Civilizing the Great Qing: Manchu-Korean Relations and the Reconstruction of the Chinese Empire, 1644–1761

On June 6, 1644, forty days after the suicide of the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the Manchu forces of the Great Qing occupied Beijing without a fight. They were able to do so with the support of the Ming general Wu Sangui, who allowed the Manchu troops to enter inner China from their Manchurian homeland by way of the Shanhai Pass. In the Forbidden City, the Manchu commander, Prince Dorgon, accepted the capitulation of the Chinese officials of the Ming, all of whom had shaved their foreheads in the Manchu style. The Manchus, whom the Ming Chinese regarded as yi ("barbarians"), became the new rulers of the civilized center — China, the Middle Kingdom or Zhongguo in Chinese.¹

This scene is familiar to all scholars of the Qing (1636–1912), but the following episode is generally absent from their narratives. Among those who attended the ceremony with the Manchus was the crown prince of Chosǒn Korea (1392–1910), Yi Wang (1612–45).² Yi had been living in Mukden (Shenyang) for seven years since 1637, when the Manchus, who in Chosǒn accounts were orangk'ae ("barbarians"), had conquered Chosǒn and taken him and his younger brother, Yi Ho (King Hyojong,r. 1649–59), as hostages.³ As a result of the 1637 expedition, the Qing established a Zongfan (i.e., tributary) relationship with Chosǒn by taking over the central and patriarchal superior position occupied by the Ming in the bilateral framework that governed relations between the two powers. This framework had been institutionalized in 1401 and the Yongle emperor (r. 1403–24) of the Ming had awarded the king of Chosǒn a robe commensurate with the rank of first-degree prince (Ch. qinwang, a brother of the emperor) in 1403, adding Chosǒn to the Ming Zongfan system, an arrangement acknowledged by Chosǒn and later endorsed by the Qing.⁴ In addition to the crown prince and his attendants, a Korean officer, Ch'oe Hyo-il, who had begun his anti-Manchu activities in the Korean city of Ǔiju when the Manchus first invaded Chosǒn in 1627 and later joined General Wu's army, was also in Beijing on the day of the Manchu occupation. Ch'oe refused to shave his hair in a Manchu queue or to prostrate himself in front of the Manchu prince. Instead, dressed in a Ming-style robe, he went to Chongzhen's tomb to mourn for the Ming. After a seven-day hunger strike, he died there. General Wu buried his body and commemorated him in an elegy.⁵

Ch'oe died, but his anti-Manchu spirit did not. In 1715, even as Chosǒn was being applauded by the Qing as the most loyal "subordinate country" (Ch. shuguo; Ma. harangga gurun; i.e., tributary state) and "outer fan" (Ch. waifan; Ma. tulergi gurun; likewise, vassal state), King Sukchong (r. 1675–1720) in Hansǒng (today's Seoul) enthusiastically granted Ch'oe a posthumous rank for his spirit of commitment to the Middle Kingdom and the Heavenly (Ming) Dynasty (Ch. tianchao; K. ch'ǒnjo; the dynasty possessing the Mandate of Heaven [Ch. tianming]). Chosǒn continued to celebrate Ch'oe's martyrdom in 1755, 1756, and 1762 in pro-Ming and anti-Manchu rites carried out in Chosǒn territory.⁶

Recent scholarship has focused on the Korean regime's unprecedented efforts to strengthen its identity as "Little China" (Ch. Xiao Zhonghua; K. So Junghwa) after the fall of the Ming and on the various manifestations of an anti-Manchu mentality in Chosǒn (both by the government and among the people) that were informed by the time-honored politico-cultural discourse of the civilized-barbarian distinction (Ch. Hua-yi zhi bian; K. Hwa-i Ǔi chai). This work has called into question the picture of harmonious tributary relations painted by the Qing side and has revealed the multilayered and centrifugal nature of the Chinese world order.⁷ However, it has not touched upon the grave challenge that the civilized...