『西方要紀』와 조선 지식인들의 독서

Abstract

This study analyzed the narrative purpose and composition method of Xipang Yaoji among translations by the Society of Jesus introduced since the 17th century, and the reading pattern by Joseon intellectuals, and examined its academic meaning. Xipang Yaoji was a project by various Italian Jesuits in the early days of his entry into China, which originated from a missionary method that combined Western studies and Catholic Christian ideas during the Western Middle Ages and Renaissance. Written for the purpose of showing the emperor, the book describes Europe as a Catholicized space as a fair and moral space. They set lands beyond the purview of the Zhifang Si, the Imperial cartography office. When Lee Donjung, a Joseon intellectual, wrote Suh Yanggi, he defined Europe's location in the first table of contents because he thought it was important to know the difference between Xipang used in the Chinese character culture and Xipang used by Jesuits as a translation language. Originally, for Chinese and Koreans, Xipang was a term referring to the area along the Indian Ocean and was a space under the emperor's rule. Nevertheless, Koreans often confused Xipang, which they originally understood, with Xipang, which was newly translated by Jesuits. This is because as soon as it is translated into the language of the audience, the concept of the audience leads to an area unknown in the original language. Meanwhile, Lee Gyugyeong cited not only the atlas of Jesuits written in the 16th and 17th centuries, but also Haiguo Tuzhi written by Chinese Wei Yuan in Book Ohju Yeonmun Changjeon Sango. Among them, Xipang Yaoji was used to describe the Jesuits' history of missionary work in China and to supplement information on drugs. Jesuits expected the Chinese to reset their geographical ideas through the atlas. Therefore, the record of reading the atlas by Chinese and Koreans shows the process of finding out that their thoughts they have believed in are not complete. Research on the studies introduced by Jesuits in Joseon was conducted at a personal level. Rather than understanding Jesuits' atlas academically, Koreans treated it as a collection of strange stories or reference books necessary for natural science.