The Korean film industry in 2017 seems to be paying particular attention to the Ming and Qing dynasties in the 16th and 17th centuries. Released in the first half of the year, "Dai Li Jun" tells the story of Korean conscription during the Nongchen War (1592-1598), and "Namhansanseong", released in the second half of the year, tells the story of King Injo of Korea and his courtiers who were besieged by The Qing army for forty-seven days in Namhansanseong in 1636.
Namhansanseong, now Guangzhou, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, the ruins of The mountain castle are still well preserved. The picture shows the main entrance of the ruins of the Palace of Namhansan Castle, taken by the author.
The film "Namhansanseong" is based on the historical novel of the same name by the writer Kim Hyu, and mainly revolves around the difference and struggle between the attitude of Choi Ming-gi (1586-1647) of the Judgment of the Official Cao, the Judgment of The Rites of Cao Jin (1570-1652), and the Consul and The Governor of the Imperial Household (1571-1648) in the attitude differences and struggles against the Qing Lord and the Repulsion. The original novel is arguably a household name in South Korea, with a total circulation of more than 1 million copies. This book is also one of the love letters of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who gave a highly positive evaluation to the lord and the representative Choi Myung-gi in his meeting with Kim Kaoru. It is no exaggeration to say that the ordinary people of South Korea's cognition of the Battle of Chengzi comes largely from the novel "Namhansanseong".
Namhansanseong novel
The author thinks that there are two most praiseworthy places in the movie "Namhansanseong", one is that the Qing people who appear in the movie speak Manchu throughout the whole process, although there are flaws in Manchu lines, but Huang Taiji's Manchu is still clear. The second is that when the film shows the political struggle of the Korean courtiers, it does not focus on the line conflict between the main and the faction (represented by Choi Myung-gi) and the repulsive faction (represented by Kim Sang-hyun), but carefully depicts the ugliness of kim jung and other ministers who only consider personal interests , let's say it can be named the wall-riding opportunists – when the ministers are in the midst of national disasters. Although the political struggle of the Korean court at the time of the siege of Yamashiro is generally described in the history books as a contradiction between the main peace faction and the repulsion faction, considering human nature, in fact, some Korean bureaucrats only verbally "rebuke peace", so such a description in the movie can be said to be roughly in line with historical facts.
However, novels and movies are after all re-creations of historical events, and there are still discrepancies with historical records in many places. At that time, many of the entourage who were besieged with Injo in Namhansanseong left diaries, and the "Records of the Qing Dynasty" and the "Records of the Joseon Dynasty" also have more detailed records of this war, so let's see how this story is recorded in the historical materials.
When the Ming and Qing dynasties were in power, what choice did Korea make?
In 1623, the Joseon patriarch Ayojun Lee Kwon staged a coup d'état known as the "Injo Anyway". Playing a balanced strategy between the Ming and Later Jin dynasties, trying not to offend both, Guang Haijun (reigned 1608-1623), who pursued "two-end diplomacy", was deposed, and Li Qiang took the throne as Renzu. In 1627, Korea was defeated at the Battle of Dingji and became a brother with Houjin. Before the outbreak of the Battle of Chengzi in 1636, as the confrontation between Ming and Houjin became more and more acute, under the increasingly strong military pressure of Houjin, the Korean position between Ming and Houjin as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty became less and less buffered, in other words, Korea could only choose between Ming and Houjin.
In April 1636, Emperor Taiji called himself Emperor Jieyuan, and in order to boast that he was the "Prince of the Empire" of the Manchus, Mongolians, and Han, Emperor Taiji was in dire need of recognition by The Ming Dynasty's most loyal vassal state, Korea. At the same time, in order to relieve Korea of this "worries" when attacking the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taiji also needed to completely submit Korea before launching a large-scale conquest against the Ming Dynasty. However, in April, when Emperor Taiji was proclaimed Emperor Zhaohe, the Korean Spring Messenger Luo Xian and his answer made Li Kuo refuse to bow to Emperor Taiji, angering Emperor Taiji. Although Emperor Taiji later pardoned them and allowed them to return to Korea with the Qing Dynasty's state letter, North Korea could not accept the Qing Dynasty's state letter "Emperor of the Great Qing" and other expressions, and then the North Koreans repeatedly refused to be envoys. In the eyes of the Qing, these acts of Korea violated the covenant between the two countries after the Battle of Ding, and provided a pretext for them to attack Korea.
