‘物’의 세계: 南宋 지리서가 구성한 ‘海外’와 그 의미

Abstract

The premodern view of the world of Chinese people had been maintained at the Chinese-oriented composition. In the mind set of Chinese, the world was centered around China in the middle and barbarians (夷狄) surrounding them. Also, in reality, China and surrounding countries were placed within ‘The Chinese World Order’ where spiritual values and material values were being exchanged via payment of tributes. And ‘The Chinese World Order’ had been passed down and succeeded through diverse types of rituals and writings. However, during the Song Dynasty, China had stepped down from the absolute power in East Asia and degenerated as one of the ordinary countries, which prompted the people of Song Dynasty to clearly recognize their ‘Chinese perception’, and boundaries between China and other countries. Especially, during the period of Southern Song (1127-1279), Chinese people lost their supremacy in the mainland and started being engaged in maritime trade as they lived in southern part of China. During this period, several geography books emerged describing foreign countries beyond the ocean. Among them, the present research focuses on Zhou Qufei (周去非)’s Lingwai Daida (嶺外代答, 1178) and Zhao Rugua’s (趙汝适, 1170-1230) Zhufanzhi (諸蕃志, 1225). Especially, Zhufanzhi is the first world geography book of China that had introduced 57 foreign countries. However, even Zhufanzhi quoted a lot from previous history books and literatures and reproduced those countries by adding rumors, imaginations and legends. To intellectuals of Southern Song, the foreign countries were no more barbarians who should be assimilated into the Chinese civilization but were 3rd party nations outside of China. These countries were introduced and listed separately without being ranked or correlated based on power dynamics. The world order and the relationship between the center and periphery were no more valid. The concept of overseas countries constituted through text, by the intellectuals of Southern Song was a world of fragments. This type of narrative style had been significantly influenced by the Chinese traditional natural history. In the Chinese traditional natural history, it was considered very important to distinguish individual knowledge of each object and also name those objects accurately. However, the geography book of Southern Song described foreign countries as space lacking the placeness. The only subjects demonstrating the placeness were the products and natural objects produced in those countries. Their text is based on reductive description, where each country temporarily possesses placeness by listing up certain things and those things indicate certain locations. The ‘foreign countries (諸蕃)’ were place defined by ‘objects’ and ‘overseas countries (海外)’ constituted by intellectuals of Southern Song were the world of ‘things (物)’.