청말 국제법 번역과 ‘藩屬’ 관련 개념의 의미 확장

Abstract

From the late 19th century, intellectuals of Qing Dynasty not only began to recognize European international relations but also embraced the foreign politics and concepts from the Chinese perspective. They understood the European politics in purview of Fanshu(藩屬), a concept to explain the Qing imperial order. This article argues that such recognition emerged from the articulation of European terms such as feudal vassal, protected state, dependent state, and colony into Chinese terms including Shu(屬) and Fan(藩) from international law textbooks concerning the European world order. The translation of European concepts followed by the synchronization with Chinese ones brought about the overlapping of acceptations, which resulted in the complication and transformation of the original Chinese concept of Fanshu. The translation of international law textbooks laid the foundation of the one-to-many and many-to-many hypothetical equivalences, which translated different concepts within the European context into a Chinese idea, or one European theory into different concepts in the Chinese context. As a result, these translations affected the Chinese articulation of “Shangguo(上國)-Shuguo(屬國)” relationship, which included multiple concepts of protectorate, suzerain-vassal and colonial relations. These terms with new meanings, juxtaposed with its traditional ones, played a pivotal role in the development of Chinese political thought and policies regarding the Fanshu or frontier issues, not only in the late Qing China, but also in the contemporary recognition of Chinese world order and Western international order, as much as the recognition of historical relations between China and its neighboring countries.