The Ming Loyalists and the Jojongam Daetongmyo Shrine

At the time of the Ming-Qing transition, a great number of Ming loyalists fled to Chosŏn, forming a rather unique community within Chosŏn society. For several hundred years, the descendants of these Ming loyalists still identified with the loyalist status of their ancestors; moreover, they continued to preserve the tradition of their ancestors’ ritual veneration of Ming emperors. In the late twentieth century, veneration activities at Jojongam Daetongmyo Shrine were restored, forming a highly unique phenomenon in modern Korea. To trace back to the source and clarify the reasons for the Ming loyalists’ eastward journey and the historical evolution of Jojongam Daetongmyo Shrine’s veneration is therefore quite necessary. In the Chosŏn dynasty’s long-sustained activities of Revering the Zhou and longing for the Ming, Ming loyalists played an extremely important role. To comprehensively examine the phenomenon of the Chosŏn dynasty’s Revering the Zhou and longing for the Ming, Ming loyalists were also a subject that must be investigated.