The Nitangae Rebellion (尼湯介 ── 亂) was a revolt launched by Jurchen tribes in 1583, centered on Nitangae, a beonho (藩胡) of the Hoeryong area of Hamgyong Province.1 It was the largest conflict with the Jurchen that arose after Joseon established the Four Commanderies and Six Garrisons. The rebellion, which began in January 1583, was suppressed in July, but signs of Jurchen unification continued until the establishment of the Later Jin.2
In the course of suppressing the Nitangae Rebellion, the Joseon military confirmed the weakness of the existing Jingwan system and switched its defensive posture to the Jeseung Bangnyak system.3 Joseon military officers who had pacified the Nitangae Rebellion were deployed as key commanders in the Imjin War on the basis of their combat experience at that time. Yi Il4, who pacified the Nitangae Rebellion, and Shin Rip5, who defended the Six Garrisons, are representative examples.
Background
At the founding of Joseon, its neighbors were the Ming dynasty, across the lower course of the Yalu River, and the Jurchen, who had been subordinated to the Yuan dynasty after the fall of the Jin dynasty. After the Yuan was pushed back as the Northern Yuan, there was no particularly central power among the Jurchen, and various tribes were scattered across Manchuria and the northern Korean Peninsula. The Ming and Joseon each maintained separate relations with these tribes.6
Joseon and the Ming competed diplomatically over the Jurchen. When the Ming tried to win over the Jurchen by granting titles such as the Jianzhou Guard and the Mulian Guard, Joseon had no choice but to respond in kind, because these tribes bordered Joseon across the Yalu and Tumen rivers.7 When Joseon retaliated against the Ming's granting of titles by cutting off trade, in 1410 a portion of the Jurchen attacked Joseon, and Han Heungbo, who was the Military Commander of Gyeongwon (慶源等處兵馬使), was killed in action.8 Taking this as an occasion, Joseon began to conquer the Jurchen from the reign of King Taejong7, and later, in the reign of King Sejong, it established the Four Commanderies and Six Garrisons.9 Thereby Joseon expanded its northern territory and afterward incorporated the lands south of the Yalu and Tumen rivers into Pyeongan Province and Hamgyong Province.
Even though the territory of the Four Commanderies and Six Garrisons had newly become part of the realm, the administrative power of the state did not fully reach it. For this reason, Joseon carried out a kind of colonial policy, the samin (徙民) policy, forcibly relocating residents of the Samnam region.10 However, residents forcibly moved to a region with harsh climate and environment were dissatisfied, and many fled.11 Meanwhile, Jurchen tribes incorporated into Joseon's territory continued to live where they had lived, so Joseon sought to stabilize the region by granting the chiefs of these tribes the status of beonho and recognizing a certain degree of autonomy.12 The Jurchen were broadly divided into the Jianzhou Jurchen, the Haixi Jurchen, and the Yeren Jurchen, among others. The Jianzhou Jurchen were the tribes of the area around present-day Shenyang, where Nurhaci was based, and the Haixi Jurchen were the tribes of the area of the Songhua River. The remaining Jurchen between the Tumen River basin and the Maritime Province were called the Yeren Jurchen, a somewhat derogatory term.13
Although conflicts with the Jurchen continued, including the repeated Jianzhou Jurchen campaigns conducted during the Early Joseon period14, the Jurchen incorporated into Joseon's territory maintained a relatively stable relationship. However, when Nurhaci began to unite the Jurchen, the Jurchen within Joseon also began to be unsettled.2 Nitangae, one of the many beonho, was likewise influenced by Nurhaci, sought to sever ties with Joseon and join the unification of the Jurchen, and in 1583 raised troops and invaded Joseon.
