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As part of the project to translate documents on the history of China-Korea relations into Korean, Dongmunhwigo (同文彙考), a collection of diplomatic documents from the late Joseon period, was translated and published in Korean (Kangge [疆界] Vol. 1, Beomwol [犯越] Vol. 1-3). And starting from late 2012, the Korean translation of History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty (淸季中日韓關係史料), a collection of diplomatic documents from the late Qing period, began to be published. History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty, of which translation into Korean started from 2011, is an outdated source book published as early as 40 years ago in 1972 by the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. But it is an important source book that drew attention upon publication, and is still used for studies in the modern history of Korea-China relations or studies in the history of international relations in East Asia. The reason this source book drew attention from researchers upon publication was that it included almost all documents related to Joseon of the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Documents (總理各國事務衙門檔案)" housed by the Document Archive (檔案館) of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica. And it became a turning point in studies in the history of international relations in East Asia. And History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty remains important as there are still few, if any, source books that could replace it in terms of status and importance despite the rigorous research on Northeast frontier matters in China from the 1990s onward that led to the publication of source books on the Northeast frontiers.

Encompassing Major Issues Related to the Political Landscape of East Asia from the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries

To briefly introduce History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty, it is a compilation of diplomatic documents related to Korea, China, and Japan by subject selected from the diplomatic documents from the late Qing period housed in the archive of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica. In other words, it includes the documents sent out or received by Qing's office in charge of foreign affairs (總理各國事務衙門, which was later reorganized into the present-day Ministry of Foreign Affairs [外務部] in 1901, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) from 1864 to 1912 that were sorted into eight categories by subject: 1) negotiation of trade and foreign affairs between Joseon and Qing; 2) negotiation of borders between Joseon and Qing; 3) negotiation of foreign affairs between Joseon and other countries prior to the Sino-Japanese War; 4) 1882 Mutiny and 1884 Coup; 5) Sino-Japanese War; 6) negotiation of trade and foreign affairs between Qing and Japan; 7) Russo-Japanese War and Qing's position; and 8) Japan's aggression on the Northeast region of China. This source book is huge, consisting of a total of 11 volumes with up to 7,300 pages. About 4,300 documents included in it encompass major issues related to the political landscape of East Asia at that time, and detail the political stances of Qing and Joseon on each of the issues and how both nations dealt with it.

History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty, while it is used extensively in research on the modern history of Korea-China relations, is still relatively out of the picture in research on Korea-China border issues. The first volume of its Korean translation to be published deals with the first half of 'Defense of China-Korea Frontiers and Borders (中韓邊防界務),' the first of the eight subjects, and largely includes documents related to Korea-China border issues. They are documents exchanged between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or another department, or between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and General Jilin from 1864 to 1872. The 'Border Crossing and Logging (越界伐木)' section deals with the issue of logging within Chinese territory by those who crossed the Duman River for timber necessary for the repair of the trade office in Gyeongwon, Hamgyeong Province in Korea. And the 'Border Crossing of Koreans (韓民越界)' section deals with the Koreans who crossed the borders to enter Chinese and Russian territory. Perceiving the Duman River as a border at that time, Qing arrested and repatriated the Koreans who had crossed the Duman River and entered China, while requesting Korea to crack down on border crossers. As Russia declined the request to repatriate the Koreans who had entered Russian territory directly or by way of China, the only option left was to try to stop Koreans from crossing the borders. These documents relating to the border crossing cases indicate that both nations were perceiving the Abrok River and the Duman River as boarders even before they were officially recognized through the conclusion of commercial treaties (e.g. 中江貿易章程 and 會嶺通商章程) in 1883. And Russia's decline of China's request to repatriate the Koreans on the basis of the Sino-Russia treaty suggests that the cases of border crossing of Koreans were being addressed in the context of transition to the system of international law in East Asia.

Translating History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty> into Korean Could Serve to Balance Out the Narrow Perspective Restricted by Korea-Related Materials

As we have seen, History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty provides Qing's perspective on border issues, and leads us to broaden our horizons to Russia and Japan beyond Korea-China relations. This source book wasn't translated into Korean before until now is not only because there were not many experts well-versed in the style of diplomatic documents and Chinese texts from the Qing period but also because the majority, if not all, of materials collected and published by the institutions or colleges are related almost exclusively to Korea. Collecting and publishing materials on Korea shouldn't be neglected, of course, but the supply of selected materials limited to those on Korea is not without problems, especially when the most of Korea-related materials have been already collected. In particular, considering the fact that foreign relations and territorial issues in the 19th century onward were not limited to the nations concerned but woven in the complex fabric of the interests of the Western powers, picking only Korea-related materials is likely to highlight Korea's position only without taking into the picture the interests of the Western powers regulating the nations concerned. In this respect, History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty could serve to balance out the narrow perspective restricted by Korea-related materials. On the other hand, the broadening of perspective through History of China-Japan-Korea Relations during the Qing Dynasty poses another challenge. If we were to expand the extent of collecting materials and publishing source books to East Asia, we would be lost in the sheer number of objects to choose from. Once we stepped out of the convenient boundaries of Korea, China, Japan, even within the bigger boundary of East Asia, we would get confused as to the exact boundary of collecting materials, and from when to when is the period of modern and contemporary history. The genera consensus on the period of modern history of East Asia is from the Russo-Japanese War to the Second World War. But the starting point may go back to the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 or further to the concession of Singapore to the East India Company in 1823. Furthermore, it would become difficult to determine if the regional range of East Asia should be expanded to include Mongolia and India as well as Southeast Asia. While criticizing the narrow perspective restricted by materials on Korea only and expanding horizons to materials on East Asia is both epistemologically and methodologically important, it would immediately raise the problems of expanded time periods and ranges to deal with.

A good example that may shed light on into these problems is the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR). Opened in 2001, the JACAR provides online access to records on the history of Japan and its Asian neighbors during the period from the establishment of the Meiji government in 1868 to the Second World War, of the official documents owned by the National Archives of Japan, the Digital Archive of the Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Center for Records on the History of the War at the National Institute for Defense Studies under the Ministry of Defense of Japan. The case of the JACAR was a turning point in that it had put together the official documents owned by the governmental institutes of Japan, and that it had converted the official documents into digital format and made it available online. But there are problems that still remain unresolved. The questions of how to determine the range of East Asia and to which extent can the chain of links to a certain event be extended are methodological questions and directly linked to the current stage of studies in East Asia.