洪武帝의 명령이 고려에 전달되는 경로 : 聖旨의 문서화 과정을 중심으로

Abstract

This study examined the process how the Hongwu Emperor’s orders were delivered to Koryŏ. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were no regulations stipulating how to document and convey the orders of the emperor. In this situation, the will of the emperor was sometimes conveyed in the form of documents, sometimes in the form of oral messages, to the neighboring country, Koryŏ court.BR The emperor’s orders were most commonly proclaimed in the form of an imperial edict, in the name of the Emperor. Most of the imperial edicts were drafted by the secretaries based on the orders of the emperor, but there was also a statement by Hongwu Emperor himself, called hand edict. In contrast to the former, the latter shows a much more direct expression of the emperor’s intentions. The words of the emperor were immediately transcribed by the imperial clerks. When the envoys of the Koryŏ heard the Emperor’s words, the transcript were conveyed by the envoys hands. When the Ming’s bureaucrats heard them, they were communicated to the Koryŏ government by sending an official document citing the emperor’s orders. The latter was one step further embellished than the former, so the emperor’s will was transmitted vividly. There was also a way of oral delivery of the emperor’s orders. It is a way for the envoys of Koryŏ or Ming to convey the Emperor’s words to Koryŏ court without being transferred by letter.BR The route through which the emperor’s command is delivered can be summarized in five ways: 1) Oral message, 2) Transcript, 3) Official document, 4) Hand edict, 5) Imperial edict. Among them, the emperor’s will can be expressed most directly by 1) oral message. As the latter goes, the emperor’s remarks became more and more refined through more procedures, sometimes decorated with diplomatic rhetorics, and the emperor’s intention was gradually hiding behind the writings. On the other hand, 1) oral message had the possibility that the memory of the messenger was inaccurate, and that the envoy would arbitrarily distort it. The emperor’s words could be expressed more clearly and logically as it went by going through the various procedures.