for those of Corean, the traffic lasting but two or three days and sometimes only one day. At the end of the fair any lingering Chinese not soon across the border was urged over at the point of a spear. Foreigners found within the Corean limits at any other time were apt to be ruthlessly murdered.

The government of Corea, since the amalgamation of the different tribes and union of the various states five hundred years ago, has devolved upon an independent king, an hereditary monarch whose rule was absolute and supreme. Next in authority to the king are the three Chong, or high ministers. The chief of these is the greatest dignitary of the kingdom, and in time of minority or inability of the king wields royal authority. The father of the present king ruled as regent up to the time when his son reached his majority in 1874. After the king and the three prime ministers, come the six heads of departments of government which rank next. These six department ministers are assisted by two other associates, the Cham-pan and the Cham-e. These four grades and twenty-one dignitaries constitute the royal council of Dai-jin, though the actual authority is in the three ministers. All of the department ministers make daily reports of their affairs, and refer matters of importance to the supreme council. There are also 387three chamberlains who record every day the acts and words of the king. A daily government gazette called the Cho-po is issued for information on official matters. The general cast and method of procedure in the court and government were copied in the beginning after the great model in Peking. The rule of the king in Corea is absolute, and his will alone is law. There has always existed, indeed, the office of a high functionary whose special duty consists in watching and controlling the royal actions. Formerly this office really had some significance, but of late years it has possessed none whatever. Another very curious institution has been that of the declared or official favorite, a position generally filled by some member of a noble family, or by one of the ministers whose influence for good or for evil was paramount with his royal master.

The titles of the prime ministers are Chief of The Just Government, The Just Governor of the Left, and The Just Governor of the Right. The six department ministers are those of the interior, or office and public employ, finance, war, education, punishments or justice, and public works. The duties of the minister of foreign affairs devolve on the minister of education.

Each of the eight provinces is under the direction of a Kam-sa or governor. The cities are divided into six classes, and are governed by officers of corresponding rank. Towns are given in charge of the petty magistrates, there being twelve ranks or dignities in the official class. In theory, any male Corean able to pass the government examination is eligible to office, but the greater number of the best positions are secured by the nobles and their friends. The terms of office in these posts, from that of provincial governorship down to the lowest are only for two or 388three years. At the end of that time the incumbent pays purchase money and is removed to another place. The natural result of this system is that the officials take little interest in their offices except to extort as much profit as possible from the people whom they are governing. With offices and honors sold to the highest bidder, the high officers sell justice and plunder their subordinates, while these again try to indemnify themselves by further extortion.

The magistrates lay great stress on the trifles of etiquette, and sumptuary laws exist referring to all sorts of the small things of life. The rule of the local authorities is very minute in all its ramifications. The system of making every five houses a social unit is universal. Every subject of the sovereign except nobles of rank must possess a passport testifying to his personality and must show his ticket on demand.

Civil matters are decided by the ordinary civil magistrate, while criminal cases are tried by the military commandant. Very important cases are referred to the governor of the province, and thence appealed to the high court in the capital.