Qing Invasion of Joseon (1636): Siege of Namhansanseong

The Qing invasion of Joseon, known in Korea as the Byeongja Horan, was the Manchu invasion of Korea in the winter of 1636–1637. The army of the newly proclaimed Qing dynasty under Hong Taiji overran the country in a few weeks and besieged King Injo in the mountain fortress of Namhansanseong, near Seoul. Injo’s surrender ended Korea’s centuries-old loyalty to Ming China and made Joseon a tributary of the Qing until the late 19th century.

Background: between Ming and Manchu

Joseon Korea had long regarded the Ming dynasty as its overlord and ally, and Ming armies had helped defend Korea during the Imjin War against Japan in the 1590s. Many Korean officials felt a deep obligation to the Ming for that rescue.

In the early 17th century the Jurchen leader Nurhaci built a powerful state, the Later Jin, in Manchuria. King Gwanghaegun of Joseon tried to balance between the two powers, but in 1623 he was overthrown in a coup that placed his nephew Injo on the throne. The new government took a firmly pro-Ming line.

In 1627 the Later Jin invaded Korea for the first time, in what Koreans call the Jeongmyo Horan. The war ended with an agreement under which Joseon and the Later Jin would treat each other as “elder and younger brothers”, but tension continued.

The road to war

In 1636 Nurhaci’s son Hong Taiji proclaimed the Qing dynasty and took the title of emperor. He demanded that Joseon recognise him as its sovereign in place of the Ming. Korean envoys present at the ceremony in Shenyang refused to bow to him, and the Joseon court, dominated by officials who saw the Manchus as barbarians, rejected his demands.

Hong Taiji decided to subdue Korea before his final campaigns against Ming China, both to remove a hostile ally of the Ming from his flank and to gain Korean grain, ships and soldiers.

The invasion and the siege

In the twelfth lunar month of 1636, which fell in late December 1636 and January 1637 in the Western calendar, Hong Taiji crossed the frozen Yalu River with a large army of Manchu, Mongol and Han Chinese banner troops. Korean and Qing sources put it at more than 100,000 men, though modern estimates vary. Qing cavalry bypassed Korean fortresses in the north and raced towards Seoul in a matter of days.

The court had planned to take refuge on Ganghwa Island, as it had done in 1627. Members of the royal family were sent there, but Qing troops cut the road before Injo could follow. On the 14th day of the twelfth lunar month, in early January 1637, the king and Crown Prince Sohyeon fled instead to Namhansanseong, a walled fortress on the mountains south-east of the capital.

About 13,000 to 14,000 soldiers defended the fortress, with food for only about 50 days. The Qing surrounded it while other units plundered the surrounding country. Relief armies from the provinces were defeated before they could break through, and the defenders suffered badly from cold and hunger.

Debate inside the fortress

The court was bitterly divided. Choe Myeong-gil led those who argued for negotiating peace to save the kingdom, while Kim Sang-heon and others insisted that submitting to the Manchus would betray the Ming and Confucian principle, and urged resistance to the end.

The decisive blow came in mid-February 1637, when Qing forces under Prince Dorgon crossed to Ganghwa Island and captured it, taking members of the royal family prisoner. With food running out and no prospect of relief, Injo agreed to surrender.

Surrender at Samjeondo

On the 30th day of the first lunar month of 1637, or 24 February 1637, Injo left the fortress and went to Samjeondo, a ferry crossing on the Han River where Hong Taiji had set up a platform. There the king performed the ritual of three kneelings and nine prostrations before the Qing emperor, a humiliation long remembered in Korea.

The terms were harsh. Joseon had to break relations with the Ming, adopt the Qing calendar, send annual tribute and provide troops and ships for Qing campaigns. Crown Prince Sohyeon and his brother Prince Bongnim were taken to Shenyang as hostages. Three officials who had opposed peace, Hong Ik-han, Yun Jip and O Dal-je, were handed over and executed, and are remembered in Korea as the “three loyal scholars”.

Consequences

The invading armies carried off large numbers of Korean captives to Manchuria, many of them later ransomed by their families. Estimates of their number range from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand. Women who returned from captivity often faced cruel social stigma at home.

In 1639 the Qing required Joseon to erect a stele at Samjeondo praising the emperor’s virtue; the monument still stands in Seoul. Crown Prince Sohyeon returned home in 1645 with knowledge of Western learning gained in China, but died suddenly two months later. Prince Bongnim became King Hyojong in 1649 and planned a “northern expedition” against the Qing that was never carried out.

Joseon remained a Qing tributary until the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Many Korean scholars, however, continued privately to honour the fallen Ming and came to see Joseon as the last true guardian of Confucian civilisation, an attitude known as sojunghwa, “little China”.

Key people

• King Injo (1595–1649): the 16th king of Joseon, placed on the throne by the coup of 1623, who led the resistance in Namhansanseong and finally submitted to Hong Taiji.
• Hong Taiji (1592–1643): the founder of the Qing dynasty, who commanded the invasion in person and received Injo’s surrender.
• Choe Myeong-gil (1586–1647): the leading advocate of peace inside the fortress, who negotiated with the Qing. He was later detained in Shenyang for secret contacts with the Ming.
• Kim Sang-heon (1570–1652): the leader of the officials who opposed surrender. A well-known story says he tore up the draft letter of submission, which Choe then pieced back together. He too was later held in Shenyang for resisting Qing demands.
• Crown Prince Sohyeon (1612–1645): Injo’s eldest son, who spent eight years as a hostage. In Beijing in 1644 he met the German Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell and learned about Western astronomy and Christianity.

The debate between Choe and Kim, between survival and principle, has been retold many times in modern Korea, notably in Kim Hoon’s novel Namhansanseong (2007) and the film The Fortress (2017).

Timeline

• 1623: A coup removes Gwanghaegun and puts King Injo on the throne.
• 1627: First Manchu invasion of Korea ends with a “brotherly” treaty.
• 1636, spring: Hong Taiji proclaims the Qing dynasty; Korean envoys refuse to bow.
• 1636, 12th lunar month: Qing forces cross the Yalu and advance on Seoul.
• 1636, 14th day of 12th lunar month (early January 1637): Injo takes refuge in Namhansanseong.
• 1637, mid-February: Qing forces capture Ganghwa Island.
• 1637, 24 February: Injo surrenders to Hong Taiji at Samjeondo.
• 1639: The Samjeondo Monument is erected.
• 1645: Crown Prince Sohyeon returns from Shenyang and dies soon after.

Why it matters

The invasion turned the balance of power in East Asia. By forcing Korea out of the Ming camp, Hong Taiji secured his flank for the conquest of China that followed the fall of Beijing in 1644. In Korea the siege of Namhansanseong, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains a symbol of national humiliation and of the hard choices of a small state between great powers.