Course of Events
The Six Garrisons of Hoeryong, Jongseong, Onseong, Gyeongwon, Gyeonghung, and Buryeong were all deployed along the Tumen River.15
In January 1583, after Nurhaci's rise, as the movements of the Jurchen beyond the border took an ominous turn, Yu Jung-yeong, manho (萬戶) of Asanbo under Gyeongwon-jin, sent troops to scout, but they were captured instead. Using this as a pretext, the beonho Uuljji (迃乙知) attacked Asanbo. Gyeongwon Prefect Kim Su tried to support them but was instead surrounded and barely managed to retreat. Gaining confidence from this victory, Uuljji attacked Gyeongwon-jin with more than 10,000 cavalry and captured it.16 Uuljji, having broken the bo and jin in the area, gained momentum, but it appears he concentrated on plunder and made no further attempts at occupation.2
Upon receiving urgent word that the Jurchen had attacked, Joseon ordered Oh Un and Park Seon to assist the defense with some 8,000 troops, while appointing Jeong Eon-sin as Deputy Inspector-General (都巡察使) and having him gather troops from the five provinces from Gyeonggi downward to counterattack.1 The Jurchen assault reached its peak in February, when they surrounded and attacked Hunyungjin. However, when Shin Rip succeeded in holding the fortress and counterattacked by crossing the Tumen River, they withdrew.17
The Jurchen withdrew for the time being, but in May they invaded again. The target of the second attack was Jongseong. Unlike the first invasion, which had been Uuljji's independent action, the second invasion was carried out by Nitangae after gathering several beonho and attacking jointly. With the force swelling to more than 20,000 cavalry, the Jurchen beonho descended along the mountain range northeast of Jongseong and attacked Jongseong from three directions.18
Defense Commissioner Kim U-seo distributed his forces among the jin and bo lining the Tumen River, in accordance with the defensive policy of the Jinkwan system. However, when large numbers of the enemy attacked at once, the scattered forces could not respond properly and were defeated one by one.18 After capturing the various jin and bo, Nitangae gathered his forces to take Jongseong, but he could not easily break through Joseon's defense, which was armed with weapons such as the Seungja chongtong (승자총통).2 As the battle dragged on, the beonho Hyojeong, who had long been an enemy of Nitangae, attacked Nitangae's village, and Nitangae had no choice but to retreat.19
Hyojeong's attack from behind suggests that the Jurchen beonho had different interests among themselves. Besides Hyojeong, many other beonho sided with Joseon. After withdrawing from Jongseong, Nitangae attacked Donggwan-jin, and at that time the Jurchen beonho Tujihyeong again sided with Joseon and opposed Nitangae.18
Meanwhile, Nitangae's interests were probably also different from those of Uuljji, who had first invaded. While Uuljji concentrated on plunder, as the existing Jurchen tribes had done in many earlier raids, Nitangae declared that he was willing to negotiate if he was not regarded as a bandit. It is presumed that he sought to secure some kind of status between Joseon and the Jianzhou Jurchen of Nurhaci, who was rapidly rising at the time.2 However, Joseon judged that Nitangae's true intentions could not be known, and rejected the negotiations.18 In July 1583, Uuljji was captured and beheaded, and Nitangae fled, bringing the Nitangae Rebellion to an end.2
Results
After the Nitangae Rebellion, Joseon came to realize keenly that if large numbers of enemies attacked at once, the Jinkwan system would be difficult to defend, and it established the Jeseung Bangnyak as a new defensive strategy.3 Whereas the existing Jinkwan system was a strategy in which the commander of a key stronghold held his position and waited for reinforcements, the Jeseung Bangnyak was a strategy in which the troops of military officers from various locations were gathered under a commander dispatched from the center, such as the Do Chechalsa20, the Do Sunchalsa21, or the Do Wonsu22, to respond with a large force.3 After the pacification of the Nitangae Rebellion, the text was written by Yi Il and later edited by Yi Seon.23
Conflicts with the Jurchen continued even after the Nitangae Rebellion. Yi Il continued to fight intermittently with the Jurchen afterward.4 In the course of this, military officers such as Yi Sun-sin24, Won Gyun25, and Park Hong26 gained combat experience in battles against the Jurchen and were deployed in the Imjin War. When the Imjin War broke out, Japan advanced swiftly into Hamgyong Province, and part of the Jurchen came to collude with Japan.27
When the Imjin War broke out, Joseon no longer had the capacity to manage the Jurchen around the Tumen River. Until then Joseon had carried out naejo (來朝), the practice of summoning Jurchen beonho to the court, but with the Imjin War it could no longer be carried out.28 Instead, Joseon settled some of the Japanese defectors (항왜) in Hamgyong Province and used them as human resources to prepare against Jurchen invasion.29 Later, when the Later Jin was established, the Jurchen north of the Tumen River came to be subordinated to the Later Jin.30
The Jurchen tribes living in Joseon territory south of the Tumen River were assimilated into Joseon over time. However, they still maintained a distinctive culture, and were called by names such as Jaegaseung, maintaining separate villages until the end of the Joseon period.31
References
- Kang Seong-mun, "A Study on the Jurchen Punitive Campaigns in the Joseon Period" (군사 18), Army Military History Research Institute, 1989.
- Kim Gu-jin, "The Relationship between Early Joseon and the Great Jurchen and the Actual Conditions of Jurchen Society" (동양학 14), Dankook University Institute of Oriental Studies, 1984.
- Song Woo-hye, "A Study on the Nitangae Rebellion during the Reign of King Seonjo of Joseon" (역사비평 72), Yeoksa Bipyeongsa, 2005.
- Yun Ho-ryang, "The 16th Year of King Seonjo (1583) 'Nitangae Rebellion' and Joseon's Response" (군사 82), Military History Compilation Institute, Ministry of National Defense, 2012.
- Choi Ho-gyun, "A Study on Mid-Joseon Relations with the Great Jurchen," doctoral dissertation, Department of History, Sungkyunkwan University, 1995.
Footnotes