Migrant and Border Subjects in Late Choson Korea

This thesis explores the changing approach of the Chosŏn state to subjects with foreign lineages in the period between the Imjin War (1592-98) and the early nineteenth century. Chosŏn Korea underwent considerable upheaval during the Imjin War and the wars of the Ming-Qing transition. Many Jurchen subjects of the Chosŏn court were forced from their homes in the Tumen Valley into the banner armies of the rising Qing state, with only a remnant persisting in Chosŏn. Additionally, large numbers of Ming Chinese entered Chosŏn either with the Ming army or as refugees from war in Liaodong. Initially, the Chosŏn state responded to its Jurchen and Ming Chinese subjects primarily through pragmatic concern about the loyalty of these subjects to the Chosŏn and the burden they imposed on the agricultural economy. As a result, the Chosŏn court welcomed and even defended the Jurchen as established Chosŏn subjects but was cautious of the more alien Ming deserters and refugees. Ming migrant status did not improve during the remainder of the seventeenth century. Ming Chinese lineages were considered, along with Jurchen and Japanese, within the same invidious submitting foreigner tax category. During the same period fraudulent Ming migrants became a focus for sedition among non-elites. The eighteenth century rise of Ming Loyalist ritualism transformed the response of the Chosŏn court to such foreign lineages as Ming migrant lineages were encouraged to participate in court-sponsored Ming loyalist rituals. Along with this ritual participation Ming migrant status was transformed from that of submitting foreigners to that of imperial subjects, while Jurchen and Japanese lineages disappeared. At the same time, hagiographic biographies were written of the original Ming Chinese refugees which praised them for coming to Chosŏn because of Neo-Confucian loyalty to the Ming. The Chosŏn state responded to foreign lineages according to changing circumstances. Neo-Confucian ritualism only played a role in response to Ming lineages in the eighteenth century when earlier concerns about disloyalty and social disruption had largely passed.Ph