1st Edition
The East Asian War, 1592-1598 International Relations, Violence and Memory
As East Asia regains its historical position as a world centre, information on the history of regional relations becomes ever more critical. Astonishingly, Northeast Asia enjoyed five centuries of international peace from 1400 to 1894, broken only by one major international war – the invasion of Korea in the 1590s by Japan’s ruler Hideyoshi. This war involved Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Europeans; it saw the largest overseas landing in world history up to that time and devastated Korea. It also highlighted the nature of the strategic balance in the region, presenting China’s Ming dynasty with a serious threat that perhaps foreshadowed the dynasty’s subsequent overthrow by the Manchus, played a major part in the establishment of the Tokugawa regime with its policy of peace and controlled access to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Japan, and demonstrated the importance for regional stability of the subtle relationship of Korea to both China and Japan. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the war and its aftermath in all its aspects – military, political, social, economic, and cultural. As such it deepens understanding of East Asian international relations and provides important insights into the strategic concerns that continue to operate in the region at present.
Introduction James B. Lewis Part 1: International and Domestic Background 1. Japanese-Korean and Japanese-Chinese Relations in the Sixteenth Century Saeki Kōji 2. Korea’s Pre-war Domestic Situation and Relations with Japan Han Moon Jong 3. Violence, Trade, and Impostors in Korean-Japanese Relations, 1510-1609 Kenneth R. Robinson Part 2: War 4. The Imjin Waeran: Contrasting the First and the Second Invasions of Korea Kitajima Manji 5. Hideyoshi’s View of Chosŏn Korea and Japan-Ming Negotiations Sajima Akiko 6. Post-war Domain Source Material on Hideyoshi’s Invasion of Korea: The Wartime Memoirs of Shimazu Soldiers Murai Shōsuke 7. The Role of the Chosŏn Navy and Major Naval Battles During the Imjin Waeran Yi Min’ung 8. Righteous Army Activity in the Imjin War Nukii Masayuki 9. Ming Grand Strategy and the Intervention in Korea Kenneth M. Swope 10. Wanli China versus Hideyoshi’s Japan: Rethinking China’s Involvement in the Imjin Waeran Harriet Zurndorfer 11. The Celestial Warriors: Military Aid and Abuse during the Korean War, 1592-98 Nam-lin Hur 12: International Relations and the Imjin War James B. Lewis Part 3: Impact and Memory 13. "The Inestimable Benevolence of Saving a Country on the Brink of Ruin": Chosŏn-Ming and Chosŏn-Later Jin Relations in the Seventeenth Century Han Myung-gi 14. Chosŏn Korea and Ming China After the Imjin Waeran: State Rituals in the Later Chosŏn Period Kuwano Eiji 15. War and Cultural Exchange Ha Woo Bong 16. The Imjin Waeran in Korean and Japanese Literatures Choi Gwan 17. Fashioning Womanly Confucian Virtue: The Virtuous Woman in Post-war Literary Discourse Michael Pettid Conclusion James B. Lewis
Biography
James B. Lewis is the University Lecturer in Korean History at the University of Oxford, UK.
