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This year of 2016 marks the fourth centenary of the Later Jin dynasty's foundation. On February 17, 1616, Nurhaci founded the Later Jin and designated Hetu Ala (today's Xinbin county in China's Liaoning province) as the dynasty's capital. He declared himself Khan and the era name as Tianming. Despite the drastically changing state of international affairs since its foundation, the Later Jin managed to maintain its relations with the Korean kingdom of Joseon without running into any major clashes. Then everything changed after King Injo ascended to the throne in Joseon with the eruption of two large-scale wars, the invasion by the Manchus in 1627 known as Jeongmyo horan and a second invasion in 1636 known as Byeongja horan.

Aside from the minor roles too countless to mention, the following introduces a series of episodes and entities that played major and supporting roles in them on the stage of seventeenth century East Asia. International order in East Asia was settled once the relations between Japan and Joseon,* and then between Joseon and Later Jin became established during seventeenth century. These were followed by the establishment of relations between Later Jin and eastern Mongolia, after which Later Jin went on to conquer the central and southern parts of China as it changed its name to Qing. By the end of the seventeenth century, Qing's relations with Russia became determined. Around 1720, Qing's relations with Tibet became clarified and Qing conquered the Dzungar Khanate by the 1750s.

Since the 1650s, Qing and Russia started to clash around the basin of Heilong Jiang, or the Amur River. It was only after a border was determined between them through the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 when they entered into a coexistence. And despite experiencing ups and downs, that coexistence has been maintained to this day without taking into consideration the transfer of Primorsky Krai's sovereignty back to Russia in the late nineteenth century and Mongolia's independence in the twentieth century. In many respects, the origin of modern international order in East Asia is rooted in the seventeenth century. And at the heart of that origin lies the clashes that occurred at the Heilong Jiang basin in the mid-to-late seventeenth century.

Eurasia during Later Jin's Foundation

Clashes between Qing China and Russia at the Amur River basin in the mid-to-late seventeenth century are in some ways connected to the formation and expansion of the Mongolian Empire in the thirteenth century. The Mongolian Empire even casts its shadow over the birth of Russia. This is because Russia is one of the empires that inherited the heritage of the Mongolian Empire. Russia's advance into Sibera began in 1582 when Yermak Timofeyevich crossed the Siberian river near the Urals with an army of about 800 Cossacks. And Russia continued its eastward advance until it reached the Sea of Okhotsk in 1647.

Meanwhile, the Imjin War of 1592-1598 was an international war mainly involving Joseon, Japan, and Ming China. The war demonstrated that the western Pacific region was entering the "age of sea exploration" and that marine forces were on the rise. When Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched the Imjin War, he declared that he would "use Joseon as a route to conquer the Great Ming (大明) and if Joseon resisted, it will be conquered beforehand."** Hideyoshi's ambitious plan was to conquer Ming China, followed by India, and then relocate the emperor to Beijing (北京) and himself to Ningbo (寧波). The Imjin War ended up causing a serial effect upon powers across Eurasia, especially Mongolia, Tibet, and other western regions. Although the war resulted in Joseon and Japan maintaining friendly relations thereon until 1875, it also caused a relative absence of power in the Liaodong (Manchuria) area while Joseon was dealing with post-war poverty and Ming China was experiencing internal as well as external problems. These circumstances led to the rapid rise of a force in that area which would later dictate mainland China.

After setting out from northern Liaodong, the Jurchens, which later became known as the Manchus, took over Beijing in 1644. Beijing had become central to Euriasia ever since the Jin dynasty designated the city as its capital on April 21, 1153. The problem was that a vacancy of power occurred in northern Manchuria as the Manchus relocated en masse to different parts of mainland China. Moreover, the Manchus fought fierce battles over the process of taking over the central and southern parts of China. And on September 1, 1626, Hong Taiji succeeded his father Nurhaci and became Khan at the imperial palace in Shenyang. The subsequent subjection of east Mongolian tribes to the north of Beijing in 1634 created a huge impact upon the dynamics in Eurasia during the Ming-Qing dynastic transition. It was against this background that the Manchus launched their second invasion of Joseon, known as Byeongja horan.

