인조의 대중국 외교에 대한 비판적 고찰

Abstract

Through a reappraisal of Chosŏn Korea’s China policy during the reign of King Injo (r. 1623~1649), this article challenges the conventional premise in Korean historiography that the reign of King Injo was the first moment in history when unconditional loyalism toward the Ming dynasty dominated Korean political discourse. This work questions the accustomed emphasis on the Veritable Records of the Chosŏn Dynasty in research, a secondary source influenced by politics of the subsequent generations, and instead makes extensive use of the Journal of the Royal Secretariat, a critical primary source, to reexamine and reconstruct an alternative political and diplomatic history of Korea during the reign of King Injo. This article argues that the Korean government at the time pursued a noncommittal diplomatic policy vis-a-vis both the Ming and Qing empires and that the accustomed emphasis on the reign of King Injo as the starting point of unconditional loyalism toward the Ming has been greatly exaggerated. In conclusion, this work calls for a more contextual understanding of Korean history based on critical reading of primary sources.