조선전기 조선 문인과 유구사신 東自端과의 贈答詩

Abstract

There are some important ways to determine how two countries have related with each other. One of them is reviewing historical stuffs such as diplomatic documents. Another is inspecting pieces of literature, for example, poems. In the East Asian region of the medieval times, which was as a whole under the sphere of Chinese characters culture, Chinese poetry itself had quite a significant role. Further away from the manners of diplomacy, poems are in nature what appeal to human feelings even if they are used for diplomatic purposes in a sense. Of course, many of poems chanted within the contexts of diplomatic performance are about paying formal compliments to a counterpart nation. Nevertheless, poems are the means of interacting inner minds, strengthening friendships, competing literary skills, and exchanging information. This was a case for diplomacy culture of the medieval times. Thus, a review of poems exchanged between envoys of two countries at the time could be meaningful because it is like opening a window to identify how relationships between the two nations were from a historic perspective. The purpose of this study was to analyze poems that were exchanged between Dongjadan as the Ryuku envoy to Joseon and literary scholars of the latter country in the early Joseon period. The pieces of poetry, including farewell poems, are meaningful in that they represent how early cultural exchanges which such scholars of Joseon and such state messengers from Ryuku made with each other. Poems and other writings by Dongjadan(東自端) reveal a unilateral admiration of both Joseon and Shin Suk-ju(申叔舟). In response in form of poetry, Shin Suk-ju highly appreciated Dongjadan’s talents as a poetry writer after suggesting a strong pride about Joseon. Similarly, Seo Geo-jeong(徐居正) wrote poems that depict how beautiful Ryuku is as a maritime kingdom and respect how familiar envoys from that kingdom are with the sea routes. In those poems, he also responded that such state messengers from Ryuku were excellent in poetic composition while implying his envisions as to the peace and prosperity of East Asian region. In the meantime, Lee Seung-so(李承召) between of the lines he expressed his gratitude for Ryuku envoys to come through the turbulent waves to Joseon. Also, he satirically likened Dongjadan to a monk who was busy with politics of the secular world rather than stay in a meditation hall, while praising the Ryuku envoy for being so talented in both writing poems and performing the rituals of tea ceremony. During its early period, Joseon overwhelmed Ryuku over literary exchanges. This view has, of course, some limitation to be generalized. The limitation is that there were not so many works of literature which the two countries exchanged with each other during the same period. In association, there are no official records made at the time regarding Ryuku natives who were envoys sent in to Joseon where they wrote poems. During the early Joseon period, many of Ryuku envoys to Joseon were Japanese monks, which is presumedly attributed to the importance of proficiency in Chinese letters and characters.