燕行与解语花: 兼及明清敕使接待中的妓乐与房妓问题

Abstract

The contract between the Korean envoys and the Chinese envoys is one concrete manifestation of the tributary and conferring system in daily routine. Apart from the etiquettes stipulated by institutions, some new conventions were formed in the daily contract between the envoys, among which the issue of prostitute is one typical example. There are a lot of records about the prostitute in Yeonhaengnok(燕行錄). However, most of the past study focused on the folk art and prostitutes’ living conditions, while few of them related to the tributary system and talked about its diplomatic significance. Even the story of Hong Sunyeon(洪純彥) mainly focused on its plot and never investigated from the aspect of tributary system. This article, which is based on the Yeonhaengnok and refers to some related records in the king in Annals of the Joseon Dynasty(朝鮮王朝實錄), Seungjeongwonilgi(承政院日記) and so on, studies some issues of the Korean envoys’ prostitutes on the road from Hanyang(漢陽) to Euju(義州). Apart from this, the prostitutes related to the Korean envoys and Chosen Missions(通信使) in Japan and the prostitutes employed by the envoys in Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty are also studied in this article. To comfort the envoys on the trip, Korea provided prostitutes on the road from Pyeongsan(平山) to Euju. Besides, the singsong girls were arranged from Seoheung(瑞興). However, China didn’t provide prostitutes for the Korean envoys. The story of Hong Sunyeon makes people think that the Korean envoys frequented brothels in China, but we could find some indirect records in which some servants of the Korean envoys had some relation to prostitutes. Other historical materials prove that this is impossible. When the envoys of Ming Dynasty paid a visit to Korea, even though some of them would ask the prostitutes’ service, most would decline the singsong girls and were not willing to accept the prostitutes’ service. Nevertheless, when Qing Dynasty forced Korea to become its subject, the Qing envoys openly asked for prostitutes with the excuse of traditional practices, which became a method for the Qing Dynasty to press Korea.