Book XI 665Yesterday, Chŏng Ch’ong sent a letter to the Hanlin Academy (Hanlinyuan)
and requested that he be allowed to wear mourning dress since his queen
had passed away. The Hanlin Academy replied that it is not allowed [for
a foreign official] to wear mourning dress at the imperial court even if
he has a death in the royal family of his own country. Nevertheless, he
entered the imperial palace on New Year’s Day wearing white mourn-
ing dress.
‘He also composed a poem entitled “The Yalu River.” In that poem, he
wrote, “Dragon Bay looks desolate.” When I asked about Dragon Bay, he
replied that there is a place called Dragon Bay on the Yalu River.
‘When Chŏng Tojŏn visited here and returned home, he passed by Shanhai
Guard. He said, “I am not sure whether what looks good really is good” and
had an argument [with the people of the Guard?].^31
‘The eunuchs who came from your country now run errands and manage
all the affairs in my palace, including my bed and food. They wanted to see
their parents in their country, so I gave my permission. I believe you gave
them money, and if you did, they should have given that money to their
parents. Why do they need to bring the money here? When we searched the
belongings of one of the eunuchs, they consisted of one blue bundle, one red
bundle, and a willow chest. When we opened the chest, we discovered a
piece of paper filled with the writing of the Western barbarians (Xifan).
Since it seems that there are still the remnants of some Tartars, I intend to
go out to suppress them. If you send us twenty thousand men and horses to
repulse them, I will have no doubts whatsoever about your faithfulness. Can
you do that?’
“At noon, the emperor arrived at the West Gate of Obedience and said:
‘Earlier, Chosŏn sent us horse saddles, and when we pulled them apart, we
found some characters inscribed inside them. If I again decide to examine
the saddles that you brought this time, I wonder what will be found in them?’
Then several eunuchs cut the saddles apart [to see what was inside], and
they found the Chinese character tian [signifying heaven] inscribed on both
sides of the seat upside down, and characters such as xuan [signifying dark-
ness] and shi [signifying ten] inscribed on other parts of the seat. Standing
up slowly, the emperor personally held and examined the saddle. Then he
- This remark sounds ambiguous. Perhaps what was meant was that either the speaker
was not impressed with the Shanhai Guard or that he showed his dissatisfaction with some-
thing else.