[KS] Portuguese during Hideyoshi invasion?

[gkl1 at columbia.edu]

   I forgot to deal with the follow-up visit of Brigadier Peng to
the king, which took place two days later, as Ernie explained. This
was Sonjo 31, Fifthmoon 28, corresponding to July 1, 1598. That
entry (Sonjo sillok, kwon 100, p. 26b)is very brief, and translates
as follows:
      "Brigadier Peng repaid the king's earlier
 courtesy. His Highness went out to meet him and
 escorted him to his seat. Three Sea Devils made
 obeisance at the foot of the steps. His Highness
 had them perform a sword exercise, then granted
 them one yang (Ch. liang, 37.3g) silver. At the
 close of the tea ceremony (Brigadier Peng and the
 three soldiers) bowed and withdrew."

   I'm afraid that's the end of the info on the Sea Devils.

   To comment on the separate thread that has developed from mention
of the Spanish Jesuit Gregorio de Cespedes, I have found it
difficult to give too much value to the persistent efforts of
Father Juan Ruiz de Medina to claim origins for Catholicism in
Korea that go back to 1566. Although I have not read his full book
on the subject, I have read Korean versions of some of his writings
and the text of a lengthy public address he once gave on this issue,
and I have talked with Koreans who are up on his thinking. If these
are any indication, his research methodology is to track down
statements and assertions in Jesuit sources of the late 16th and a
good part of the 17th centuries, which themselves are usually
reasonable and sober, and conjure from them a picture of a Korean
Catholic community that lasted at least from the Imjin Wars down to
1784 (when it is indeed certain that a genuine Catholic movement
with direct ties to the present Korean Catholic church began).
Speaking of the early 17th century, he mentions several possible
instances of a return home from post-Imjin War Japan of Catholic
converts to Korea. He will make it clear that confirmation of such
is unavailable, but in the next paragraph speak of three Catholic
communities active in Korea. His hope alone coaxes reality from
reluctant factoids; this in turn stengthens his convictions, which
in turn generate ever more Catholics.
   Worst of all, he has no real knowledge of Korean history,
society, or institutions. He thinks that Prince Sohyon, who was
held in Manchu captivity from 1637 until the fall of Ming in 1644,
was not a prince but the king of Korea. When this individual was
converted by Jesuits in Beijing (not disputed), Medina imagines
that he and a considerable retinue of Korean eunochs and servants
who returned to Korea in 1645 launched real Catholic communities,
unaware the Sohyon was dead within a few weeks of his return and
the entire Christian retinue forthwith sent back to China. But
years after this Medina speaks of a eunoch catechising the Korean
court. Not very likely. He posits an itinerary from Peking that
goes through both Shanghai and Shenyang. (Shanghai was hardly there
then.) He thinks that in 1711 the border between China and Korea was
opened, when what really happened was that the border was formally
fixed (with Paektusan mostly in Korea) and became even tighter. He
thinks that because a small community of "hidden Christians"
survived in Japan from the 1640s to 1868 (true, but its size vastly
exaggerated by the missionary community), that surely such an
underground community also survived in Korea over the same time
span. And on and on. Supposition on top of guesses followed by
claimed historical events.
   He makes much of the Korean refugee/captive Catholic community in
Japan that developed during and after the Imjin wars. Such a
cmmunity indeed existed, and the documentary proof of its existence
is credible. But getting that community, or any of its members onto
Korean soil is a difficult task indeed.

Gari Ledyard

Quoting "Ernie ." <recanto at hotmail.com>:

> Uppps... I wanted to say Cespedes stayed in Korea till
> February/March 1595,
> not 1597. Sorry.
>
> E. de Laurentis
>
> >From: "Ernie ." <recanto at hotmail.com>
> >Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List
> <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> >To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> >Subject: Re: [KS] Portuguese during Hideyoshi invasion?
> >Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:51:42 +0000
> >
> >Dear Frank,
> >
> >As you mention, what is sure is that Gregorio de Cespedes y
> Simancas (born
> >in Madrid, in 1551), arrived to Korea on December 27th, 1593,
> and stayed
> >there with the (catholic) Japanese troops probably until
> February or March
> >1597. Park Chul, but also Juan Ruiz de Medina (Origenes de la
> Iglesia
> >Catolica Coreana desde 1566 hasta 1784. Institutum Historicum
> S.I., Roma,
> >1986), have researched it in detail. I even would add there was
> another
> >Spaniard, father Francisco de Laguna, how also, like Cespedes,
> travelled to
> >Korea for a couple of months from December 1597 to January 1598
> (as it can
> >be read in Shütte, Josef Franz. Monumenta Historica Japoniae I,
> Roma, 1975,
> >and again, in Park Chul or Ruiz de Medina).
> >
> >Jesuit sources in Japan and Macao in late 16th Century are very
> efficient
> >in telling us most of the things they were doing those days, but
> I haven’t
> >found any input (neither in the Spanish sources) on some suppose
> Portuguese
> >fighting with the Chinese and Koreans against Japanese in 1597,
> as I
> >recently read in an article published by Choe Yong-shik in Korea
> Herald
> >(¿Korea Times?) on May 26, 2000, mentioning the Annals of the
> Choson
> >Kingdom. Could that be true? Is there any English translation
> where I could
> >check it?
> >
> >Thank you
> >
> >E. de Laurentis
> >