The Imjin War

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Description

In May of 1592 Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a 158,800-man army aboard a thousand ships from Kyushu to Pusan on Korea's southern tip. Its objective: to conquer Korea, then China, and then the whole of Asia. The resulting seven years of fighting, known in Korea as imjin waeran, the "Imjin invasion," after the year of the water dragon in which it began, involved 300,000 combatants and claimed more than two million lives. It dwarfed any contemporary conflict in Europe, and was one of the most devastating wars to grip East Asia in the past thousand years.

"The Imjin War" is the most comprehensive account ever published in English of this cataclysmic event, so little known in the West. It begins with the political and cultural background of Korea, Japan, and China, discusses the diplomatic breakdown that led to the war, describes every major incident and battle from 1592 to 1598, and introduces a fascinating cast of characters along the way. There is Hideyoshi himself, hosting garden parties while his armies march toward Beijing; Korea's admiral Yi Sun-sin, emerging from a prison cell to take on the Japanese with only thirteen ships of his own; Chinese commander Zhao Chengxun, suffering defeat after promising to "scatter the Japanese to the four winds"; the kisaeng Chu Non-gae, luring a samurai into her arms and then jumping into the Nam River with him locked in her embrace.

One nation fighting to expand, another to survive. Shockwaves extending across China and beyond. "The Imjin War" is an epic tale of grand perspective and intimate detail of an upheaval that shook East Asia more than four centuries ago, and that continues to strain relations today between Korea and Japan.

Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
A Note on Dates

PART ONE: THE THREE KINGDOMS

1. Japan: From Civil War to World Power
2. China: The Ming Dynasty in Decline
3. A Son Called Sute: "Thrown Away"
4. Korea: Highway to the Prize

PART TWO: PRELUDE TO WARM

5. "By fast ships I have dispatched orders to Korea"
6. Preparations for War
7. The Final Days

PART THREE: IMJIN

8. North to Seoul
9. Hideyoshi Jubilant
10. The Korean Navy Strikes Back
11. On to Pyongyang
12. The Battle for the Yellow Sea
13. "To me the Japanese robber army will be but a swarm of ants and wasps"
14. A Castle at Fushimi
15. Suppression and Resistance
16. Saving History

PART FOUR: STALEMATE

17. The Retreat from Pyongyang to the"River of Hell"
18. Seoul Retaken
19. Negotiations at Nagoya, Slaughter at Chinju
20. Factions, Feuds, and Forgeries
21. Meanwhile, in Manila...
22. "You, Hideyoshi, are hereby instructed to cheerfully obey our imperial commands!"
23. The Arrest and Imprisonment of Yi Sun-sin

PART FIVE: THE SECOND INVASION

24. "Water, Thunder, and Great Disaster"
25. The Japanese Advance Inland
26. "Seek death and you will live; seek life and you will die"
27. Starvation and Death in a"Buddha-less World"
28. "Even Osaka Castle is only a dream"
29. The Last Act

PART SIX: AFTERMATH

30. What Came Next

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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