On January 12, 1637, Joseon officials including Choe Myeong-gil left the Fortress of Namhan and went over to the Qing camp to deliver the Joseon king's letter which mentioned how Ming saved Joseon by mobilizing "troops of the world" during the Imjin War. Hong Taiji responded to the letter by rebuking that "the world is big and there are many countries in it. Why bring up the world when it was Ming alone that saved you? There seems to be no end to Ming and your futile delusions." When Hong Taiji changed the dynasty's name from Later Jin to Qing in 1636, he had long been rid of the idea that equates Ming with the whole world.***

Armed with a new view of the world, the Qing dynasty took over Beijing in 1644 and designated the city as the dynasty's new capital. Since then, Qing China faced all sorts of challenges such as quelling resistance from remaining forces of the Ming dynasty in central China, controlling and utilizing cooperative east Mongolian tribes, suppressing Mongolian tribes in the west that refused subjection, and stopping Russians from advancing beyond Heilong Jiang. All those challenges coexisted, although the urgency of each changed for the Qing dynasty over different periods. And in order to suppress and consolidate forces in central China and Mongolia, it was necessary above all else for Qing China to sort out its relations with Russia.

* Except for the United States as a factor, international order exhibits a marked continuity between the seventeenth century and today. When it launched the Imjin War of 1592-1598, Japan surfaced as a key force in the history of East Asia by displaying its maritime power and continues to play a key role in the region to this day. What is interesting is that Japan's invasion through the Imjin War and Russia's territorial expansion both occurred during the age of sea exploration between the mid-fifteenth and mid-eighteenth century.

** Refer to page 44 of Kim Sang-jun & Yun Yu-suk, "Geunse hanil gwangye saryojip: Yanagawa Shigeoki guji girok" [Collection of Sources on Modern Korea-Japan Relations: Official Records of Yanagawa Shigeoki (柳川調興公事記錄)], Northeast Asian History Foundation, 2015.

*** Refer to page 165 of Han Myeong-gi, "Yeoksa pyeongseol byeongja horan 2" [Historical Commentary on Byeongja horan Vol. 2], Pureun yeoksa, 2013.

The Battles of Jaxa at the Basin of Heilong Jiang

In 1632, Russia established the city of Yakutsk along the Lena River and subsequently establish the settlements of Albazin in 1650 and Nerchinsk in 1659. Up until the mid-seventeenth century, Russia launched several expeditions that reached the Amur River. To counter the Russians' southward advance, Qing China sent a garrison to be stationed at Ninguta (寧古塔), today's Ning'an in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, in 1652. Sarhuda was promoted as the military governor (later renamed as general) of Ninguta the next year in 1653, and the following year, Qing China requested Joseon to provide reinforcement.

In 1654, King Hyojong of Joseon dispatched 150 troops led by Byeon Geup, and in 1658, Sin Yu led a combat unit of 262 on a series of military expeditions now known as the "Naseon jeongbeol" (羅禪征伐). On the first expedition, a battle took place at Yilan (依蘭縣) where the waters of Songhua and Mudan river meet. Over the summer of 1654, the eleventh year of Emperor Shunzhi's reign, a Russian expedition of 370 led by Onufriy Stepanov was driven away from the Songhua River. Nearly four years later on June 10, 1658 (according to the lunar calendar), when Joseon dispatched its troops for a second time, the allied forces of Joseon and the Manchus led by Sarhuda destroyed the Russian troops Stepanov led in a battle that occurred near the confluence of the Songhua and Amur Rivers. That defeat signified an end to the Russian Cossacks' investigative phase at Heilong Jiang. With China's installation of a military governor, titled tuchun (督軍), at the Amur River, Russia's invasion of the river was thereafter carried out on a larger scale in a more organized, precise fashion.

The Revolt of the Three Feudatories (1673-1681) that broke out not long after Emperor Kangxi began his rule in 1669 made the emperor focus his attention toward the north. Then in the summer of 1685, the twenty-fourth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, the Battles of Jaxa erupted when a naval fleet led by General Sabusu attacked the Russian fort at Jaxa, which had been under the command of Akeksey Tolbuzin. The Russian troops managed to withstand attacks by the Qing military for nearly one year. Just when Emperor Kangxi had his troops retreat in order to reorganize them for another attack on Albazin, the Oirats (Dzungar) of western Mongolia under Galdan's rule attacked the Khalkha that had been under Qing subjugation. Because of that attack, Emperor Kangxi wished to settle the border conflict with Russia as soon as possible. As it happened, this was what Russia had been hoping for as well due to the Russo-Turkish War that erupted in 1686 after Russia joined a coalition with Habsburg Austria, Poland–Lithuania, and Venice. So, after remaining under tension without being able to strike a decisive blow upon one another, the Qing entered into talks with Russia.

