Study On The Personal Contact Between Mongol-Yuan Dynasty And Korea

China and Korean peninsula have had close economic and cultural intercourse since ancient time. During long-term development and fusion, the two sides have become culturally homologous and formed a mental identity on which they founded a friendly relationship for the whole historical periods. Envoy dispatch is an important form of associated expression to keep long-term and stable contact between Yuan dynasty and Korea. In order to achieve certain political or economic goal, Korea paid more attention to the envoys’ communicative function which has sent to Yuan dynasty, and the status identity more and more became important in the national political relationship.Based on the historical materials and relative research results, the article aims at the Korean envoys which sent to Mongol-Yuan, mainly on the aspects of personal cultural attainment, office characteristics, and corresponding questions about the diplomatic mission. Through these studies, I expect to draw a broad outline about the envoys which Korea have dispatched to Yuan dynasty and help understand the team’s qualities comprehensively and systematically.There are four parts in the paper:preface, research survey, main body and conclusion. The simple introduction is as follows:The preface mainly introduces the reason for the selection, basic historical materials, the innovative points, some difficulties and insufficiency through the writing, and so on. The research techniques which the paper have used are also been mentioned.In the part of research survey, I comb the studying results of the Sino-Korean history of ancient relation and the people intercourse between Korea and Yuan dynasty respectively, and grasp the current researching situation about Mongol-Yuan and Korean relations in abroad academic circle as well.The main body focuses on personal status investigation of Korean envoys. It includes five chapters. The first chapter simply introduces Mongolian-Yuan and Korea personal contact on historical perspective. It divides Mongolian-Yuan to Korea’s policy into two periods to discus after retrospect the bilateral contact procedure and the bilateral relation’s development, and I propose my view on a certain questions.The second chapter unfolds the relative questions’ discussion about the Korean envoys which from the aspects of the frequency of dispatching, generalization of personnel communication, circumstances in Yuan dynasty, and so on. The relation between DengZhou (登州) and Korean envoys has been briefly illustrated. Finally, the paper expounds the standards and identity features about the appointment of envoys through the analysis of relative information in Korean historical literatures.The third chapter mainly discusses the cultural accomplishments of Korean envoys. The function which envoys has been played about the spread of Neo-Confucianism (理学) in Korea and the Chinese books collected by Korea have been mainly discussed. An Xiang (安珦) made great contribution on introducing Zhuzi Neo-Confucianism (朱子理学) to Korea. Then another envoys, like Bai Yizheng (白颐正), were promoted it further. Korea has many places of collect books. The introduction of Chinese books promoted the prosperity of Korean culture, especially after the Chinese ancient Confucian classics have been flowed into Korea in various ways. The literati were also found some inspirations in there. Following with the dissemination and influence, Korea has reached the utmost degree by absorbing and imitating Chinese culture at that time. There are many outstanding Korean prose writers emerged who wrote in Chinese under such background.Then, the paper carries on the discussion about Korea to Yuan dynasty envoys’ condition. Generally speaking, most of the envoys have considerably high Chinese cultural education. They often excelled in the poetry and letters writing. They have deep writing skills. At first, the record diaries of envoys which Korea dispatched to China were responsible by historiographers, but later this duty was transferred to shuzhuangguan (书状官) because of their rich knowledge in the mission after the historiographers was reduced.No matter consciousness or not, some entourages were recorded the things during commissions, or they made poem recites. Most of their records were compiled to collections. From the forms of literature of their anthologies, there are travel notes, poetry, and so on. However, they are mixed with various forms in one basically. Li Chengxiu (李承休) and Li Qixian (李齐贤) is the typical representatives.The fourth chapter concentrated on the position of envoys dispatched from Korea to Mongol-Yuan court. At first, I explain why Korean official systems have been deep influenced by the ones of Tang and Song dynasty. Although Korean official systems have been affected obviously, it was not the simple and totally copy. Korea improved them in accordance with itself national conditions. Comparing with the official ranks of Korea and Yuan dynasty, some of them degraded in Korea, others are maintained in the identical rank with Yuan dynasty.Focusing attention on the records of Aristocratic Family in Korean History (《高丽史·世家》), the official positions of Korean envoys have been studied and analyzed. With the adaptation of charts, I list official position, the number of people and ranks of each kind of envoys, and then analyze. There are so different people in it, from powerful officers in court as princes and dukes, Shangshu (尚书) and so on, to military officers like general, langjiang (郎将), etc., and civil servants like langzhong (郎中), shilang (侍郎), and so on. Through ranks of envoys, although there are various officials, various duties correspondingly, the officers who served in court took major proportion.From the statistics of ranks, the main official ranks in turn are zheng sipin (正四品), cong sanpin (从三品), zheng yiqin (正一品), zheng sanpin (正三品), zheng bapin (正八品). And others ranks of official distribution are relatively scattered. Therefore, the most envoys sent to Yuan dynasty were mostly on or above the medium rank. As for overall ratio for general officials, Korean envoys are largely civil servants. Moreover, the military officers take certain proportion under the influence of marital spirit of Yuan dynasty.Once more, the phenomenon of brevet rank of Korean envoys has been discussed in detail. In order to reinforce the explanatory, I give several nobilities such as HuaiAnGong Ting (淮安公侹), YongNingGong Chun (永宁公綧), AnQingGong Chang (安庆公淐) to make comprehensive interpretation. At the same time, envoys could get some profits through the activities of envoy, either from Korean kings, or from Yuan emperors, promotion or finance.In the fifth chapter, I mainly deliberate preliminarily on the essence of people contact between Mongol-Yuan and Korea. The cultural idea of Korean envoys is the sense of identity on Confucian culture, but it should be obeyed under the strength contrast at the same time. If it is the political manifestation which Korea dispatched envoys to big country, the cultural expression actually is a typical psychology admiring China. The basic starting point which Korea dealing with the process with Mongol-Yuan is maximized its national interest. In the other words, the relation of tribute under the instruction of utilitarianism diplomatic thought is the standard of Korean diplomatic system.The conclusion is the generalization and summary to the central thought. The paper focuses on the status investigation of dispatched people through the study of the envoys sent to Yuan dynasty.