董越의 ｢朝鮮賦｣를 통해 본 中國 使臣의 朝鮮 認識

Chinese Envoy’s Cognition of Joseon Examined through Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu

Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu is a writing in which Dongyue recorded Joseon’s landscapes, customs, people, and culture by the form of ‘fu(賦)’ after Dongyue who was then the Yòuchūnfāngyòushùzǐ and Hànlínyuànshìjiǎng of Ming Dynasty court completed his envoy trip to Joseon in 1488(19th year of King Seongjong’s throne). As soon as it was published, Chaoxianfu attracted a lot of attention and response of both Koreans and Chinese, and was widely read. This study is to examine Dongyue’s cognition of Joseon appearing in Chaoxianfu. Most previous researches about Dongyue or Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu till now evaluated, “since Dongyue tried to truly understand Joseon and wrote Chaoxianfu based on the amity with Joseon, though his Chaoxianfu hid Sino-centric ideology, it attempted to enhance Joseon’s culture and to promulgate the true Joseon unlike previous writings about Joseon.” However, such previous researches are very doubtful. Thus, this study tries to preferentially clarify ‘if Dongyue’s cognition of Joseon referred from Chaoxianfu can be categorized like previous researches’, and ‘what is the reason if so.’ If this study’s analysis on Chaoxianfu appears different from previous researches, why previous researchers and contemporary Joseon people deemed Dongyue so friendly should be examined. By the examination, Dongyue and his Chaoxianfu can be understood more objectively, and basic cognition of Joseon which Chinese literati and Chinese envoys held can be analogized. It seems that Dongyue wrote Chaoxianfu based on authenticity in order to complete his duty as an envoy. If Dongyue wrote Chaoxianfu for such a goal, Joseon’s circumstances recorded in Chaoxianfu can be basically considered to be quite reliable. However, regarding such contents of Chaoxianfu, it can be verified that there were considerable differences between Chinese perspective and Joseon’s perspective. From Chinese point of view, Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu was valuable because the remaining Chinese customs in Joseon can be admonishment and paragon for future generations; from Joseon’s point of view, it was worthy as long as it showed Joseon’s loyalty toward China and China’s sincerity bountiful treatment for Joseon though Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu did not fully reflect Joseon’s circumstances. Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu achieved recognition from both China and Joseon, yet the reasons for the recognition were different. Dongyue’s Chaoxianfu shows that his fundamental consciousness was formed around the cultural core of Chinese civilization. Dongyue’s basic attitude in writing Chaoxianfu was to watch and describe Joseon’s circumstances and customs according to the cultural core of Chinese civilization. Due to the reason, in Chaoxianfu Dongyue could keep his positive and friendly perspective toward things not related to China and Joseon’s circumstances and customs that accord with Chinese rites and systems. It seems that as his realistic description of Joseon from such his positive perspective matched Joseon’s cultural upward desire, Chaoxianfu could receive fervent response from Joseon people. The value of Dongyue’s cognition of Joseon and of Chaoxianfu can be found at this point.