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Between Barbarian Land and Strange Land: Context and Features of the Writing of Xuanhuafengshi Gaolitujing (宣和奉使高麗圖經)
The Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies
2019,
(44), pp.119-149
DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2019..44.006
Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
Research Area : Chinese Culture
DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2019..44.006
Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
Research Area : Chinese Culture
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For this thesis, a sort of ‘re-writing’ has been tried in order to address the background and context of Xuanhuafengshi Gaolitujing(宣和奉使高麗圖經), which was a record of official visit in Goryeo by Xu Jing (徐兢, 1091-1153) around the end of the Northern Song Dynasty of China, as well as overall dispositions and features of its writing. In Gaolitujing, Goryeo is re-constructed and arranged from the perspective of the ruling class of the Northern Song Dynasty in order to realize the ideal of ‘Chinese World Order’ in its text and it stipulates the nature of its text. Gaolitujing could be considered the outcome of integration of the reality and spirit of the Northern Song Dynasty while re-producing of the previous knowledge system and values of China. Due to these features, facts about Goryeo and rhetoric of Chinese perspective are weaved together, in turn creating a dualistic perspective about Goryeo: one viewing Goryeo as barbarian land and another as strange land. However, since this dualistic perspective is confined in the frame of oneness, Goryeo gets re-constructed in the text with the China-oriented perspective, dreaming of World Order achieved by China, and used as an important existence, constructing the world in the text, regardless whether this point of view complies with reality or not. That’s how Sinocentrism and Chinese World Order were re-written at the time of the most vulnerable as the unified dynasty and only a few years before its fall. In this regard, Gaolitujing clearly reveals how China, of the tradition time, has been constructed in text and inherited in the inter-textual relationship and conventional manner.
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