Korea & Her Neighbours/Chapter XXVII

For the northern journey simple preparations only were needed, consisting of the purchase of candles and two blankets for Im, in having two pheasants cooked, in dispensing with one pony, leaving us the moderate allowance of two baggage animals, and in depositing most of my money with Mr. Moffett. For there were rumors of robbers on the road, and Mr. Yi left his fine clothes and elegant travelling gear also behind.

On a brilliant morning (and when are Korean mornings not brilliant?), passing through the gate out of which General Tso made his last sally, and down the steep declivity on which it opens, we travelled for a time along the An Ju road, skirting the base of the hill on which the Chinese cavalry made their desperate attack on an intrenched position, and near the ruins of two intrenched camps, where they fell in hundreds before the merciless fire of the enemy, and where human bones were still lying about. But where Death reaped that ghastly harvest magnificent grain crops had recently been secured, and the mellow sunlight shone on miles of stubble.

Shortly we turned off on a road untouched by the havoc of war, and saw no more of the gaunt ruins or charred remains of cottages. In that pleasant region ranges of hills with pines on their lower slopes girdle valleys of rich stoneless alluvium, producing abundantly cotton, tobacco, caster oil, wheat, barley, peas, beans, and most especially, the red and white millet. Wherever a lateral valley descends upon the one through which the road passes, there is a village of thatched houses, pretty enough at a distance and embowered in fruit trees, while clumps of pines, oaks, elms, and zelkawas denote the burial-places of its dead, who are the guardians of the only fine timber which is suffered to exist.

The hamlets along the road were cheerfully busy. Millet was stacked in the village roadways, leaving only room for one laden animal to pass at a time, and as all the threshing of rice and grain is done with double flails also in the village street, one actually rides over the threshed product. The red or large millet is nearly as useful to the Korean as is the bamboo to the Chinese. Its stalks furnish fuel, material for mats and thick woven fences, and even for houses, for in Phyong-an Do the walls are formed of bundles of millet stalks 8 feet high for the uprights, across which single stalks are laid, the interstices being filled up with mud.

After two days of somewhat monotonous prettiness, beyond Shou-yang-yi the country became really beautiful. Some of the larger valleys were specially attractive, with abundance of fruit and other deciduous trees below the dark Pinus sinensis on the hill slopes, and there were plenty of large villages with a general look of prosperity, everything, clothing included, being much cleaner than usual. There were fine views of lofty dog-tooth peaks, and of serrated ranges running east and west. Nearly every valley has its bright, rapid stream, on which the hills descend on one side in abrupt and much caverned limestone cliffs, the other side being level and fertile. The people there, and doubtless everywhere, were taken up entirely with their own concerns, the new system of taxation under which a fixed tax in money is levied on the assessed value of the land meeting with their approval. Events in Seoul had no interest for them. The recent murder of the Queen and the imprisonment of the King did not concern them, as there were no effects of either on their circumstances. After crossing the pass of Miriok Yang, 816 feet in altitude, in a romantic region, we entered poorer country with stony soil, often piled with large shingle by the violence of streams then perfectly dry.

By misdirection, misunderstanding, or complexity or com- plete illegibility of the track, we spent much of the day in losing and retracing our way, scrambling up steep rock-ladders, etc., and when we reached Kai-pang after dusk we were for some time refused admission to the inn. The owner said he could not take in any one travelling with so many 7napii. (four) and a soldier. He was terrified. He said we should go away in the morning without paying him, and should beat him when he asked to be paid ! However, the mapu gave me such an excellent character that at last he consented, and I had an ex- cellent room, — that is, the walls and roof were cream-washed, which gave it a look of cleanliness. The timid innkeeper was old, and this brought out the fact that when a local migistrate has aged parents, it is customary for him to invite to an enter- tainment everybody in his district between the ages of 60 and 100, and it is usual for the old men to take their oldest grandsons with them as testimonies to their old age. As every guest has to be accompanied fittingly, the company often numbers 200.

At Ka-chang and elsewhere the pigsties are much more solid than the houses, being regular log cabins with substantial roofs for the protection of their inmates from tigers, or in that neighborhood from wolves (?). These pigs, of which every country family in Korea possesses some, are of an absurdly small black breed, a full-grown animal not weighing more than 26 lbs.

