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朝鮮通信使硏究

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朝鮮通信使硏究 Vol.22 No. pp.1-35
통신사행록의 글쓰기 방식을 통해 본 富士山 논쟁 재고
정은영 동명대학교
Key Words : Envoys,Records by the Envoys to Japan,Mt. Fuji,Mt. Geumgang,Fuji Superiority Dispute,Way of Writing

Abstract

Japan's representative famous mountain and guardian mountain of Edo, Mt. Fuji has been an object of attention by envoy members. The envoy members who saw Mt. Fuji themselves were arrested by the beautiful scenery and expressed their inspiration of seeing Mt. Fuji. In addition, in the process in which literary workers of two countries, Joseon and Japan exchanged written conversations and poems. They took Mt. Fuji as the topic of their poems or mentioned it. To the envoys in the late Joseon, the unique appearance of Mt. Fuji made by repeated volcanic activity and the white color caused by unmelted snow was an object of exploration. The unique atmosphere was a fairyland itself. So, the envoy members left poetry and prose expressing the beautiful scenes of Mt. Fuji, spread in front of their eyes as an enchanted land sometimes or alluding the mountains and streams of their homeland in various ways. Nevertheless, so far, it has been judged that the dispute on superiority between Joseon and Japan through the literary workers' conversations and poems was like everything that the envoys found looking at Mt. Fuji. In addition, this study examined their views by the dichotomy whether the envoys in the late Joseon considered Mt. Fuji just a simple natural object or a fairyland. Of course, the envoys in the late Joseon were well informed of the previous records before leaving for Japan and recognized Japan based on the existing information. Thus, there are a lot of similar contents and expressions between the records in the previous generation and those in the later generation. Yet, there was more than that. To understand the aspects of Japan, different from Joseon, Japanese words were conceptualized for Joseon, and the natural features of the season in Japan was described, but they were expressed, alluding to objects familiar to Joseon intellectuals. Also, if an error was found in the records in the previous generation, they corrected it by asking questions with Japanese persons who could answer them or looking up Japanese books. In addition, they corrected it through their experience and tried to give objectivity to the expanded information. This was the way in which the envoys in the envoys in the late Joseon wrote the records. In addition, the way of writing of Records by the Envoys to Japan was also applied to recording what they saw and heard about Mt. Fuji as they were. Expressing Mt. Fuji not as ‘lotus' but ‘caldron' or ‘steamer' was not small Sinocentrism that depreciate the scenery of the season in Japan but just a way of delivering the shape better to the people who did not see Mt. Fuji. In the same context, Mt. Baekdu was mentioned after they looked at the snow on the summit of Mt. Fuji was not intended to contend for superiority by comparing celebrated mountains of the two countries but a figure of speech to clearly reveal the fact that the summit is white, where show is accumulated like Mt. Baekdu. In the meantime, the envoys in the late Joseon dynasty exchanged questions and answers with Japanese literary workers or interpreters in order to resolve the suspicion concerning the height of Mt. Fuji or snow in the summit, which is differently recorded by each previous record by the envoys and tried to record objectively, correcting the existing information or taking an appropriate reason based on that. Through this process, the envoys established simple information about Mt. Fuji into knowledge about Japan they obtained objectivity, while they were not trapped in a certain thought or ideology. Consequently, the discussion about Mt. Fuji of the envoys in the late Joseon dynasty was not an intention to ignore or look down on Japan as barbarian but a part of an effort to recognize it as a diplomatic partner objectively and accurately from an open perspective.
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