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Abstract

In this article, the lives of people of the Korean peninsula is viewed through pre-modern East Asian structure and the wars, in the aspect of people on the frontier. Target and the major periods for discussion is the novel related with the East Asian wars in the 17th century. For the base of this, the formation of East Asian order related with the Korean peninsula, and the characters of the later wars in the Korean peninsula were identified in the first place. The center and the periphery,so called China and the barbarians, was the hub of the East Asian order. In the process of the formation of order based on the sinocentrism, the Korean peninsula had been positioned on rather ambiguous frontier. The Korean peninsula was very near to China and very Chinese in terms of its culture, but it was on the frontier which was clearly distinguished from China. Therefore, the wars in the Korean peninsula was very expensive repayment for being on the ambiguous frontier in the process of the invasion of ‘the barbarians from four corners’, such as North Eastern area and Japan on to China. East Asian wars in the 17th century, is understand as a process of collision and rupture of the system of sinocentrism. The novels, such as ‘Jusaeng-jeon’, ‘Choicheok-jeon’ and ‘ Kimyeongchol-jeon’ based on the subjects like this,sharply captured lives of people who lived in Joseon within dynamics of East Asia. Here, as opposed to a national confrontation, through personal experience, the possibility of human solidarity in the East Asia could be suggested. Nevertheless, the individual wandering China and frontier had to experience the Korean peninsula as a frontier from all directions and realize the reality of the people on the frontier. The most representative example is Kimyeongchol in the ‘Kimyoungchuljeon’. The current reality is not completely free from these historical precedents. So Now, ‘I’ still could be another Kimyeongchol in history.