During the two days' journey from the market-place of Sian-chong, we passed the magistracies of Cha-san and Un- san, ferrying the Tai-dong just beyond Cha-san, where it is a fine stream 317 yards broad, and is said by the ferrymen to be 47 feet deep. All that region is well peopled and fertile. There are no resident j(^//^-/^^7//j- in the province of Phyong-an. Gold is obtained by a simple process all round the country, specially at Keum san. At Wol-po, a prettily situated village, and elsewhere, a quantity of the coarser descriptions of paper is made. Paper and tobacco were the goods that were on the move, bound for Phyong-yang.

Paper is used for a greater variety of purposes in Korea than anywhere else, and its toughness and durability render it in- valuable. The coarser sorts are made from old rags and paper, the finer from the paper mulberry. Paper is the one article of Korean manufacture which is exported in any quantity to China, where it is used for some of the same purposes.

Oil paper about a sixth of an inch in thickness is pasted on the floors instead of carpets or mats. It bears washing, and takes a high polish from dry rubbing. In the Royal Palaces, where two tints are used carefully, it resembles oak parquet. It is also used for walls. A thinner quality is made into the folding, conical hat-covers which every Korean carries in his sleeve, and into waterproof cloaks, coats, and baggage covers. A very thick kind of paper made of several thicknesses beaten together is used for trunks, which are strong enough to hold heavy articles. Lanterns, tobacco-pouches, and fans are made of paper, and the Korean wooden latticed windows from the palace to the hovel are "glazed" with a thin, white, tough variety, which is translucent. Much prized, however, were my photographic glass plates when cleaned. Many a joyful householder let one into his window, giving himself an op- portunity of amusement and espionage denied to his neighbors.

The day's journey from Ka-chang to Tok Chhon is through very attractive scenery with grand mountain views. After crossing a low but severe pass, we came down upon a large affluent of the Tai-dong, which for want of a name I designate as the Ko-mop-so, flowing as a full- watered, green stream be- tween lofty cliffs of much caverned limestone, fantastically buttressed, and between hills which throw out rocky spurs, terminating or thinning down into high limestone walls, re- sembling those of ruinous fortifications.

Again losing the way and our time, a struggle over a rough pass brought us in view of the Tai-dong, with the character- istics of its mountain course, long rapids with glints of foam and rocks, long reaches of deep, still, slow-gliding jagged translucent green water broad and deep, making constant abrupt turns, and by its volume suggesting great powers of destructiveness when it is liberated from its mountain barriers. In about a fortnight it would be frozen for the winter. Diamond-flashing in the fine breeze, below noble cliffs and cobalt mountains, across which cloud shadows were sailing in indigo, under a vault of cloud-flecked blue, that view was one of those dreams of beauty which become a possession for ever.

From that pass the road, if it can be called such, is shut in with the Tai-dong for 30 //. In some places there is not room even for the narrowest bridle track, and the ponies scramble as they may over the rough boulders which margin the water, and climb the worn, steep, and rocky steps, often as high as their own knees, by which the break-neck track is taken over the rocky spurs which descend on the river. It is one of the worst pieces of road I ever encountered, and it was not won- derful that we did not meet a single traveller, and that there should be only about nine a year ! We made by our utmost efforts only a short mile an hour, and it took us five hours of this severe work to reach the wretched hamlet of Huok Kuri, a few hovels dumped down among heaps of stones and great boulders, some of which served as backs for the huts. Pov- erty-stricken, filthy, squalid, the few inhabitants subsisted en- tirely on red millet ! Poor Mr. Yi, who had had a wakeful night owing to vermin, said woefully as he dismounted stiflly, "Sleepy, tired, cold, hungry," — and there was nothing to eat, and little for the ponies either, which may have been the reason that they got up a desperate fight, of which they bore the traces for some days.

