A Study On Korean Envoys Sent To China The Lmjin War

After the founding,Korea builded up the relationship of tributary toMing Dynasty with the Continuous efforts,which made the relationshipbetween Ming Dynasty and Korea into a period of smooth development.Lmjin War was the challenge of Japan to East Asia and TributeSystem,which was dominant by Ming Dynasty.In order to protect thesecurity of Korea and the East Asia and Tribute System out ofdestroying,Ming Dynasty and Korea started to discuss with eachotherfrequently.Finally,Ming decided to help Korea. Between the10years ofLmjin War,Korea sent envoys to Ming repeatedly.These envoys were thebridge for communication with Ming and Korea,which played animportant role in Lmjin War.We can easily understand the response ofMing and Korea to the Sudden diplomatic incident by understanding the basic situation of these envoys and their effection on the developing ofLmjin War.In this paper，the discourse on the envoys was divided into threeparts：The first chapter introduces the basic situation of Koreanenvoys.According to the survey of these envoys，we find that thequantities of Korean envoys sent to Ming was about5.85times each yearfrom1592to1598，which was more than the quantity（4.6times eachyear）in the whole Ming dynasty.Also it was the second peak after thebeginning of Korea.In order to get in touch with Ming dynasty as soon aspossible because of the war，Korea accelerated the speed of the formingof the diplomatic corps,which resulted in the decrease of the scale andcomposition，such as Deputy Ambassadors、Pleadings Officers andTributes.The second chapter introduces the tasks of the Korean diplomaticcorps,which researched into the routine tasks and emergency tasks carriedby Korean envoys during this period. As a vassal of the Ming dynasty,Korea had the obligation to tributary to Ming dynasty,to obey theMing rules, to request the canonization and other obligations. During theLmjin War,besides those tasks,the Korean diplomatic corps also carriedmany emergency tasks，such as asking for soldiers,identified falselyaccused,describing the tendency of Japanese,the purchase of militarysupplies.In this period, these new tasks became the main task missionsthroughout the invasion chaos.The third Chapter investigates the Korean envoys’activities andeffect in detail in Ming, from1591to1599.From identifying falselyaccused before the war，the Korean envoys went back and forth betweenMing and Korea for asking for soldiers，opposing the peace talks，identifying falsely accused for Ding yingtai and thanking for Ming’shelp.As a consequence，the Korean envoys became the bridge of thecommunication between Ming and Korea，and also one of the sources ofthe Ming Dynasty battlefield intelligence.During the whole Lmjin War, the Korean envoys played a majorrole,whose contribution were as much as those who fighted in the front line. It is their efforts that made some important information becommunicated to each other countries immediately, which made Minggrasp the battlefield situation better. Under the East Asian TributeSystem,the Korean envoys went to Ming frequently reflected the Vassalstate’s dependence and trust to Ming;Ming’s helping showed Ming’sresponsibility for the Vassal state’s safety.