外國에 대한 李朝 韓國人의 觀念

Korean Concept of Foreign Countries during the Yi Dynasty

Koreans during the Yi dynasty had a very limited access to and knowledge on foreign countries - more limited than the Koreans in the preceding Silla and Koryo periods. Three factors may be blamed for it. First, the three countries in East Asia including Korea during and after the 15th century practised seclusion policy for their respective reasons. Except the limited exchange of official envoys, mutual contacts through traveling, academic exchanges, migration, and trade ceased almost totally. Not only were Koreans prohibited to go out of the country, but also the approach of foreigners was strictly controlled. The second factor is the influence of the Confucian way of thinking, which had been established as the nation’s dominating doctrine since the founding of the Yi dynasty. It resulted in the policy of encouraging agriculture, discouraging commerce and industry, prohibiting outflow of materials and grains from the country and for that end discouraging trade. Another effect of Confucian thought on the Korean contact with other countries, though it was a much weaker one, was the idea to deem the combination of China and Korea as one consolidated feudal system. Under the feudalistic ethics, Korea, a virtual vassal state of imperial China, was not free to have its own diplomatic relations with other countries. Even in contacting Japan, Korea often had to conceal it from China or seek its connivance. As Koreans were in such a secluded environment, their knowledge on foreign countries was naturally inadequate and often unbalanced. One of their main sources of the knowledge were the impressions and contact-experiences of the official envoys and their retinue who were dispatched to China and Japan. Many of the members of the envoys have written down accounts of their travel, and these travel records contributed much to disseminate the knowledge on foreign countries to the intellectual readers at home. The other source was the Chinese works that contained the informations on various foreign countries. These two main channels served the Korean intellectuals for supplying the knowledge on outside world and for formulating their concept of foreign countries. This study analyses the impressions and concept of Koreans of China, Japan, Manchuria, Loo-choo, Annam and the Western Countries which were reflected in the travel records of the Yi dynasty Koreans.