1882 April 7 - King Kojong says Usando Neighboring Island of Ulleungdo

In the Annals of King Kojong, it is written that on April 7, 1882, King Kojong met with Inspector Lee Gyu-won (李奎遠), who was the official specially selected to travel to Ulleungdo to confirm reports that "foreigners" were visiting the island and removing its natural resources. This conversation between King Kojong and his Ulleungdo inspector is more evidence that Usando was not "Dokdo" (Liancourt Rocks), as Dokdo advocates claim.

Here is my translation of the conversation between King Kojong and Lee Gyu-won, as reported HERE in the Records of King Kojong (高宗 19卷, 19年 4月 7日 壬戌):

The 7th Day

Inspector Lee Gyu-won was called before the king to give his farewell greeting.

The king says, “It is reported that these days there is the evil practice of foreigners freely travelling to and from Ulleungdo and doing as they please. Also, Songjukdo (松竹島) and Usando (于山島) are next to Ulleungdo, but there are no details of their distance and what resources they have. You were chosen especially for this trip, so carry out your inspection with particular attention. We also have plans to establish a settlement there, so be sure to prepare a detailed map and report.”

Lee Gyu-won replied, “Usando is just Ulleungdo. Usan was the name of the ancient country’s capital. Songjukdo is a small island about twenty to thirty ri offshore (相距爲三數十里). The products there are juniper (檀香) and pipestem bamboo (簡竹).”

The king said, “Both Usando or Songjukdo (敎曰 或稱芋山島 或稱松竹島) are written in the Yeojiseungram (輿地勝覽). Songdo (松島) and Jukdo (竹島) are also used [for Songjukdo], and together with Usando, three islands combine to make up what is called Ulleungdo (而又稱松島竹島與芋山島爲三島統稱鬱陵島矣). Inspect the situation on all of them. Originally, the Samcheok commander (三陟營將) and the Wolsong commander (越松萬戶) have taken turns surveying Ulleungdo, but almost all of them have been careless. They inspected only the exterior of the island, which has led to these evil practices.

Lee Gyu-won said, “I will go deep inside and conduct my inspection. Even though some say that Songdo and Jukdo are east of Ulleungdo, there is only Songjukdo, no separate Songdo and Jukdo.”

The king asked, “Did you possibly hear that from previous inspectors?”

Lee Gyu-won said, “I have not met previous inspectors, but that is the general information I have heard.”

Disagreement on the Number of Neighboring Islands

Notice that King Kojong and Lee Gyu-won disagreed on the number of Ulleungdo's neighboring islands. King Kojong said there were two, but Lee said there was only one. The king said "Songjukdo" (松竹島) and "Usando" (芋山島) were neighboring islands of Ulleungdo, but Lee said that Usando was just another name for Ulleungdo and that Songjukdo was the only neighboring island. King Kojong persisted and said that the names "Songdo" (松島) and "Jukdo" (竹島) were also used and that together with Usando, three islands made up what was called Ulleungdo. Lee Gyu-won, however, did not concede to the king and said that even though some people had said that "Songdo" and "Jukdo" were east of Ulleungdo, there was only one island, Songjukdo, not a separate Songdo and Jukdo.

Even though he seemed unsure of their names, King Kojong seemed sure that three islands made up Ulleungdo. When Lee Gyu-won said that Songjukdo was Ulleungdo's only neighboring island and that Usando was just the old name for Ulleungdo, the king seemed to suggest that Songjukdo (松竹島) could be two separate islands, Songdo (松島) and Jukdo (竹島), and that if Usando (芋山島) were just another name for Ulleungdo, then that would still mean that Ulleungdo was made up of three islands. Lee Gyu-won, however, rejected that theory and said that Ulleungdo had only one neighboring island, "Songjukdo."

Distance to Songjukdo

Lee Gyu-won said that Songjukdo was "twenty to thirty ri" (三數十里) offshore of Ulleungdo. That would be eight to twelve kilometers (1 Korean ri = 0.4 km), which would be farther than any of Ulleungdo's neighboring islands. Some "Dokdo" advocates have suggested that maybe Songjukdo was "Dokdo" (Liancourt Rocks); however, besides the fact that Liancourt Rocks is ninety-two kilometers away for Ulleungdo, not eight to twelve, Lee said that the island had juniper and pipestem bamboo on it, which would eliminate any possibility that Songjukdo was Liancourt Rocks. Songjukdo was almost certainly referring to Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo (竹島), which just happens to be one of the two alternate names given for Songjukdo by both King Kojong and Lee Gyu-won. Jukdo is about 2.2 kilometers off of Ulleungdo's east shore.

I have seen 三數十里 translated as "thirty ri" (三十里); in fact, Korea's National Institute of Korean History (國史編纂委員會) translates it as "thirty ri" HERE, but such a translation ignores the character 數 in the phrase 三數十里, which was a range of numbers: from "tens of" (數十) to "thirty" (三十). When Koreans give a range of numbers, they normally begin with the larger number, so that means that 三數十里 would literally translate as "from thirty (三十) to tens (數十) of ri (里)." Therefore, if thirty were the larger number, that means that 數十 could only be translated as "twenty."

Name Confusion: Usando, Songjukdo, Songdo, & Jukdo

The conversation between King Kojong and Inspector Lee Gyu-won shows quite clearly that, in 1882, even Korea's king and his advisors were unsure of the geography of Ulleungdo. Korea's maps showed Usando to be Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo, but Korean documents, including the Yeojiseungram (輿地勝覽) mentioned above, apparently also showed Songjukdo (松竹島) as a neighboring island. Also, a secret Japanese mission to Korean in 1869 reported in an 1870 document HERE that Ulleungdo had a neighboring island called "Matsushima" (松島 = Songdo), which the Japanese wrote they had no record of. Before that, in 1794, Ulleungdo Inspector Sim Jin-hyeon (沈晉賢) reported that Ulleungdo had a neighboring island called Jukdo (竹島), but did not mention either Usando or Songdo in his report.

When Lee Gyu-won conducted his inspection of Ulleungdo in 1882, he found two islands: Jukdo (竹島) and Dohang (島項). His map of Ulleungdo showed that Jukdo was almost certainly Ulleungdo's present-day neighboring island of Jukdo (竹島), and Dohang was Ulleungdo's Gwaneumdo (觀音島). He reported that he could find no islands named "Songjukdo" or "Usando" and concluded that Usando was just another name from Ulleungdo. Neither King Kojong nor Lee Gyu-won showed any clue that they knew Liancourt Rocks even existed.

Why aren't there any Korean maps that show either Usando, Songjukdo, Songdo, or Jukdo together? The most logical explanation is that they were four different names for the same island. "Songjukdo" (松竹島) was obviously a combination of two names--"Songdo" (松島) and "Jukdo" (竹島)--both of which were names that were mentioned during the territorial dispute between Korea and Japan in the 1690s. Then, Korea claimed that Jukdo (竹島) was an alternate name for Ulleungdo that Korean fishermen used, and An Yong-bok had claimed that the Japanese name for Usando was "Matsushima" (松島 = Songdo). Since Korean maps showed Usando to be Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo, it was almost inevitable that some would start using Songdo (松島) to refer to Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo. Even in 1899, the Korean newspaper Hwangseong Sinmun (皇城新聞) reported that Ulleungdo's most prominent neighboring island was "Usando/Jukdo" (于山島竹島), which was most likely written to show that there were two names for the same island. If the "Usando/Jukdo" in the 1899 article meant two separate islands, as some claim, then why was only Jukdo, not Usando, mentioned one year later in Korea's Imperial Edict 41, which upgraded Ulleungdo's status to a county?