It was the time for the ruler of the mainland China to be changed from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. Qing Dynasty started the war between Chosun Kingdom and Qing Dynasty in 1636 to block off the coalition between Chosun Kingdom and Ming Dynasty and to...
It was the time for the ruler of the mainland China to be changed from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. Qing Dynasty started the war between Chosun Kingdom and Qing Dynasty in 1636 to block off the coalition between Chosun Kingdom and Ming Dynasty and to have the resources and military supports for their war with Ming Dynasty before they mainly addressed the invasion into the mainland. After winning the war in 1636, Qing Dynasty put the pressure to Chosun Kingdom using hostages including the Crown Prince Sohyun instead of their direct rule over Chosun Kingdom. Qing Dynasty chose this way because it was a relatively efficient method for them to reduce the resistance of people in Chosun Kingdom while they were focusing on the war with Ming Dynasty. Accordingly, the Crown Prince Sohyun and his accompanying subordinates had to stay in 'Shenyangguan' for about eight years from April in the 15th year of King Injo (1637) to February in the 23rd year of King Injo (1645) when they could return to their homeland. Although it has not known what Shenyangguan was like as it does not remain now, certain portion about the building can be confirmed through records.
About 500 accompanying subordinates lived in Shenyangguan. They could be divided largely into hostages and accompanying subordinates. Among them, hostages could be divided into 'hostages from the royal family' and 'hostages from three noble families and six official families'. Accompanying subordinates could be divided into 'officials to serve the Crown Prince' and 'other lower servants'. These various subordinates were organized in Shenyangguan, and their activities became the driving force to maximize the diplomatic capabilities in Shenyangguan. In Shenyangguan, the Crown Prince Sohyun carried out various activities to return people of Chosun Kingdom, to represent the positions of Chosun Kingdom over the excessive requests from Qing Dynasty, and to collect and deliver information. Activities of each member in Shenyangguan were underlying those activities.
The status of Shenyangguan was increasingly highlighted as time flew due to the strategies of Qing Dynasty and those activities of each member as such, which resulted in conflicts between King Injo and the Crown Prince Sohyun in the end.
The status of Shenyangguan was perceived differently by Qing Dynasty and Chosun Kingdom respectively. Qing Dynasty first made efforts to recognize Shenyangguan as a diplomatic organization of Chosun Kingdom and to increase its status. Qing Dynasty utilized Shenyangguan to deliver their requirements to Chosun Kingdom, to advertise their status to Chosun Kingdom, and to collect information. In the meantime, Qing Dynasty took their stance as if they had wanted to increase the status of Shenyangguan to the extent that they could hardly expect even in Chosun Kingdom, such as allowing Shenyangguan to have activities at their own discretion, leading the Crown Prince to participate in matters that should not be dealt with by him, treating the status of the Crown Prince to the level of kings and lords or asking Chosun Kingdom to send higher ranking officers town discretion, leose attedits to increase the status of Shenyangguan by Qing Dynasty aimed at the theerningsplits of Chosun Kingdom as they made King Injo recognize the Crown Prince Sohyun as his competitor from the highlighted status of Shenyangguan. They considered such strategies would make Chosun Kingdom relatively adaptive to them with no resistance to Qing Dynasty as Chosun Kingdom was being aware of the Crown Prince. These strategies consisted of the core in their policies on Chosun Kingdom, which could be called "soliciting enemies to control enemies" as part of their strategies.
On the other hand, Chosun Kingdom seemingly evaluated the status of Shenyangguan as being lower. King Injo did not want Shenyangguan to be anything but 'a place for hostages'. Hence, he kept busy himself controlling its roles rather than utilizing Shenyangguan as the instrument of politics and diplomacy. This could also evidence that the strategy of Qing Dynasty "soliciting enemies to control enemies" was relatively successful. Such containing activities of King Injo to Shenyangguan were more strengthened in link with the decreasing status of King Injo's both internally and externally.