The Russian delegation between 1687 and 1689 consisted of around two thousand government officials and soldiers including Fyodor Golovin. The Qing's delegation in 1689 included Songgotu, Tong Guogang, and General Sabusu as well as the Jesuits Jean-Francois Gerbillon and Thomas Pereira. On September 8, 1689, two copies of a treaty drafted in Latin and signed by the plenipotentiaries of Qing and Russia was exchanged. With the Treaty of Nerchinsk, the border between China and Russia became determined in writing and the armed conflicts they had been through for nearly three decades since the 1650s came to an end. Qing China was able to stop Russia's southward advance at Heilong Jiang and Russia was able to secure a trade route through Qing China. Moreover, Emperor Kangxi was able to prevent the Dzungars from joining forces with Russia and concentrate his military power on the war with Galdan. By the 1750s, the Dzungars were finally conquered and the Qing managed to gain control over the Xinjiang region. Hence, the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689 was in some ways the turning point that divided central Eurasia between China and Russia.

Reviewing the "Eurasia Initiative" in a New Light

China and Russia remember the seventeenth century clashes between Qing and Russia at the Amur River basin as a case of aggression and territorial occupation. Yet, the natives of the area will probably remember the clashes differently. To them, the colonizers armed with guns would have been no more than a bunch of brutal strangers. How would they have felt when those strangers suddenly appeared and forced them to "pay taxes, join the war, and convert to an unfamiliar religion" when they were already living in a culture of their own? Would they have felt as if their home and culture were being destroyed, or would they have felt as if they had been presented with new opportunities? They may have felt both ways, but in reality, those natives soon became classified as yet another "ethnic minority" within a short period of time.

Joseon's experience in the seventeenth century reshuffle of international order includes a large-scale war called Byeongja horan and two small military expeditions called Naseon jeongbeol. And that experience revealed how meager Joseon's capability had been under fragmented leadership, deficient skills to collect intelligence, and scant financial as well as military resources. Notwithstanding, not everything about the experience was a failure for Joseon. In the context of east Eurasia, Joseon unintentionally played a major rather than a minor role in the reshuffling of east Eurasia's international order.**

When Joseon was going through Byeongja horan, it may have been a small, weak nation, a "dependent factor" trapped between the two powers of Ming and Qing. However, one can escape danger by knowing oneself as well as one's opponent. The harsh geopolitical circumstances of Joseon being unable to turn against neither the northwest nor the southeast of China was in reality not entirely a disadvantage. Later on in 1933, Toyokawa Zenyo, head of Kōa Kenkyūjo (興亞硏究所), a research center for Asian prosperity based in Gyeongseong (Seoul), proposed the Keijo sentoron arguing that the Japanese empire's capital should be relocated to Gyeongseong. The proposal may be deemed as an unpolished argument, but it could also be considered as an acknowledgement of Seoul's value as a metropolitan center of east Eurasia. Along that line of thought, it would be meaningful to relocate historical research institutes to a historical landmark like the premises of Yongsan Park so that they may proactively take the lead in conducting research for policies regarding the history and future of east Eurasia.

If South Korea hopes to be a leader of peace, it must take note of the "Eurasia Initiative," one of its current administration's three initiatives alongside the "Trust-building Process on the Korean Peninsula" and the "Northeast Asian Peace and Cooperation." The proposal to connect and make Eurasia into a "united continent, a continent of creativity and a continent of peace" has been the first mention of Eurasia in Korean diplomacy as a stage for strategic cooperation. And it might also be necessary to recognize the Eurasia Initiative as a "Eurasia Marine Initiative" in that it seeks to connect the opposite ends of Eurasia via the sea by building a "Silk Road Express" (SRX) and developing the Northern Sea Route.

* Refer to page 27 of Boris Ivanovich Tkachenko, "Reosia-Jungguk munseo e natanan dongbu gukgyeong" [Russia-China: The Eastern Border in Documents and Facts], translated by Sung Jong-hwan, Northeast Asian History Foundation, 2010.

** The scholar Yu Hyeong-won (1622-1673) was fifteen when the capital of Joseon helplessly fell and its king suffered humiliation during Byeongja horan. His collection of notes under the title "Bangye surok" authored between 1652 and 1670 contains suggestions for comprehensive reform of Joseon's system including that of land ownership, education, and military. Wise insight and high morality were listed as prerequisites for carrying out such reform.