朝鮮王朝時代의 北平館 野人

The Jurchens at Bug-pyeong-gwan in the Yi Korea Period

Bug-pyeong-gwan(北平館) was the building in Seoul used for about seventy years from February of the twentieth year of King Se-jong (世宗) to May of the twelfth year of King Yeon-san(燕山) as a place to accommodate entertain and trade with the Jurchens from the north. Its predecessor was called Ya-in-gwan(野人館, House of the Savages) and during the time it held this name it had no building of its own and the Buddhist monks’ Jiving quarters just outside the East Gate of Seoul were used time and again for this purpose of accommodating, entertaining and trading with the northern savages. Later in February of the twentieth year of King Se-jong the accommodation facilities were moved to the site of Dong-bu-hag-dang(東部學堂, Academic House of the East), and the new house was named officially as Bug-pyeong-gwan. Bug-pyeong-gwan stood within the present compound of the hospital attached to Ewha Womans University. The primary purpose of Bug-pyeong-gwan was to appease the uncivilized northern Jurchens, greedy and vicious, by means of giving them hearty welcome, hospitality, and chances of trading. This way the Yi government tried to prevent disturbances and troubles by the jurchens in border areas. Well aware that the occasional inroads by the northern people were no more than their outlet for the unfulfilled desires, especially economic, the Yi government had adopted a policy of inviting them to the metropolis entertaining them and giving them chances of trading on easy terms. Bug-pyeong-gwan indeed took over the functions of Ya-in-gwan of the former days, but mainly accommodated influential jurchen leaders of chieftain class. A “separate living quarters” had been provided for the Jurchens in the seventh year(1407) of King Tae-jong(太宗), but actually the living quarters of Buddhist monks was applied to this use as occasions arose until the time of King Se-jong. Meanwhile, however, the frequency of the Jurchens’ visits(上京運數) to Bug-pyeong-gwan was under control by the Korean government. Although the trade activities were allowed sufficient freedom and ease, they were, nevertheless, performed under the Yi government’s protection and surveillance. In the main, therefore, the goods traded were more or less confined to the tributes by the Jurchens and those granted by the Korean government in return. However, as time went by, there occasioned some clandestine tradings or traffickings of contrabands to an extent, and in January of the twentieth year(1525) of King Jung-jong(中宗) the dates of trading were designated in advance by the Korean government in an attempt to keep the trade activities under control. But in these days the trading seems to have been undertaken at a now unlocatable place called Gyeong-jeo(京邸), not at the former Bug-pyeong-gwan. In dealing with the northern jurchens the Yi government chose to undertake trading and appeasement at once. The trading terms looked very much in favour of the Jurchens, for the Korean government had aimed more at appeasement of the northern people than at business with material profit in mind. The trading was performed by Korea as diplomatic gestures rather than for business activities.