人蔘과 疆域 ― 後金-淸의 강역인식과 대외관계의 변화 ―

Abstract

This paper examines the Manchu state’s boundary making through analyzing the ways in which Hong Taiji, the khan of the Later Jin and also the emperor of the Qing, discussed border trespassing and illegal ginseng gathering with his neighboring countries. Soon after succeeding his father to the throne, Hong taiji constantly raised issues relevant to borders and boundaries to the Ming and the Chosŏn. This paper argues that such complaints were a political strategy of the Later Jin, a fragile state built in the Liaodong frontier and also surrounded by various hostile powers, because it had to clarify their boundary and claim the ownership of natural resources growing within their territory. Hong taiji’s actions showed that by this time the Later Jin began to witness the rise of boundary perception, a typical phenomenon seen in a newly emerging political power. The Jurchens were originally a half-nomadic, half-sedentary group, wandering around Manchuria to make their living on hunting and fishing. During the Ming period, Manchuria was largely occupied by various groups of people, including Chinese, Mongols, Koreans and Jurchens, who endured unspecified limits of each other’s boundary, while living mixed together and sharing natural resources growing in the region. The frontier population in Manchuria maintained an equilibrium among the various local tribes under the Ming supremacy, which was largely acknowledged among the residents, but not always dominant throughout the entire region. When the Jianzhou Jurchens unified various tribes and emerged as a serious contender in Liaodong, the power relationship in the frontier was violently shifted. It was during this shifting period when the Ming, Jurchens, and the Chosŏn were required to clarify limits of their boundary. The transformation of the Jurchens from a nomadic tribe to an agrarian state based in Liaodong can be traced in their claims that the Ming and the Chosŏn should recognize the territory exclusive to the Jurchens. The series of the expansions of the Later Jin, including the conquest of Liaodong, military actions against on Ming Liaodong fortresses, and two campaigns against Korea, came along with Manchu assertion of an exclusive right to access ginseng growing in the border region. However, neither the Ming nor the Chosŏn would easily accept the rising Manchu power and the subsequent Qing supremacy. Until the Manchu launched their second campaign against Korea in 1636 and crossed the Shanhai Pass to enter Beijing in 1644, boundary negotiations and border trespassing made the relations among the Qing, the Ming, and the Chosŏn agonizing and violent.