The track continued shut in by the high mountains which line the Tai-dong till within a mile of Tok Chhon, forcing the ponies to climb worn rock-ladders, or to pick a perilous way among sharp-pointed rocks. I had not thought that Korea could produce anything so emphatic ! As the road occasion- ally broke up in face of some apparently impassable spur, we occasionally got into impassable places, and lost time so badly that we were benighted when little more than halfway, but as there were no inhabitants we pushed on as a matter of neces- sity. When we got to better going the inapUy inspired by the double terror of robbers and wild animals, hurried on the ponies, yelling as they drove, and by the time we reached the Tok Chhon ferry a young moon had risen, and the mountains in shadow, and the great ferry-boat full of horses, men in white, and bulls, in relief against the silvered water, made a beautiful night scene. I sent on the ponies, and Im to pre- pare my room, fully expecting comfort, as at Phyong-yang, for though I could never find anybody who had been at Tok Chhon, it was always spoken of as a sort of metropolis.

It is indeed a magistracy, with a remarkably ruinous yamen and a market-place, and is the chief town of a very large region. It is entered from the river by stepping-stones, through abominable slush, by a long narrow street, from which we were directed on and on till we came to a \^\At place , where the inns of the town are. There in the moonlight a great masculine crowd had collected, and in the middle of it were our juapUy with the loads still on their ponies, raging at large, and Im rushing hither and thither like a madman. For they had been refused accommodation, and every door had been barred against them on the ground that I was a foreigner ! They said, truly or falsely, that no foreigner had ever profaned Tok Chhon by his presence, that they lived in peace, and did not want to be " implicated with a foreigner " (all foreigners being Japanese). It is most disagreeable to force oneself in even the slightest degree on any one, but I had been twelve hours in the saddle, it was 8 p. m., there was snow on the ground, and it was freezing hard ! The yard door of one inn was opened a chink for a moment, our men rushed for it, but it was at once barred, and we were all again left standing in the street, the centre of a crowd which increased every moment.

Our men eventually forced open the door of one inn and got their ponies in. Then the paper was torn off two doors, and Im was visible against the light from within tearing about like a black daemon. We had then stood like statues for two hours with our feet in freezing slush, the great crowd preserv- ing a ring round us, staring stolidly, but not showing any hos- tility. At last Im appeared at an open door, waving my chair, and we got into a high, dark lumber-room; but the crowd was too quick for us, and came tumbling in behind us till the place was full. Then the landlord closed the doors, but they were smashed in, and he had no better luck when he weakly be- sought the people to look at him and not at the stranger, for his entreaty only produced an ebullition of Korean wit, by no means complimentary. An official from the yame?i arrived and inquired if I had any complaint to make, but I had none, and he sat down and took a prolonged stare on his own ac- count, not making any attempt to disperse the crowd.

So I sat facing the door, Mr. Yi not far off smoking endless cigarettes, while Im battled for a room, after one he had se- cured had its doors broken down by the crowd. I sat for two hours longer in that cold, ruinous, miserable place, two front and three back doorways filled up with men, the whole male population of Tok Chhon, and, never moved a muscle or showed any sign of dissatisfaction ! Some sat on the doorsill, little men were on the shoulders of big ones, all, inside and outside, clamoring at once.

The situation might have been serious had a European man been with me, and the experiences of Mr. Campbell of the Consular Service, at Kapsan might have been repeated. No Englishman could have kept his temper in such circumstances from 8 p. M. till midnight. He would certainly have knocked somebody down, and then there would have been a fight. The ill-bred curiosity tires but does not annoy me, though it ex- ceeded all bounds that night. Fortunately for me, a Korean gentleman is taught from his earliest boyhood that he must never lose his temper, and that it is a degradation to him to touch an inferior, therefore he must never strike a servant or one of the lower orders.

At midnight, probably weary of our passivity, and anxious for sleep, the inn people consented to give me a room in the back-yard if I did not object to one "prepared for sacrifice," and containing the ancestral tablets. The crowd then filled the back-yard, and attempted to pour into my room, when Im's sorely-tried patience gave way for only the second time, and he knocked people down right and left. This, and the contents of a fire-bowl which was upset in the scrimmage, helped to scatter the crowd, but it was there again at daylight, attempting to enter every time Im opened the door !

