Making Choson's Own Tributaries : Dynamics between the Ming-centered World Order and a Choson-centered Regional Order in the East Asian Periphery

Kyongcha'gwan, conventionally known as Choson kings' domestic envoys, were the envoys who also delivered the Choson kings' orders to their vassals such as the Jurchens and Tsushima. This fundamental characteristic of Kyongcha'gwan culminated in the ceremonial rituals of receiving Kyongcha'gwan, which signified Choson's "lesser suzerainty" over its vassal, under the bigger umbrella of Ming "suzerainty." The reason why these vertical dimensions of Choson-Jurchen and Choson-Tsushima relations in 15th century have not been scrutinized actually lies in the "Kyorin" frame, which was modern invention of the same term in modern Korean historiography. "Kyorin" as a modern frame implies that Choson tried to maintain peaceful relations with the Jurchens and Tsushima, based on its Confucian orientation. Korean historians could not conceptualize what did not fit in that frame, because they were too overwhelmed by traditional "Sino-centric" perspective to provincialize and de-centralize it, on the one hand. And they were also stuck in the mythology of a peace-loving and innocent Korea produced by their single lineal evolutionary frame of "Korean History (Hanguksa)" which is based on the hereditary victimhood of modern Korean historiography, on the other hand. With their eyes blinded, it was unable for them to provincialize both the "Sino-centric" and "Korea-centered" perspectives, they were not able to re-conceptualize the various active dimensions of regional dynamics that constituted Choson-Jurchen andChoson-Tsushima relations in 15th century. Furthermore, the nature and logic of the Kyorin frame, which argued that early Choson's advanced cultures helped the Jurchen and Tsushima to be more civilized and which have deliberately downplayed early Choson's expansionist military and interstate policies toward the Jurchens and Tsushima, ironically takes exactly after the nature and logic of Japanese Imperialist' justifications of the colonization of Choson, which Korean scholars have continued to reject up to the present. In fact, the historical origin of this regional hierarchy where Choson was able to force this practice on Jurchens and Tsushima was not something just mainly "cultural." Rather, it was Koryo and Choson's military subjugation of them and Choson's founder Yi Song'gye's contribution to it. According to the changes in the East Asian interstate frame, the ruling elites of early Choson used these subjugations as useful historical sources for legitimizing their superiority over those two non-Choson polities in writing its own history. Through this, the ideological basis of Choson's having its own vassals such as the Jurchen and Tsushima was created. And on the basis of this idea, Choson's ruling elites tried to perpetuate their imagined "suzerainty" over them. The dispatch of Kyongcha' gwan was one of the typical diplomatic practices to symbolize this relationship. The institutional origins of Kyongcha'gwan shed light on this symbolic meaning of Choson's Kyongcha'gwan more clearly. Ming sent its low-level envoys called Qinchaiguan to its vassals such as Choson's. Imitating the Ming's imperial mode of interstate policies, Choson'scame up with Choson's own version of Ming imperial model, such as Kyongcha'gwan dispatches to the Jurchens and Tsushima that Choson's identified as its vassals. However, this does not necessarily mean that Choson's denied the "Sino-centric" East Asian order. Rather, by modifying its original imperial model according to Choson's own position under Ming, Choson's could still signify its suzerainty over the Jurchen and Tsushima, without violating Ming suzerainty.Choson's ruling elites who carried out interstate policy in 15th century were very shrewd, aggressive, and even mean. Was Choson ruling elites' superiority to the Jurchens and Tsushima only "cultural" as those Korean scholars have implied with the Kyorin frame? It seemed to be far more realistic than "cultural," since those Confucian scholar officials were shrewd enough to create their own "suzerainty" over the Jurchens and Tsushima by utilizing military influence and history writing. It was based upon this process that Choson's ruling elites tried to perpetuate their imagined superior position over the Jurchens and Tsushima at least in 15th century. The dispatch of Kyongcha'gwan was one of the typical interstate policies to symbolize this relationship.