The Repatriation of the Ukanju between Chos?n and Manchu: Northeast Asian Order in Transition during 17th Century
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Lee, Meng-Heng
Abstract
Ukanju is a Manchu-language term used in Ch’ing history to mean escapee (逃人). Due to a series of economic policies implemented by the Ch’ing government, during the decades after the Manchus established their new dynasty (which replaced the Ming in 1644), numerous ukanju emerged, and these escapees have formed the basis for a large number of previous studies. Due to this focus on post-1644 ukanju, however, the term has typically been defined as “the slave escaping from the Manchu owner” or, even, “the Han Chinese slave escaping from the Manchu owner.” Nevertheless, whether these definitions can be applied to ukanju from the period before 1644 is highly uncertain. Moreover, the Manchu government claimed that one of the motivations for wars fought between the Manchu and Chosŏn in 1627 and 1636 was that the Chosŏn government was harboring numerous ukanju from Manchu territories and refusing to repatriate them. Thus, it is evident that the ukanju were extremely important to the Manchus, which prompts the following questions: Who were the ukanju? Why were the Manchus fixated on the ukanju? What role did the ukanju play during the period in which the Manchus conquered and replaced the Ming? Finally, how did the ukanju motivate the transition from a Ming- to a Ch’ing-centered political order in Northeast Asia? The present thesis is composed of two sections designed to answer these questions. The first section re-examines the composition and characteristics of the ukanju by analyzing both Manchu-language and Chosŏn government archives. The second section demonstrates the role the ukanju played during the seventeenth-century transition in Northeast Asian political order and gives the ukanju historical significance by analyzing Chosŏn government repatriation records. Based on a comparison of Manchu-language records and Chosŏn government archives, this thesis divides the ukanju into two groups: the upper class and the lower class. The upper class of the ukanju consisted of Manchu and Mongol aristocrats, as well as former Ming and Chosŏn military commanders. The lower class of the ukanju can be re-divided into three ethnic subgroups, that is, Warka, Han Chinese, and Korean ukanju. Obviously, not all of the ukanju were “Han Chinese slaves escaping from Manchu owners” but can be separated into groups of wide-ranging social classes and ethnicities. Hence, the Manchu words written on the front cover of Archives of the Escapees (逃人檔), that is, “the people who have escaped from other places or from our own regions (Ubašame ukame jihe, museingge ukame genehe),” most accurately defines the ideas of “immigration and group migration” integral to the ukanju, and also shows the relative flexibility with which the term ukanju was applied by the Manchus. Unlike the upper class of the ukanju, who directly affected wars fought between the Ming and the Manchus, the lower class of the ukanju became one of the focal points for fierce competition enacted among the Ming, the Manchus, and the Chosŏn. Therefore, this thesis focuses primarily on the lower ukanju class. The members of this lower class, that is, the Warka, Han Chinese, and Korean ukanju, each possess distinct origins and significances. The Warka ukanju, Jurchens who had originally lived on the coast of the Tumen river, had become the focus of repatriation conflicts as early as 1607, when Nurhachi was only one of the leaders of the Jurchen and still attempting to unify this group. When, in 1633, the Manchus requested that the Chosŏn repatriate the Warka ukanju for a second time, however, conditions had changed, and the goal of the second request was to prevent an alliance between the Chosŏn and the Ming by pressuring the Chosŏn government into unifying with the Manchus and Mongols. This goal is evident because the repatriation of the Warka ukanju was terminated after the Ming collapsed in 1644. Because the Han Chinese ukanju represented the economic and political base of the Liaodong Peninsula, they were the main concern of the Manchu government. A considerable number of Han Chinese ukanju flocked to the Korean peninsula after 1621, which led to a series of repatriation requests between the Manchus and the Chosŏn. However, repatriation requests for these Han Chinese escapees were also issued by Ming military commanders on Pi island (皮島). Accordingly, the repatriation of Han Chinese from the Liaodong Peninsula became a point of contention among the Manchus, Chosŏn, and the Ming. By requesting that the Chosŏn government repatriate the Warka and Han Chinese ukanju, the Manchus gradually but successfully undermined Ming-centered political order in Northeast Asia. Finally, the Korean ukanju were subjects of the Chosŏn, and the majority of these escapees emerged after wars fought between the Chosŏn and the Manchus in 1627 and 1636. The Chosŏn government found it impossible to repatriate any of its ukanju to the Manchus before 1637 for the following reasons: Han Chinese ukanju were subjects of the major superpower of the time, the Ming; Korean ukanju were subjects of the Chosŏn government and were struggling to escape from the Manchus; and Warka ukanju represented a group who had married Chosŏn women and lived within the Chosŏn borders for several generations. After 1637, the Chosŏn government began to repatriate many of the ukanju to the Manchus because of the Chosŏn alliance with the Manchus. At this time, the Han Chinese ukanju became the priority for repatriation, followed by the Warka and then the Korean ukanju. Because the Manchus hoped to isolate the Ming and introduce the Chosŏn government into their new Northeast Asian political order, while continually requesting that the Chosŏn repatriate their own ukanju, the Manchus also demonstrated “goodwill” toward the Chosŏn in 1638 by proactively repatriating ukanju who had escaped from the Chosŏn government into Manchu territory. Here, again, the primary characteristics of the ukanju, that is, “immigration and group migration,” are clear. Nevertheless, the Chosŏn government continued to harbor Korean ukanju fleeing from the Manchus until the An Chuwon Incident (安秋元事件) of 1666. Following the An Chuwon Incident, the Chosŏn government began to more earnestly repatriate the ukanju, and, in 1675, even considered An Dan (安端), a Korean ukanju, as “a subject of the Ch’ing.” Because the Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the rebellion of the Chahars also occurred in 1675, the repatriation of An Dan symbolizes the Chosŏn government’s acceptance of its place in the new Northeast Asian political order established by the Manchus in the seventeenth century. In conclusion, ukanju repatriation requests occurring between the Manchus and the Chosŏn government from 1607 to 1675 were a weapon used by the Manchu to develop their new Northeast Asian political order and can also be seen as an indicator of the progress of Northeast Asian political transition in the seventeenth century.
Subjects
Escapee
repatriation
Manchu
Chos?n
seventeenth-century Northeast Asian political order
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-104-R00123008-1.pdf
Size
23.54 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):a13adcf8ab7fb02bf8a89978773d4b90