On the first day of December 1636, Emperor Taiji ordered "Prince Rui Dolgun and Belle Hauge to divide the left manchurian and Mongol soldiers from Kuandian into Changshan Pass, and send 300 troops such as Mafuta, the head of the household department, to infiltrate the siege of The Korean King's Capital", and the Battle of Chengzi immediately broke out. The Qing army was in a strong position in Korea, and on the fourteenth day it had passed through Kaesong. In the evening of this day, Injo fled from namdaemun and arrived at Namhansan Castle in the middle of the night, while Choi Mingji was sent to the Qing army camp to spy on the movements of the Qing people. The first act in the movie "Namhansanseong" is Choi Mingji riding alone to the Qing camp in the midst of heavy snowfall, while the Qing army shoots the flying arrows on the snow in front of his horse, giving him a scene of dismounting. In fact, Cui Mingji did not go to Qingying alone, but went with Tongzhi Li Jingji with cattle and wine. Then Cui Mingji brought back from the Qing camp the Qing people's speech and conditions, that is, "taking the brother and the minister as hostages". However, when the Joseon Dynasty sent Aya Fengshou to pretend to be a brother of the king and was discovered by the Qing people, the Qing people said: "Send out the son of the world, and then you can negotiate peace."
The city wall of Namhansan Castle, photographed by the author.
Narration from history: Trapped in Namhansanseong
The turning point of history took place in Namhansan Castle for more than a month. In fact, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Korea was not only a relationship between monarchs and subjects, but also a father-son relationship, coupled with the Ming Dynasty's assistance to Korea during the Nongchen War, that is, the so-called "grace of reconstruction", which made it extremely difficult for Korea to break off its relations with the Ming and worship the Qing as Zhengshuo. And one of the big names of Renzu's overthrow of the Guanghaijun regime was that Guanghaijun turned his back on the Ming Dynasty and had private relations with the Later Jin. In the face of the siege of the city by the Qing army, Renzu wept: "Three hundred years of blood and sincerity are great, and the grace is deep, and a dynasty will be a concubine for the concubine, wouldn't it be painful?" However, in the face of the strong military pressure of the Qing people, Jin Jun, who had previously fought the main battle, also changed his position, stressing that "the matter is urgent, and it is imperative not to invite peace." Kim Was not the only one who changed his position, but the deeds of the former Grand Counselor Yin Huang (1571-1639) also clearly show a certain change in political currents in the Korean court. In his diary, The former Grand Counselor Yin Huang (1592-1671), who was serving in the SiYuan of NamhansanSeong, wrote in his diary: "Former Great Counselor Yin Huang, who was ill and could not go out, called his son WenJu every day at night: What is the peace today? Right: He refused to allow Yun. A: Man will die. Huang Ben Ding rebuked the people who made peace, and when they did so, no one could laugh at them. Yin Huang, who fought to impeach Cui Mingji and other lords and faction officials during the Battle of Ding Di, is now only concerned with inquiring about how the discussion and the peace have not yet been completed, and has to make people wonder whether he really rebuked the lord and faction when he exalted Chongming's righteousness to impeach the lord and faction.
Choi Ming-gi, movie poster
In the movie "Namhansanseong", Yin Huang is not mentioned, but the taunted cannon fire is aimed at Jin Jun. Examining the behavior of the Jin family when they were besieged in the Southern Han Dynasty, it cannot be said that the screenwriters of later generations have wronged him. The film focuses on depicting the Battle of the North Gate commanded by Jin Jun, and the interpretation of this scene can be said to be basically in line with historical facts. Under the blind command of Kim Jun, the North Korean army "shall not fire its guns, and in an instant, all of them will be killed, and the dead will be several hundred, while only two people will be killed by Hu Bing." Nan Wei analyzed the reason for the defeat of the battle: "Most of our generals, ignorant of the formation, sexual and timid, all stayed in the city, and ordered the non-commissioned officers to fight alone, so they were chaotic and did not form a formation." And Kim is a typical figure among such North Korean generals. Jin Jun ordered Pei to kill the retreating soldiers, but he himself stayed on the castle tower and resolutely refused to go down to the city.
