ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changes in state rituals from the end of the sixteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century and consider the impact of the Imjin Waeran on the views and behaviour of late Choson society towards the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Kwanwangmyo shrine ritual that worshipped the military god Guan Yu had no precedent in Choson. News of the Chinese devotion to Guan Yu reached Choson Korea via Yu Songnyong's travel diary, the regulations in Da Ming huidian, and talks between the Korean king and the Ming generals. After the construction of the Kwanwangmyo shrine, King Sonjo was left with no choice but to worship Guan Yu himself together with a Ming general on the birthday of the military god. In 1598, King Sonjo personally officiated at the Kwanwangmyo shrine, but afterwards the Choson government sent a bureaucratic representative of the king twice yearly to conduct the service.
