뉴스레터

Over the course of 2012, the year that marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the ROK and China, the NAHF has conducted a lot of events, including various conferences, collecting opinions on the historical significance of the ROK-China diplomatic ties, the direction and the historical and contemporary significance of Northeast Asian relations to come. The event held on November 24, 2012 was one of them; it looked back on the twenty years of the ROK-China diplomatic ties, and, in particular, explored the past and future of Sino-Korean relations through Yeonhaengrok, an important historical document between Korea and China.

Jocheonrok and Yeonhaengrok Examined to Analyze the Traditional Regional Order of Asia

On November 24, Saturday, 2012, the NAHF and SNU Center for International Studies co-hosted an international conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the ROK and China on the theme 'International Politics of Envoys' Travels: Sino-Korean Relations and the Traditional Regional Order of East Asia in View of Jocheonrok and Yeonhaengrok.' This conference was designed to examine Jocheonrok and Yeonhaengrok, travelogues by political officials and scholars of Joseon who visited China, to analyze how the Korean people of the time perceived China and use it as the basis of analyzing pre-modern Joseon-Ming relations and Joseon-Qing relations and then the traditional regional order of East Asia. The conference consisted of a keynote speech, and a total of three sessions. All told, fifteen researchers and experts in related fields from Korea, China, and Japan were engaged in eleven in-depth presentations and heated discussions. Their presentations are summarized as follows.

Cross-Sectional Analysis of the East Asian World and the Order of Subservience Relationship during the Ming and Qing Periods

The conference opened with the keynote speech by professor Ge Zhaoguang (葛兆光) of the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University in China, entitled "East Asia and China Reviewed in the Eyes of Marginal Man: Evaluation and Contemplation of Research in China on Joseon's Yeonhaengrok," in which he pointed out limitations in the existing studies and interpretations of Chinese history that had relied solely on Chinese materials and viewpoints, and stressed the need to refresh the understanding of the world of East Asian history and the order of subservience relationship during the Ming and Qing periods through a total comparative study of the historical records of Joseon, Japan, and China.

In Session 1, professor Jeon Jae-seong of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at SNU gave an analysis of Yeonhaengrok by Heo Bong and Jo Heon in the late 16th century (1574) to take a cross-sectional look at how Joseon's neo-Confucionists of the times had perceived the Ming Dynasty and analyzed Joseon-Ming relations. Zhejiang University professor Yang Yelei (楊雨蕾) examined how Joseon and Ryukyu envoys had interacted with each other in Beijing during the Wan Li period (1573-1620), drawing attention from the audience with his claim that their stable tribute-investiture systems with China had functioned as a channel of communication and interaction with neighboring states. In the ensuing presentation, Dr. Lee Heon-mi of Ewha Woman's University examined Lee Jeong-gu's envoy travelogues from the late 16th century (1598) to the early 17th century (1620), giving an in-depth analysis of the complex nature of the international relations of Joseon with Japan, Ming, and Jin that unfolded in the course of the Imjin War, the Jeongyu War, and the Jeongmyo War. In Session 2, Yanbian University professor Seo Dong-il discussed the aspects of Qing's society revealed in Yeonhaerok written by Hong Dae-hong, Park Ji-won, and Park Je-ga and their perception of Qing. And East Asian Institute Board of Trustees Chairman Ha Young-sun drew keen interest from the audience with his reconstruction of the encounter among Qianlong Emperor, Panchen Lama, and a Joseon envoy that took place in Rehe (熱河) in the summer of 1780 from the perspective of complex world order that actively draw on the historical records of Joseon, Qing, and Tibet.

And Nankai University professor Sun Weigou (孫衛國) restored one aspect of the academic exchange between Korea and China of the time in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the example of connection and exchange between Hong Yang-ho, who visited Beijing as winter solstice envoy in December 1794 and Gi Hyo Ram (紀曉嵐), a scholar and government official of Qing, and used it as the basis of depicting Qing in East Asia during the 18th through 19th centuries. In Session 3, the last session, Kim Bong-jin, professor of international relations at the University of Kitakyushu (北九州市立大学), Japan, analyzed and examined Hong Dae-yong's Yeonhaengrok, proposing the possibility of so-called 'open' ethnocentrism (華夷觀) and perception of regional order in East Asia based on self-reflection instead of self-centered and exclusive Little Sinocentrism. And Kim Jun-seok, a professor of international relations at the Catholic University of Korea, scrutinized how Chusa Kim Jeong-hee's experience of travel to Beijing in 1809 had influenced his academic and artistic world, and discussed Chusa's ambivalence between universality and creativity, and aesethetic achivements and the needs of the times. In the ensuing presentation, NAHF Research Fellow Kim Hyun-chul examined Kim Kyung-sun's travelogue to Beijing to have a look at Joseon-Qing relations and changes in the perceptions of Qing in the early 19th century. Finally, doctor Kim Sung-bae of the East Asian Institute used the travelogues to Beijing written in 1861 and 1872 in reconstructing Park Kyu-su's perception of the Qing Empire on the 'decline' from an angle of international politics, in light of the historical aspects of the advent of Western powers.

Korean and Chinese Scholars Exchange Their Academic Achievements on the Occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between Their Nations

There had been Korean envoy travelogues to China throughout the Yuan-Ming-Qing periods, consistently accumulated, although under different names Binwangrok (賓王錄), Jocheonrok, and Yeonhaengrok. They provide a variety of implications of changes in regional order during the transitional periods in that they show the reality and ideal of the traditional regional order of East Asia experienced and participated by the relatively marginal region. In this respect, putting Jocheonrok and Yeonhaengrok in today's perspective of international politics offers a lot of implications for us not only in terms of research on past Sino-Korean relations but also in light of our roles of establishing future-oriented relationship for common prosperity as we usher in the age of Northeast Asia. In particular, this international conference held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the ROK and China, where historians and political scientists of Korea and China gathered together and exchanged a variety of their academic accomplishments, is thought to have served as an important turning point of renewing our understanding of Sino-Korean relations and the traditional order of East Asia from historical and contemporary viewpoints and interdisciplinary and international viewpoints.