明나라 使臣들의 조선 使行과 조선 문인들과의 교류

Chinese Ming Dynasty’s Envoys to Korea and its communication with Korean Intellectuals- Focusing on Gong Yongqing and Zhu Zhifan -

Sending envoys to strengthen mutual communication and exchange was the most important diplomatic channel between ancient countries. China and Korea, as the neighbors, has a long history of cultural exchange. In history, China and Korea were the countries which exchanged the most envoys. With regard to Korea sending envoys to China, the academia has done a lot of research. Korean envoys left some records such as Jo Chun Rok(朝天錄) and Yeon Haing Rok(燕行錄), and relevant research is fruitful. According to statistics, from 109 BC (She He was appointed as an envoy to Korea) to 1840, successive Chinese governments had sent envoys to the Korean Peninsula 969 times. In contrast, rare studies were about the records of Chinese envoys to Korea. The exchange of envoys between China and Korea not only played the role of messengers, also undertook various political missions and cultural exchanges. Therefore, the envoy’s mission had become an important channel for Sino-Korea political, economic and cultural exchanges. Ming Dynasty was the heyday of sending envoys to Korea. The initial dispatch of envoys to Korea was eunuch-based, and later for the sake of strengthening the communication and cultural exchanges, Chinese government began to send civil servants as envoys to Korea. These envoys returned to China, leaving a lot of records about envoys to Korea, such as Ni Qian s Notes of Korea Travel, Zhang Ning s Envoy to Korea, Qi Shun s Records about Korean Mission, Dong Yue s Annals of Korea, Gong Yongqing s Records of Envoy’s Mission to Korea, Huang Hongxian s Records of Korea, Zhu Zhifan s As an Envoy to Korea, Jiang yueguang s The Chronicler of Korea. These records are conducive to our understanding of ancient Korean etiquette system, the customs, geography and transportation, as well as the exchange between China and South Korea intellectuals.