Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EURO IMJIN (European Literature and the “First East Asian War” of 1592-1598 (EURO-IMJIN))
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-08-31
Outline and main questions:
The main objective of the EURO-IMJIN project is to locate, transcribe, translate, and analyze European accounts of the East Asian War of 1592-1598 (“The Imjin War”), connecting European and East Asian research on the war and opening new horizons from both regions to stimulate further interdisciplinary research. EURO-IMJIN challenged the following questions:
1. When exactly did Europe perceive the Imjin war?
2. How did this image of the Imjin war change the Europeans’ status?
3. How, and to what extent was the nature of the Imjin war integrated mentally in the works of the European Renaissance?
Why is this project important?
The Imjin war began when the Japanese hegemon Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded the Korean peninsula; the first step in his plan to conquer China. During its six-year period (1592-1598), the Imjin war involved an estimated number of up to 500,000 combatants from China, Korea, and Japan. The war was rarely written about in the West; however, we know that numerous European observers, religious institutions, and commercial enterprises involved in the conflict and its consequences wrote accounts of the war and its aftermath. With this in mind, the Imjin war has received strikingly little attention in Western scholarship so far. Adding to this, the copious research in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language is inaccessible for international scholars, with only a few Asian researchers using sources outside their own language specialization – and European primary sources on the war are largely unknown to them. This is why EURO-IMJIN has become an important project for society: this project used data, in particular chronicles of the war, drawn from correspondence between Europeans (mainly travelers, merchants, and missionaries) and the East Asian proto-nations (Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines) to unlock a new path for future researchers in this field.
Overall aims:
EURO-IMJIN aimed to search diverse archives for European primary sources, with a special focus on historiographical accounts, and to make these sources easily available by transcription, interpretation and translation.
By means of disseminating and exploiting the results of this project, EURO-IMJIN was able to open a new study field that invites future parallel investigations on the war in order to gain an even more detailed overview of the European image on the Imjin war.
The main objective of the EURO-IMJIN project is to locate, transcribe, translate, and analyze European accounts of the East Asian War of 1592-1598 (“The Imjin War”), connecting European and East Asian research on the war and opening new horizons from both regions to stimulate further interdisciplinary research. EURO-IMJIN challenged the following questions:
1. When exactly did Europe perceive the Imjin war?
2. How did this image of the Imjin war change the Europeans’ status?
3. How, and to what extent was the nature of the Imjin war integrated mentally in the works of the European Renaissance?
Why is this project important?
The Imjin war began when the Japanese hegemon Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded the Korean peninsula; the first step in his plan to conquer China. During its six-year period (1592-1598), the Imjin war involved an estimated number of up to 500,000 combatants from China, Korea, and Japan. The war was rarely written about in the West; however, we know that numerous European observers, religious institutions, and commercial enterprises involved in the conflict and its consequences wrote accounts of the war and its aftermath. With this in mind, the Imjin war has received strikingly little attention in Western scholarship so far. Adding to this, the copious research in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language is inaccessible for international scholars, with only a few Asian researchers using sources outside their own language specialization – and European primary sources on the war are largely unknown to them. This is why EURO-IMJIN has become an important project for society: this project used data, in particular chronicles of the war, drawn from correspondence between Europeans (mainly travelers, merchants, and missionaries) and the East Asian proto-nations (Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines) to unlock a new path for future researchers in this field.
Overall aims:
EURO-IMJIN aimed to search diverse archives for European primary sources, with a special focus on historiographical accounts, and to make these sources easily available by transcription, interpretation and translation.
By means of disseminating and exploiting the results of this project, EURO-IMJIN was able to open a new study field that invites future parallel investigations on the war in order to gain an even more detailed overview of the European image on the Imjin war.
The EURO-IMJIN research was divided into two parts: the first focused on the search for manuscripts and their transcription and translation, and the second part focused on dissemination and exploitation through publications, conferences and seminars.
