Dialogue Between Dynasties - Introduction to the Tianjin Travel Diary of the Korean Envoys for the Imperial Selection

Author: Liu Shunli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: In 1881, King Kojong of Joseon sent Kim Yunshik as the Imperial Envoy for Selection to Tianjin, China, to discuss matters such as establishing trade relations between Joseon and the United States with Li Hongzhang. Kim Yunshik also brought a group of nearly a hundred students. The students and craftsmen studied manufacturing techniques in Tianjin, as well as English and scientific knowledge. Due to a military uprising in Joseon and the false rumor that Empress Myeongseong (also known as Min) had been killed, Kim Yunshik returned to Joseon. He later returned to Tianjin, bringing back the apprentices who had been stranded at the East Bureau in Tianjin. From October 1881 to September 1883, Kim Yunshik engaged in written dialogues with a large number of modern Chinese scholars and military figures, and recorded these exchanges in detail in his diary. This diary was later compiled by the author into the book Yin Qing Shi, divided into two volumes. This book serves as an introduction to Kim Yunshik's diary Yin Qing Shi. It is the first domestic introduction to the Yan Xing Lu, and the first time a complete Yan Xing Lu has been presented to readers. Kim Yunshik's diary Yin Qing Shi is the last of the Yan Xing Lu and holds unique cultural and academic value. The Yan Xing Lu are written records by envoys and scholars from Goryeo and Joseon who were sent to China, composed of poems and prose written with ink brushes. The Yan Xing Lu form an extraordinary library of foreigners describing and documenting China, with a writing history spanning seven hundred years. In the 1880s, the dialogue between China and Joseon, two feudal dynasties, was conducted through "written dialogues." Writing was used to establish cultural identity and also to seek greater development space for their own countries. Kim Yunshik was not Chinese, yet his diary was entirely written in Chinese. The elegant and expressive text, dialogues, and writings presented to readers were all composed by the participants themselves. They are not historical novels, yet they are richer and more profound than novels. They contain many twists and touching stories. This book can help readers better understand the deep friendship between scholars of the two countries, the acceptance and rejection of Western culture by intellectuals of both nations during that turbulent era, as well as their profound concerns for the fate of their respective countries and people.