조선 지식인의 琉球 체험과 인식

Abstract

It is indeed that Joseon’s intellectuals barely experienced Ryuku in terms of breadth and depth. Few of them took their step into the soils of the kingdom. Also, it was rare that they met up with envoys or natives of Ryuku. However, there were several things or ways that allowed governmental officials or scholars of Joseon to experience Ryuku and form even a little bit more perception of it. Those things or ways included ①diplomatic documents, ②conversations with Ryuku’s state mission to Joseon, ③messages from envoys that Joseon dispatched to the foreign kingdom ④conversations between Joseon and Ryuku’s delegations in Beijing, ⑤statements from a few locals of Ryuku who were drifted off and reached the shores of Joseon, ⑥statements from a few locals of Joseon who were after having been floated away to Ryuku, and ⑦written records regarding the above items 1 to 6. In some detail, diplomatic documents that this study put as the foremost means to experience and perceive Ryuku imply that Joseon had just a friendly neighboring relations with the foreign kingdom. On one hand, Joseon and Ryuku were reciprocal and equal to each other in a sense that both of them had their monarches officially installed by the Ming(明) and then the Ching(淸) dynasties. But actually, the Chinese nations put Joseon right above Ryuku from a perspective of hierarchy. With the other means, this study found, Joseon’s intellectuals seemingly experienced or perceived Ryuku as a country that is ‘small and distant’, ‘trading goods’, ‘less capable than Joseon’, ‘belonging to the sphere of Sino-centric Chinese Characters Culture’ or ‘has politeness and innocent customs’. Some of the intellectuals regarded that Ryuku had ‘a lot of resemblance to Joseon’ in terms of culture, customs and institutions. This response was noted by Lee Deok-mu(李德懋) as ‘the world is referring to in that way’. He defined that ‘Ryuku is little Joseon(小朝鮮)’. This definition is the most proper compact version of perception that Joseon’s intellectuals had about Ryuku at the time.