The "room prepared for sacrifice" in aspect was a small barn, fearfully dirty and littered with rubbish, and bundles of rags, rope, and old shoes were tucked away among the beams and rafters. My camp-bed cut it exactly in half. In the in- ner half there was a dusty table, and behind it on a black stand a dusty black shrine, at the back of which was a four- leaved screen covered with long strips of paper, on which were poems in praise of the deceased. In front, dividing the room, and falling from the roof to the floor, was a curtain made of two widths of very dirty foreign calico. Among the poor, in- stead of setting food before the ancestral shrine twice or thrice daily during the three years of mourning for a parent, it is only placed there twice a month. In a small white wooden tablet within the shrine popular belief places the residence of the third soul of the deceased, as I have mentioned before.

I spent two days at Tok Chhon. Properly speaking, the Tai-dong is never navigable to that point, owing to many and dangerous rapids, and any idea of the possibility of this highly picturesqe stream becoming "a great commercial highway " may be utterly dismissed. Small boats can ascend it at all seasons to Mou-chin Tai, about 140 // lower down, and during two summer months, when the water is high, a few with much difficulty get up to Tok Chhon, and even a few // farther, and at the same season rafts descend from the forests of the Yung- won district, from 30 to 40 // higher; but owing to severe rapids, shallows, and sandbanks which shift continually, the river is not really navigable higher than Phyong-yang, and all commercial theories built upon it are totally chimerical. For 30 // above Tok Chhon the river scenery is far grander than below, the perpendicular walls of limestone rock rising from 800 to 1,000 feet, with lofty mountains above them, the peaks of which, even so early as the end of November, were crested with new-fallen snow. I had been assured in Phyong- yang that boats could be hired at Tok Chhon, and I had planned to descend the river ; but there are no boats, except a few ferry scows, higher than Mou-chin Tai.

Tok Chhon and its district are lamentably poor. The people said that the war had made the necessaries of life dearer, and that they had only the same produce to barter or buy with. The reforms which were being carried out farther south had not reached that region, and "squeezing" was still carried on by the officials. Rice, the ordinary staff of Korean life, is brought from An Ju, but is used only by the rich, i.e. the officials. The poor live on large and small millet. Po- tatoes and wheat are grown, but the soil is poor and stony. A little trade, chiefly in dried fish and seaweed, is done with Won-san. A few silk lenos and gauzes of very poor quality are made, the industry having been introduced by the Chinese. Piece goods are only a few cash dearer than at Phyong-yang. Those displayed on the market-day were nearly all Japanese. It was the dullest market I have seen. The pedlars carried away nearly as much as they brought. The country is abso- lutely denuded of wood. There are no deciduous trees, and the region owes its few groves of dwarfed and distorted pines to the horseshoe graves on the hillsides. A yaf?ien which only hangs together from force of habit, a Confucian temple, and a Buddhist temple on a height are the only noteworthy buildings.

The district magistrate returned while I was in Tok Chhon, and the people showed a degree of interest in the event. Run- ners lined the river-bank by the ferry, blowing horns, forty men in black gauze coats over their white ones, and a few singing girls met his chair and ran with it to X\\q ya?fien, and a few men looked on apathetically. A more squalid retinue could not be imagined.

Some magistrates had a thousand of such retainers paid by this impoverished country. In a single province, there were at that time 44 district mandarins, with an average staff of 400 men each, whose sole duties were those of police and tax- collecting, their food alone, at the rate of two dollars per month, costing $392,400 a year.¹ This army of 17,600 men, not receiving a "living wage," "squeezed" on its own ac- count the peasant, who in Korea has neither rights nor privi- leges, except that of being the ultimate sponge. As an illus- tration of the methods of proceeding I give the case of a village in a southern province. Telegraph poles were required, and the Provincial Governor made a requisition of 100 cash on every house. The local magistrate increased it to 200, and his runners to 250, which was actually paid by the people, the runners getting 50 cash, the magistrate 100, and the Governor 100, a portion of which sum was expended on the object for which it was levied. An edict abolishing this attendance, and reducing the salaries of magistrates, had recently been pro- mulgated. At Tok Chhon, the ruin and decay of official buildings, and the filth and squalor of the private dwellings, could go no farther.

¹My authority for this statement is Mr. W. K. Carles, formerly H.B.M.'s Vice-Consul in Korea.