How to Read a Sinographic Text in Eighteenth-Century Chosŏn Korea:Liuxi Waizhuanand Yi Tŏngmu's Compilation ofNoeroe Nangnak Sŏ

Abstract

This paper examines the transnational literary interactions in the early modern Sinographic sphere by examining the late Chosŏn writer Yi Tŏngmu's reading of an early Qing text,Liuxi Waizhuan,and its resonance in his compilation ofNoeroe Nangnak Sŏ. Reconsidering the unmediated communicability of the Sinographic text, it demonstrates the ways in whichNoeroe Nangnak SŏdecoupledLiuxi Waizhuanfrom its local conditions of production and circulation and relocalized it to fit Chosŏn Korea's agenda of repositioning itself in the changing Sinocentric order after the downfall of the Ming. Between delocalizing and relocalizing the Sinographic text, the compilation ofNoeroe Nangnak Sŏparticipated in the constantly shifting meanings of loyalty to the fallen Ming, thereby diversifying the repertoire of the shared civilization in early modern East Asia.