1. Research visits + transcription, translation and interpretation
During the first part, research visits to the Biblioteca de Ajuda in Lisbon, the Royal Academy of History and the National Library in Madrid, the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, the Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu in Rome and the British Library in London were crucial due to their primary sources in Portuguese and Spanish language on the Imjin war. Manuscripts found that played a main part in the study of this project are:
a) "Relação do fim e remate que teve a guerra da Corea (1599)"
b) "Relación de las cosas que ha hecho Quabacundono... (1593)"
c) “De cómo vio Taico los embajadores de la China (1596)"
d) Untitled, unknown and unpublished report on a utopian island in Japan
2. Dissemination and Exploitation
The dissemination and exploitation of the results, part two of the project, includes a total of nine publications, one book publication and five international and national conference and seminar presentations.
ARTICLES, EDITIONS, AND CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
(2021) «“Y si los españoles tuviesen en Japón algún pueblo...”: una utopía hispano- nipona en las Crónicas del Lejano Oriente (1599)». Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume 98.
«A Spanish Utopian Island in Japan (1599)». Christina Lee, Ricardo Padrón (eds.) (2021). The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815. A Reader of Primary Sources, Vol. 2, Amsterdam University Press. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
« El impacto de la Imjin Waeran en la literatura historiográfica peninsular en los inicios de la modernidad: la cristianización del discurso narrativo"». Hispanic Review. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Cifra nova Indiae Orientalis: nuevos sistemas criptográficos y secretos de la correspondencia con el Oriente Lejano (XVI-XVII)». Hispania, Revista Española de Historia. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Entre mito, memoria y poder: una crónica manuscrita hispano-lusa sobre la Gran Guerra del Asia Oriental (1592–1598) Hispanic Research Journal. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«La elaboración del discurso bélico ibérico en Asia Oriental: la aculturación narrativa de la Imjin Waeran (1592-1598) » Roman Studies. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Luís Fróis y la Imjin waeran o las hazañas del héroe cristiano Dom Agustinho. Portugal y Oriente, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca». UNDER REVIEW
MARINO, G.; GONZÁLEZ BOLADO, J. «De cómo vio Taico los embajadores de la China: Una historia de intrigas, conspiraciones y terremotos durante las negociaciones de paz de la Imjin waeran (1592-1598)», Colonial Latin American Review. UNDER REVIEW
MARINO, G.; CLEMENTS R. (2022). «Iberian Sources on the Imjin War: The Relação do fim e remate que teve a guerra da Corea (1599)». Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. UNDER REVIEW
Conference and seminars were attended in France, Switzerland and Spain.
1. Research visits + transcription, translation and interpretation
During the first part, research visits to the Biblioteca de Ajuda in Lisbon, the Royal Academy of History and the National Library in Madrid, the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, the Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu in Rome and the British Library in London were crucial due to their primary sources in Portuguese and Spanish language on the Imjin war. Manuscripts found that played a main part in the study of this project are:
a) "Relação do fim e remate que teve a guerra da Corea (1599)"
b) "Relación de las cosas que ha hecho Quabacundono... (1593)"
c) “De cómo vio Taico los embajadores de la China (1596)"
d) Untitled, unknown and unpublished report on a utopian island in Japan
2. Dissemination and Exploitation
The dissemination and exploitation of the results, part two of the project, includes a total of nine publications, one book publication and five international and national conference and seminar presentations.
ARTICLES, EDITIONS, AND CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
(2021) «“Y si los españoles tuviesen en Japón algún pueblo...”: una utopía hispano- nipona en las Crónicas del Lejano Oriente (1599)». Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Volume 98.