In addition, the film only tells the scene in Namhansan Castle during the Battle of Chengzi, but skips the situation on Ganghwa Island. In fact, a major condition for the Qing army to force Renzu to finally surrender was that they quickly occupied Ganghwa Island and captured Renzu's harem and shizi concubines, maharajas, and officials who had taken refuge here. At that time, the procuratorial envoy of Jiang Hua, who was temporarily assigned to be in charge of defense, was Jin Qingzheng, the son of Jin Jun. After Jin Qingzheng arrived on Ganghwa Island, he "said that the enemy soldiers had no tendency to fly across, and the japanese were drunk", and even made up a song and boasted: "The father is the envoy of the body, and the son is the envoy of the procuratorate." Whoever does the work for the country, who is not me? "And what about Jin Qingzheng's handling of affairs for the state?" The procuratorial envoy Jin Qingzheng gathered the boats at the head of the river to help his family members and his loved ones first, but did not let him help others. Even Shizi Concubine and his party were thrown by Jin Qingzheng by the riverside, and Shizi Concubine even shouted: "Jin Qingzheng, Jin Qingzheng!" Ru Nin for this yeah? "And Kim Sung-joo, the son of Kim Kyung-jeong, forced the women in the family to die." The Jin family, all in Jiangdu, after Qingzheng fled, Qingzhengzi Zhenbiao said that his grandmother and his mother's wife knew: The thief has forced the city, and it will be humiliating not to die. The two ladies, their wives and their wives and the women of their protégés were hanged and died, and the vibration alone did not die. It seems that the integrity that Jin Zhenbiao values is only to force the female relatives to die and live on their own.
In the movie, although Choi Myung-gi and Kim Sang-hyun have contradictions in the line against the Qing Dynasty, there are still many tacit relationships in many things, especially in the struggle with the Like of Kim. But in reality, this may just be the screenwriter's wishful thinking. Considering the political environment at that time in which the lord and the lord and the repulsion were seriously opposed, there was probably not much room for between Choi and Kim to ease their positions. Kim Sang-hyun was a well-known faction in the Korean court who rebuked the Qing Dynasty and emphasized Chongming's righteousness, and his understanding of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be pleasing and sincere. In 1626, he was sent to the Ming Dynasty as an angel, and when he was in Dengzhou, he heard the sound of the Ming dynasty army striking the garnet and wrote a poem: "Strike the garnet and strike the garnet, and the night is long." Whoever is cold and has no clothes, and whoever is hungry is hungry. It is neither affection nor love, nor knowledge. Nature's fellow robes of righteousness make my heart feel compassion. In the poem, it can be seen that he regards the Ming Dynasty soldiers as a family of compatriots. Choe Myung-gi believes that it was precisely kim sang-hyun and others who ignored the gap in the actual military strength of Korea and the Qing Dynasty that rebuked the peace faction and brought war to the country. In addition, it was the middle of winter at that time, and there were no reinforcements outside the city of Namhansan, and there was no grain stored inside. In such an unfavorable situation, please and sum is the most realistic choice.
Kim Sang-hyun, movie poster
The film only depicts Kim Sang-hyun's loudly opposing Choi Myung-gil's position in front of Injo, but in fact, Kim Sang-hyun tore apart Choi Ming-gi's petition and documents, and the line contradiction between the two broke out in such a fierce way. On the eighteenth day of the first month of 1637, When Joseon had decided to seek peace with the Qing Dynasty, Kim Sang-hyun saw choi Myung-gi's letter at Bibianji, "Crack it, cry bitterly: Why should the public wait for this and so on?" Cui Mingji replied, "Isn't it impossible to take Tai Jian as well?" Cover out of necessity also". Jin Shangxian replied, "I only have one death, so why doesn't Tai Jian tie me up and give it to Yahweh?" At that time, the Qing people demanded that the North Koreans reprimand and send ministers, and Kim Sang-hyun ridiculed Choi Ming-gi for not simply sending him to the Qing people to ask for merit and reward. Cui Mingji listened to Jin Shangxian's words and laughed: "Tai Jian Zhi Zhi, my generation picks it up." Then he picked up the torn letter of state again and re-patched it up.
Renzu reluctantly accepted to go out of the city and surrender, fengqing as Zhengshuo, and handed over the seal letters and other letters given by the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, etc. After reaching more than ten peace conditions, Renzu dressed in blue (blue clothes indicates the identity of a courtier, that is, the intention of submitting to the Qing Dynasty), did his best to perform the ceremony of honor, and led Shizi and hundreds of officials to perform three kneeling and nine prostrations to the emperor Taiji in Santiandu. At this point, Korea ended its tributary relationship with the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, and the Qing Dynasty became the new suzerainty of Korea. This scene has a very vivid interpretation in the movie, which can be said to be the climax part. In the later movie scene, Kim Sang-hyun heard that North Korea and the Qing had reached a peace agreement, and Injo went out of the city to surrender, so he prostrated his head north in his own courtyard and then committed suicide with a knife. However, this scene does not correspond to the facts. It was not Kim Sang-hyun who committed suicide with the knife, but the official Cao Cao who sentenced Zheng Yun (1569-1641) – Jin Shangxian tried to hang himself, but was saved by the guards and was able to die. Zheng Yun, on the other hand, "stabbed himself in the abdomen with a sabre, and the blood flowed all over his clothes, but he did not die."
