북경에서 만난 조선과 유구(琉球) 사신의 민간외교 - 이수광의 「유구사신증답록(琉球使臣贈答錄)」을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine private diplomatic exchanges between the envoys of Joseon and Yugu who met in Beijing, with reference to 「Yugu Sasin Jeungdaprok」 written by Lee Su-gwang. According to 『The True Records of the Joseon Dynasty』, Joseon and Yugu made diplomatic relationships with each other in the first year(1392) of king Taejo’s reign. But it was just until 1524 when Yugu directly sent its envoys to Joseon. Since 1530, the two nations made diplomatic exchanges in 1530. Even their contacts in this way were made only three times until 1596. Thus, the two countries had little information about and not diplomatic closeness to each other in 1611 when Lee Su-gwang visited Beijing. In that year, the envoys of the two countries met in Beijing and exchanged questions and answers and poems. This provided the opportunity for Joseon and Yugu to better understand and improve friendship with each other. Though informal, their meeting was presumedly enough to be regarded diplomatic exchanges between the private sectors of the two nations. At that time, Joseon’s envoy Lee Su-gwang and Yugu’s ones Chae Gyeon and Ma Seong-ki could partly solved what they wanted to know about each other through questions and answers. They also exchanged poems with each other to promote mutual friendship. Through these moves, the envoys of the two nations showed a good example of nongovernmental diplomacy. Meanwhile, those poems were mostly about the courteous depictions and admirations of each other and their respective country. However, more importance should be put on the fact that the envoys of two different countries read poems to each other and responded to it than on what the poems were about since their meeting and exchanges using poems were to improve frienship between the two nations.