«A Spanish Utopian Island in Japan (1599)». Christina Lee, Ricardo Padrón (eds.) (2021). The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815. A Reader of Primary Sources, Vol. 2, Amsterdam University Press. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
« El impacto de la Imjin Waeran en la literatura historiográfica peninsular en los inicios de la modernidad: la cristianización del discurso narrativo"». Hispanic Review. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Cifra nova Indiae Orientalis: nuevos sistemas criptográficos y secretos de la correspondencia con el Oriente Lejano (XVI-XVII)». Hispania, Revista Española de Historia. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Entre mito, memoria y poder: una crónica manuscrita hispano-lusa sobre la Gran Guerra del Asia Oriental (1592–1598) Hispanic Research Journal. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«La elaboración del discurso bélico ibérico en Asia Oriental: la aculturación narrativa de la Imjin Waeran (1592-1598) » Roman Studies. ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
«Luís Fróis y la Imjin waeran o las hazañas del héroe cristiano Dom Agustinho. Portugal y Oriente, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca». UNDER REVIEW
MARINO, G.; GONZÁLEZ BOLADO, J. «De cómo vio Taico los embajadores de la China: Una historia de intrigas, conspiraciones y terremotos durante las negociaciones de paz de la Imjin waeran (1592-1598)», Colonial Latin American Review. UNDER REVIEW
MARINO, G.; CLEMENTS R. (2022). «Iberian Sources on the Imjin War: The Relação do fim e remate que teve a guerra da Corea (1599)». Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. UNDER REVIEW
Conference and seminars were attended in France, Switzerland and Spain.
The progress beyond the state of the art:
EURO-IMJIN sought to understand the process of the creation of a European vision of the Imjin war during the 16th century by making use of different manuscripts and books which have survived to this day as historiographical and primary sources and which are distributed amongst international archives and libraries.
The fellowship period was enough to:
a) discover new European sources on Imjin war which were never considered before due to the difficulty in reading and understanding the manuscripts;
b) create a scientific production based on research articles that support new discoveries; c) transmit and disseminate all the results based on a comprehension, a simplification process; a union that allows to create links between Western and Eastern sources for a perfect global understanding of the war.
Project impact:
The real impact of EURO-IMJIN will be after the effective publication of all the research articles. Meanwhile, the fellow has vastly outperformed the state of the art previously to EURO-IMJIN: in addition to opening an entire new field for other researchers by making the European sources on the Imjin War readily available and accessible, he was also able to exploit the results of this research to come along the following lines:
1. Literature of the pre-war period: Europeans’ understanding of the war.
2. Period during the war: the most important events from a European perspective determined by battles that they (the Europeans) constantly associated with their Christian perspective.
3. Literature of the post-war period: Korean captives’ conversions.
This research will therefore become interesting to the wider scientific audience such as historians, sociologists, political scientists, philologists, philosophers, religious scientists, economists and East-Asian researchers.
EURO-IMJIN sought to understand the process of the creation of a European vision of the Imjin war during the 16th century by making use of different manuscripts and books which have survived to this day as historiographical and primary sources and which are distributed amongst international archives and libraries.
The fellowship period was enough to:
a) discover new European sources on Imjin war which were never considered before due to the difficulty in reading and understanding the manuscripts;
b) create a scientific production based on research articles that support new discoveries; c) transmit and disseminate all the results based on a comprehension, a simplification process; a union that allows to create links between Western and Eastern sources for a perfect global understanding of the war.
Project impact:
The real impact of EURO-IMJIN will be after the effective publication of all the research articles. Meanwhile, the fellow has vastly outperformed the state of the art previously to EURO-IMJIN: in addition to opening an entire new field for other researchers by making the European sources on the Imjin War readily available and accessible, he was also able to exploit the results of this research to come along the following lines:
1. Literature of the pre-war period: Europeans’ understanding of the war.
2. Period during the war: the most important events from a European perspective determined by battles that they (the Europeans) constantly associated with their Christian perspective.
3. Literature of the post-war period: Korean captives’ conversions.
This research will therefore become interesting to the wider scientific audience such as historians, sociologists, political scientists, philologists, philosophers, religious scientists, economists and East-Asian researchers.