명초 외교제도의 성립과 그 기원 - 고려-몽골 관계의 유산과 그 전유(專有) -

Abstract

The so-called ‘Tributary System’ has been at the crux of an idea which was considered to be most relevant in explaining the nature of premodern East Asian international order. It was widely believed that this particular system inherited the structure and logic of the Chinese Feudal system from the Zhou dynasty, and was firmly established in the early years of Ming. The Ming dynasty, which became the new presider of Chinese hegemony in 1368, had to notify its neighbors the advent of a new order. So Ming claimed that, ‘in the grand tradition of Zhou Feudalism,’ its leader would stand as emperor and treat adjacent countries accordingly as lords. Yet the methods they eventually employed, such as receiving tributes, bestowing titles, guest ritual, and distributing calenders(曆書), were all what came before within the boundaries of the Goryeo-Mongol relations, which had been established and maintained for a long time since the Jeongdong Haengseong(征東行省) provincial government was installed on the Korean peninsula by the Mongol empire. Interestingly, modeling the Ming-Goryeo relations after the old Yuan-Goryeo relationship was initially suggested by Goryeo itself. Ming only accepted such offer, and then chose to glorify it with some grand Chinese tradition. In other words, the diplomatic protocols established in the early Ming years was a mere revisit to the legacy left by the earlier Goryeo-Mongol relationship. Ming is often cited as the dynasty which formulated the most Chinese-centric international order ever. Yet what contributed the most to such formula and even more so than Ming itself ever did was in fact the long gone Mongol Yuan empire. If Goryeo did not relay such Yuan legacy (to which itself also belonged) to Ming, the so-called Tributary System as we know it may not have formed at all in the first place.