鄭世規의 燕行日記에 대한 일고찰

Abstract

Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonhaeng-ilkee was written as a diary on traveling to the Yeon Dynasty while Jeong Se-kyu came back home from Peking as an envoy in 1645 and was intended to appreciate the release of Prince Sohyeon and celebrate Emperor Shunzhi of Qing's ascension to the throne. Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonhaeng-ilkee was composed of the dates, the weather, daily traveling distance, accommodations, foods, and the itinerary for 117 days from May 17 to June 16 in a chronological order and ten items other than diary entries in a descriptive style the writer saw and heard during the travel. Also, there was a traveler's guide, Nohjeongkee on detailed travel route and distance at the end of Jeong's Yeonghaeng-ilkee. The diary entries were examined in three kinds of aspects. First of all, a journey to the Yeon Dynasty was not simple and short and a more than three months' travel in itself seemed to have made the traveller distressed. Above all, during the long journey, the major concern was accommodations. Envoy's journeys could be a good opportunity to experience and spread the nature, areas, and cultures of foreign countries to the homeland. Likewise, Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonghaeng-ilkee as a traveler's journal introduced various institutions and customs of China. For example, it described the shape and use of a camel in Uiju area, the fact that there were not pine trees at all in an area of Guryunseong to Naengjeong, the scale and system of royal tombs and castles in Simyang area, Dongahkmyo(Tomb) seen from Joyangmun(Gate) in Peking, and the culture of Chinese tombs. Jeong Se-kyu also paid much attention to the Qing people and especially compared their clothing and food between the Qing and the Joseon Dynasty. In his Yeonhaeng-ilkee, Jeong Se-kyu expressed his anger at the horrible scenes of the national boundary after war and his mental chaos caused by the transition from the Ming to the Qing. He deplored the destroyed castles throughout the border and criticized Cho Dae-soo and Oh Sam-kye for overthrowing the Ming Dynasty when he passed through the battlefield of Yodong to Shanhaiguan during the transition from the Ming to the Qing. The envoys of the time venerated the Ming and had ill feeling deeply against the Qing, but such ill feeling against the Qing was expressed generally in an indirect way in Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonghaeng-ilkee. Considering Seong Ih-seong also wrote Yeonhaeng-ilkee on the envoy's journey of the year 1645, this study intended to draw distinguishing aspects from Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonhaeng-ilkee, compared to Seong Ih-seong's. Consequently, this study showed that Jeong Se-kyu in his Yeonhaeng-ilkee wrote openly trivial daily details and feelings from the envoy's journey, described things very detailedly and realistically unlike in Seong Ih-seong's clear and concise diary, and frankly revealed his subjective feelings. Thus, Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonghaeng-ilkee is considered enough to be an official guide as well as a personal experience in that it provides various knowledge and information on China as a guide. Jeong Se-kyu's Yeonghaeng-ilkee also must be very remarkable important material among chronicles of journals on traveling to the Yeon Dynasty in the 17th century, considering it showed Korean intellectuals' anguish and anti-Qing sense during the chaotic transition from the Ming to the Qing.