Correspondence between Hong Taiji and Mao Wen-lung

Kanda Nobuo
Meiji University

35^th Meeting of the PIAC, Taipei 1992

Mao Wen-lung is a Ming general who played an active role among Later Chin, Ming and Korea, establishing his base on Pi Island in Korea during the sixteen twenties. The letters which Mao Wen-lung, his man, Wang Tsu-teng and others sent to Hong Taiji of Later Chin from 1628 to the following year were translated into Manchu and all of them were put into two volumes, namely No. 11 and No. 12 of T’ai Ts’ung of “Man-wen lao-tang.” Some of their original Chinese letters are included in “Ming-Ch’ing shih-liao”,f and “Ming-Ch’ing tang-an ts’un-chen hsuan-chi” published from Academia Sinica. Recently we found that there remain two other letters in the First Historical Archives in Peking. One is Mao Wen-lung’s and the other is Wan Tsu-teng’s. From these letters we can see fairly concretely how the negotiations for peace between Hong Taiji and Mao Wen-lung were progressing. In the course of the negotiations Mao Wen-lung cooperated with Hong Taiji and betrayed Ming, and he was even going to attack Ming. In the end, however, he was arrested and killed by Yuan Ch’ung-huan of Ming, who was defending Ning-yuan.