Book IV 30329th Day (Imin)
The king paid a visit to Such’ang Palace to stay overnight.The government had runaways of Korean descent from Liaodong forcibly
transferred back to China. It ordered Cho Ŏn,^38 former deputy director of
the Security Council, to transport them to the Chinese authorities and also
sent an official letter to the Ministry of Rites of China:
“On the twenty- third day of the fifth month of the twenty- sixth year of
the reign of Hongwu, we received a letter from the emperor through impe-
rial envoys Hwang Yŏnggi and others. In that letter, the emperor said,
‘Lately you have secretly sent your men to lure over five hundred Jurchens
from our land, and they crossed the Yalu River. No crimes can be serious
more than this.’ So our people and I were afraid and at a loss for what to do
about your reprimands. Then we dispatched your servant Nam Chae, acade-
mician of the Security Council, to your court to explain our situation, sub-
mitting my memorial to you.
“According to the investigations we have made, the soldiers and the
people of our country who had gone over to Liaodong listed themselves on
the military register of Liaodong. However, as they missed their home, they
again escaped and returned to their country and went into hiding in the val-
leys. At first I did not know about it, until I read the report from the Regional
Military Commission of Liaodong and thereafter captured those people and
continued to send them back to Liaodong. Moreover, Jurchens are foreigners
who use a different language from us. How dare we secretly send our men
and lure those people across the Yalu River?
“Upon receiving your imperial instruction, I immediately dispatched
officials to all the districts and villages in the Northwest Region and rounded
up a total of 122 households, which were made up of 388 people, including
a Korean named Pak Yong, who had repeatedly run away from Liaodong.
We handcuffed and shackled them, then handed them over to the Regional
Military Commission of Liaodong.
“Previously, your envoy Tuohuan Buhua visited us to claim the people
who originally belonged to the domain of his ancestors and took the people
- Cho Ŏn (?): a military official of late Koryŏ. He served as magistrate of Kaesŏng in the
early years of King U and became second royal secretary in the year when King Kongyang
ascended the throne. Implicated in the conspiracy of Yun I and Yi Ch’o, which was to remove
T’aejo with the help of Ming China, he was exiled to a distant district.