396 t h e a n n a l s o f k i n g t’a e j o
Hallyong tried to further perpetuate a disturbance but finally stopped
acting recklessly because Ipgyŏn was strong and polite in his words. The
king ordered Chin Ch’unggwi, deputy commissioner of the Security
Council, to get a new robe for the envoy.
At that time, the imperial envoys sent by the Chinese emperor were
always Koreans who had become eunuchs for the emperor. As soon as they
finished their mission of conveying the imperial decree, they immediately
visited their birthplaces and behaved lawlessly, as this time, so the local
governments found them extremely troublesome.The government dispatched Song Hŭijŏng, director of the Directorate for Ship-
building and Transportation, to the Chinese capital, taking the family of Kim
Wan’gwi with him. The memorial submitted to the emperor was as follows:
“On the seventh day of the second month of the twenty- seventh year
(1394) of Hongwu, over ten cavalier soldiers arrived at the foot of Mt.
Mashan.^89 Believing that they were the entourage of the Chinese diplomatic
mission to Korea, Yŏ Ch’ing, myriarch of Ŭiju, immediately sent three res-
idents in his district, including Kim Paegan, to greet them, crossing the
Yalu River. The Chinese cavalier soldiers, however, captured Paegan and
others and took them away.
“Also, on the twenty- first day of the third month in the same year, four
Chinese envoys to Korea arrived at the riverside of Posuo,^90 escorted by
thirty Chinese soldiers of Liaodong, so Yŏ Ch’ing, myriarch of Ŭiju, crossed
the river [Yalu] to greet them. However, the Chinese escort soldiers sud-
denly grabbed our people and took away three of them, including Interpreter
Kim Yong, Military Commissioner Kim Pojŏng, and Chiliarch Yi Kyŏnsil.
“To think over the matter earnestly, our small kingdom never had any
thought other than serving the great nation [China]. Since our border is so
close to the Regional Military Commission of Liaodong, only a river stands
between to block passage. Therefore, whenever Chinese envoys sent by the
imperial court or the Regional Military Commission of Liaodong visited
our country, our officials in Ŭiju used to greet them first, crossing the Yalu
River. Henceforth, our people on the border will be afraid and suspicious
when they have Chinese envoys in their district and thereby cannot avoid
making mistakes in entertaining them.- A mountain on the Chinese side of the Yalu River.
- Modern Dandong, a city in Liaoning Province, which is on the border with Sinŭiju,
North Korea.