『연사일록』의 서술 방식과 청국의 혼란상 및 풍속에 대한 인식

Abstract

This paper provides an account of Yeonsa ilrok (Daily Records of My Journey to Qing China) written by the Korean literatus Kim Jik-yeon (1811~1884). Kim's work of yeonhaeng (travel-to-Yanjing) literature entitled Yeonsa ilrok was based on his travels in Qing China in 1858, which has been recently discovered and discussed by few modern scholars. We have two different versions of Yeonsa ilrok: one written in literary Chinese and the other in Korean vernacular. Because the literary Chinese version is more precise and informative in describing things Chinese in general and Qing China's crises in particular, I examine here the narrative structure and styles of the literary Chinese version of Yeonsa ilrok and then discuss some characteristics of Kim's perception and description of Qing China. One notable feature of the literary Chinese version is that it consists of two parallel parts: diary and research [beginning with the Chinese character an 按]. The first part of diary records on daily bases what Kim personally observed and experienced in his travels in Qing China; the second part of research provides the reader with useful accounts of things Chinese from a number of books that he consulted in his journey and writing. For example, when Kim talked about the imperial palaces of Qing China and sights and scenery of Beijing, he added to the record of his personal experience several Chinese poems written about Beijing by Ming or Qing Chinese poets. No doubt, his narration becomes more vivid and enriched with such cited references. Another to note is that Kim was deeply interested in Qing China's crises in the mid nineteenth century and noted precisely in the special section of “mungyeon jabji” (Information on Qing China's troubles and crises) the news and informations he had earned in his journey about recent world affairs relevant to Qing China and Joseon Korea. Such informative accounts of especially the rising of the Nian Army and China's situations just before the Opium War as seen in Kim's were hardly found in any other yeonhaeng literature. Though he was a typical Joseon Confucian who kept the loyalty toward the Ming Dynasty and had basically a negative attitude to the Qing Dynasty, Kim keenly observed and discussed in detail Qing China's institutions and customs and manners in a relatively objective way. Such a style of observation and narration can be seen evidently in his description of a Chinese horseman's and a Manchurian woman's fashions. Last but not least, he was interested also in geographical matters and offered well-researched accounts of his travel routes to Yanjing from Seoul. In short, Kim's Yeonsa ilrok is must be a valuable text for our understanding of Qing China as well as of Korea in the nineteenth century.