Subversive Ming Loyalist Narratives in Late Choson Korea

Abstract

During the reign of Sukchong (1674-1720), two narratives employing the figure of the Ming loyalist migrant as a symbol of hostility to the Chosen court were recorded in the transcripts of treason investigations. The first narrative, in 1696-7, was a rumor of an anti-dynastic movement led by a monk who claimed to be a Ming loyalist fugitive of distinguished lineage. The second narrative originated in an anti-Qing letter, purportedly written by Ming remnants, which was posted to a city gate. The authors of the letter were not found but a false accusation was made which linked Ming loyalism with the unstable borderland world of the Yalu region. Although the Ming loyalist remnants described in these two narratives did not exist, the fact that such Ming loyalist narratives were produced by seditious people of low or marginal status suggests that Ming loyalism was not exclusively an ideology of the court and yangban elites but was also a tool of resistance for the marginalized.