Ryu Seongryong’s View of the Ideal World Order -A Preliminary Survey

Abstract

This paper inquires into Ryu Seong-ryong’s view of all under-heaven (cheonha, tianxia, 天下), his big picture of foreign relations, which informed the Joseon court’s strategic decisions during the Imjin War. How did Ryu Seong-ryong view the relations between Joseon and Ming, Joseon and Wae, and Ming and Wae, respectively? How did he conceptualize the Japanese invasion of Korea within the framework of the ideal world order by reference to the Confucian classics? Was Ryu Seong-ryong an early advocate of modern Korean nationalism? By addressing these questions, this paper argues that instead of envisioning the nation in the modern sense of the term, Ryu envisioned a completely different world order which the Joseon state helped to build and maintain as its active participant.