The Review of Korean Studies
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
From a Lord to a Bureaucrat: The Change of Koryŏ King’s Status in the Korea-China Relations
Abstract
This article examines the status of the Koryŏ king in the 10-14th centuries, in terms of the Korea-China relations, through a number of diplomatic systems and elements such as investiture titles, investiture documents, king’s clothing, seals, the tributary ceremony, etc. Through this, I tried to explain that Korea-China relations as well as international principles have changed from an aristocratic order to a bureaucratic order, and for the Koryŏ kings the critical point was when they were ordered to serve not only as Koryŏ kings but also as ministers of the branch secretariat in a Yüan provincial government. The changes that ensued can be felt in many other areas. In the early Koryŏ periods, diplomatic contacts were made between China’s emperor and the Koryŏ king, and Koryŏ king was invested, according to an aristocratic order. Yet during the Yüan imperial period, Koryŏ kings began to assume actual imperial posts, which added a layer upon their existing title of nobility. Koryŏ kings came to exchange diplomatic documents not only with the Yüan emperor, but also with imperial offices. And the following Koryŏ-Ming relations show the existing aristocratic order that had served as a defining factor for the Koryŏ king has disappeared, with only the bureaucratic system left to define the Koryŏ king in a new way. Ming emperor treated the Koryŏ and Chosŏn kings just as if they were part of the Ming order and realm. These changes are also reflective of the one which was going on inside China. The aristocratic order that had been the controlling hierarchy since the ancient times, changed gradually to a bureaucratic order. Such trend reached its height at the end of the 14th century, which was the early years of Ming.
- keywords
- Koryŏ king, aristocracy, bureaucracy, investiture, Korea-China relations, ministers of the branch secretariat, diplomatic document
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