In fact, the chancellor of the Rebuke and Sect was not only Kim Sang-hyun, but the most famous was the "Three Scholars", namely Pyongyang Shu Yin Hongyihan (who had been an envoy to the Ming Dynasty in 1624), the school director Yin Ji and Wu Daji. The three of them were tied up in Shenyang for rebuke and later beheaded in Shenyang for reprimanding them at the Battle of Chengzi. Jin Shangxian still insisted on "Chongming and anti-Qing" after the Battle of Chengzi, and later in the Qing people's conquest of Ming, he resolutely opposed the Qing people's request for the Dprk to send troops to jointly attack the Ming Dynasty. As a result, Kim Sang-hyun was also sent to Shenyang, and after entering the customs, he returned to Korea with the Released Zhaoxian Shizi, who was released by the Qing.
During the peace talks at the Battle of Chengzi, the North Korean-born Qing translator Jeong-sung played a communication role, but Jeong-min-shou was clearly on the side of the Qing, which is also shown in the film. For example, Jin Jun followed Cui Mingji to the Qing camp to investigate the situation, and it was Zheng Mingshou who greeted them. Kim was very dissatisfied with Jeong's life: "You are a Korean, why do you want to help the Qing people?" Zheng replied, "My parents are slaves, so I am also slaves." In the country of North Korea, slaves are not human at all! Don't think I'm Korean in the future! Jin Jun was silent after listening. Although this paragraph is not examined in the historical data, considering the strict identity system in North Korea and the various examples of Jeong Ming-so's consistent use of Qing forces to oppress North Korea, the scenes in the film can be said to be bold fictions based on historical facts. In fact, the Koreans who took the initiative to throw themselves into the Qing Dynasty before the Battle of Chengzi were by no means the only one who threw themselves into the Qing Dynasty, such as Jin Sang-hyun's submission to the Ming Dynasty's Ministry of Ceremonies when he was on a mission to the Ming Dynasty, mentioning the Han clan that had defected to the Qing Dynasty: "However, in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Han Run, the son of Han Minglian, the rebel minister of Xiaobang, and his brother Han Ze and other slaves who died into slavery, often wanted to seduce slave soldiers to invade Xiaobang. "On the contrary, these North Koreans who have thrown themselves into the Qing dynasty have oppressed North Korea even more." Another example is that Zheng Mingshou was still responsible for the Qing court's handling of the affairs of the qing court after the Battle of Bingzi, and he reported Ton Huang Yihao, the capital of Yizhou, who had a personal grudge with him, to the Qing court on the charge of sneaking with Ming ships, and eventually the Qing court beheaded Huang Yihao. Regarding the contact between Jin Jun and Zheng Mingshou, there are also historical records that after the completion of the peace talks, Jin Jun asked the Qing generals Keel Da (ying ordai in Qing Dynasty historical materials) and Zheng Mingshou to help him find the daughter born to his favorite concubine, and was willing to pay a price of thousands of gold for this. Historical sources commented that the price of redemption of North Korean captives later became very expensive, and there was also a responsibility for gold gilts.
The "Monument to the Merits of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty" near Jamsil Station, taken by the author.
At the end of the film, a photograph of the "Monument to the Merits of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (aka the Sandadu Monument)" appears, which still exists today. After the Battle of Chengzi, The Joseon Dynasty built this monument at the strong request of the Qing Dynasty, and its inscription records the beginning and end of the entire war and peace negotiations from the position of thanking the Qing Dynasty for preserving the Korean clan society. Although the Entire Film does not mention the Ming Dynasty, in fact the Ming Dynasty is aware of the outbreak of the Battle of Chengzi, and the Chongzhen Emperor also instructs the Sailors to aid Korea, but the army has not yet arrived, and Injo has already left the city to surrender. At that time, the Koreans did not know that the Chongzhen Emperor intended to aid Korea, and it was not until the Time of the Joseon Dynasty, through the "History of Ming" purchased from Beijing by Yan, that the Korean monarchs learned of the so-called "Grace of Eastern Aid". Yingzu sighed: "When trying to think about the scene of Chongzhen, the Qing soldiers were full of Liaoyang, and the thieves were all over the Central Plains. However, he still wanted to go out into the sea and save his country from afar, and he thought about this in the middle of the night. I don't feel tears. However, all this was more than a hundred years after the Battle of Czi in 1749.