전 근대 한국의 海難救助와 漂流民 구조 시스템

Abstract

Separated by seas, the three countries of Korea, China, and Japan engaged actively in interaction too in the pre-modern period. As maritime accidents occurred simply because interaction was frequent, the three countries implemented assistance systems. Such systems in the East Asian region for the rescue of drifters did more than provide assistance to people involved in maritime accidents through humanitarian-like perspectives, they also were high-level diplomatic activities that were linked to the overlapping issues of domestic politics and state defense in each country. Chosŏn and China repatriated drifters through the traditional foreign relations established through the tribute system. When political conditions changed, such as during the transition from Ming China to Qing China, there were times when repatriation of Chinese drifters was not easy, but, overall, Chinese who landed in Chosŏn were repatriated receiving careful attention from the Chosŏn government. There were no regulations relating to repatriation, but Chosŏn bore the costs associated with repatriation. The route by which the Korean government returned the Chinese drifters proceeded from the site of landing to Hanyang, to Ŭiju, and then to Liaodong. An envoy specially appointed to lead the Chinese to Liaodong accompanied them, and he delivered the Chinese people to the Liaodong Regional Military Commissioner. The Chosŏn government also presented a written document that explained the circumstances. The Chinese government entrusted the Korean envoy with return gifts that expressed thanks for the repatriation of the drifters. In the case of Chosŏn and Japan, until the Imjin Waeran of 1592-1598, repatriation systems between the two countries were not constant, but after the Japanese invasion, following the Edo bakufu’s grasp of central power, a stable system for repatriating drifters gradually developed. Because the political conditions in the Chinese mainland had stabilized by the late seventeenth century, the system for repatriating drifters between Chosŏn and Japan too came to be managed in a stable manner. Japanese who landed in Chosŏn were forwarded from the landing site to the Japan House in Pusan, and the Chosŏn government bore the associated costs. After the Japanese were sent from the Japan House to Nagasaki via Tsushima, the Japanese were questioned and then sent to their home community. In this way, in the period before and after the founding of the Qing government Korea, Japan, and other East Asian countries managed repatriation systems within the traditional diplomatic order centered on China. Later, after the opening of ports, these countries introduced modern Western laws for assistance in maritime accidents and came to manage new systems for maritime assistance.