A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the first Great East Asian War by Kenneth M. SwopeCall Number: DS913.43 .S93 2009
ISBN: 9780806140568
Publication Date: 2009
The invasion of Korea by Japanese troops in May of 1592 was no ordinary military expedition: it was one of the decisive events in Asian history and the most tragic for the Korean peninsula until the mid-twentieth century. Japanese overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi envisioned conquering Korea, Ming China, and eventually all of Asia; but Korea's appeal to China's Emperor Wanli for assistance triggered a six-year war involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and encompassing the whole region. For Japan, the war was "a dragon's head followed by a serpent's tail": an impressive beginning with no real ending.