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A Study on the Relationship between Korean Eunuch Go Ryong-bo(高龍普) and the Minister of Huizhengyuan(徽政院使) of the Yuan Empire Tümender(禿滿迭兒)

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2015, (117), pp.201-232
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

KWON YONGCHUL 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper examined the relationship between Korean eunuch Go Ryong-bo(高龍普) and the Minister of Huizhengyuan(徽政院使) Tümender(禿滿迭兒), who prominently acted in the each two nations during the late Goryeo Dynasty and late Yuan Empire. Previous studies did not raise any particular doubts about relationship between eunuch Go Ryong-bo and Minister of Huizhengyuan Tümender. Indeed, they are not the same person and we do not know Go Ryong-bo’s Mongolian name. Existing suggestion is no more than an assumption that is not backed up by distinct sources. Of course, in the History of Yuan Dynasty(『元史』), there is one part that recorded Gao Long-bu(高龍卜) as the Minister of Huizhengyuan, but its credibility is not high. In addition, it cannot be asserted that Go Ryong-bo and Tümender are actually the same person even by this record. Therefore, this paper investigated Go Ryong-bo’s career first in order to re-examine the relationship between Go Ryong-bo and Tümender. In fact, there are not many records about Go Ryong-bo except that he performed special political acts in both countries of the Yuan Empire and the Goryeo Dynasty. Fortunately, there is a biography of Go Ryong-bo in the History of Goryeo Dynasty(『高麗史』); however, there is no detailed account about even his birth or the background that made him enter to the Yuan Empire. Although he is found here and there in various names in the materials other than the History of Goryeo Dynasty, there are many difficulties in restoring his career in detail. In addition, the record that the Mongolian name of Go Ryong-bo was Tümender does not apparently exist in these materials, and even the record that makes assertions that Go Ryong-bo and Tümender are the same person has never been found. Therefore, I paid attention to another person. I am thinking that Dokmandar(禿滿達) appearing in the Gajeongjip(『稼亭集』) is more likely to be the same person as Tümender. The record by Lee Gok(李穀), the author of the Gajeongjip, was written at the request of Dokmandar, who received benefit as a high-ranking official until the fifth year of Zhizheng(至正)(1345) after he entered the Yuan Empire in 1300, to build a shrine for his dead parents. Dokmandar served in various government posts in the Yuan Empire, and Lee Gok obstinately called him Prince of Huizheng(徽政公), which means the Minister of Huizhengyuan, and it is thought that Dokmandar’s representative public post can be safely said to be the Minister of Huizhengyuan. In addition, there are records that indicate the high possibility of Dokmandar’s being a eunuch, of which content is consistent with the Unofficial History of Emperor Gengshen(『庚申外史』) that described Tümender as a Goryeo eunuch. The record that Dokmandar made it his mission to recommend benevolent and talented persons when he served as the Minister of Huizhengyuan can be regarded as the passage that is reminiscent of Tümender who recommended Empress Ki as a court lady. On the other hand, whether Dokmandar recorded in the Goryeo materials and Tümender appeared in the History of Yuan Dynasty are really the different expressions for the same name can be a problem. By confirming that the pronunciations of ‘da’ and ‘r’ are expressed all at once for ‘達(dar)’ in the Korean language differently from the Chinese language while investigating other examples of ‘達’ utilized in writing Mongolian names, it was asserted that Dokmandar and Tümender were the different representations of the same name. Similar examples are highly likely to be found if comparisons between the Goryeo’s materials and Chinese materials are continuously performed. In order to look into the specific history of the relationship between the Yuan Empire and the Goryeo Dynasty, it is thought that the processes of tracking different representation methods for the same person found in both of the two countries’ materials and comparatively analyzing them are absolutely necessary. In particular, a lot of examples of representing the same person in different Chinese characters or different persons with the same name are found in the materials during the Yuan Empire. Therefore, it is not easy to discriminate the names of the persons involved in the relationship between the Yuan Empire and the Goryeo Dynasty at all. As an essay for the detailed studies that will be conducted in the future, this paper intended to first determine who Tümender was in order to reveal that he was completely a different person from Go Ryong-bo.

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