PING YANG, or PIENG-AN, the n.w. province of Corea, bordering on Mantelthria, hav ing its capital city of the same name. The province is bounded on the w. by the Yalu river and the Yellow sea. The only.legal place of ingress and egress from China or elsewhere, or out of Corea, is at the t. of •i-ehin on the Yalu river. Pop. of the prov ince about 1,500,000.
The city of Ping Yang lies on the n. bank of the Ta-tong river, 50 m. from its mouth. It is a place of great commercial and historical importance, and was the capital and royal residence until 1392. Besides suffeling many sieges, it was the scene of a great battle between the invading Japanese and the army of succor sent by the Irline emperor from China to the Coreans, in JIM. On Ang. 6, 1866, the heavily-aim* d • • (private) American schooner Gen. Sherman entered the Ta-tong river on a semi-piratical trading expedition—the venture of an Englishman at Tientsin, who also held the post of U. S. vice-consul. The exact truth of the details is unknown; but the entire crew, consisting of three Americans and two British citizens, with .nineteen Malay and Chinese saiiors, were killed, and the vessel was Mimed. By orders from Washington, commander
B. W. Shufeldt in the U. S. steamship Waelouset went over to the coast of Corea, arriving January 23, and waited in the approach to the Ta-tong river for nearly a week, communicating with the authorities. His demand that the murderers of the crew of the Gen. Sherman be produced upon the eeek of the Wachuset" was answered by the repeated invitation, " Please go away es soon as possible." After a survey of the inlet, the Waeltuset returned to Chifu. In May, 1868, the U. S. steamship Shenandoah also visited the Ping Yang inlet, and commander J. C. Fc biota. learned from the natives the circumstances attending the slaughter of the foreigners, by which it appeared that the latter were mistaken for "Frenamen" (see KANG-II0A), and put to death after insults offered to the officials. Finding it impossible to obtain satisfaction, the United States governMent, not believing the Corean version of the affair, dispatched in 1871 the naval expedition which destroyed the forts along the Ilan river leading to Seoul the capital. Sec KANO 110A.