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A Study on the Representation of Displaced Persons of Ming(明) in the Joseon Dynasty

  • The Research of the Korean Classic
  • 2020, (49), pp.5-31
  • DOI : 10.20516/classic.2020.49.5
  • Publisher : The Research Of The Korean Classic
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature > Korean Literature > Korean classic prose
  • Received : April 22, 2020
  • Accepted : May 17, 2020
  • Published : May 31, 2020

Kyungmi Kim 1

1이화여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article examines how migrants from Ming(明) were treated and represented in Joseon Dynasty through the records of them which had been written by the Joseon intellectuals and the descendants of migrants in that period. Though the number of immigrants who came from other countries like Japan and became naturalized was not small from the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty, it was in the late Joseon Dynasty when immigrants rapidly increased. Most of them were descendants of the Ming soldiers who came to Joseon as supporters during the Imjin War, or people who came because they disobeyed Ching or displaced persons from Yodong area after the fall of Ming. The Joseon people named them Hwangjoin or Hwangjoumin, and treated them with respect based on the theory of Jonjou(尊周). These people were even allowed to serve public service and the Joseon Dynasty left records of them. But the displaced persons from Ming were not recognized by the intellectuals of the Joseon Dynasty and failed to engage in the upper society of the Joseon Dynasty. This article suggests that the representations of Kang Se-jak(康世爵) and Guljeo(屈姐) and the language problems they had faced significantly revealed the location of displaced persons from Ming. Kang Se-jak could not properly communicate in the Korean language, and Guljeo herself was not rightly named. Kang Se-jak could not learn the Korean language while he forgot the Chinese language. Though he was able to write the Chinese, he couldn’t speak any language properly between the old native language and the new language. This situation showed his location at the border of the language, and the life on the border. Considering this, we can't say that Kang Se-jak lived a life as a subject. Guljeo, losing his original name and called by a similar name, also couldn’t live a life as a subject. Some other displaced persons from Ming besides Kang Se-jak and Guljeo were found to be positioned as middle though they were economically needy. In this situation, some descendants of the displaced persons from Ming tried writing records of their forefathers’ stories of immigration and settlement. These records were regarded by Joseon intellectuals as the counter-narrative about the displaced persons from Ming against those which were written by Joseon intellectuals. But ironically, the narrative by the descendants from Ming’s migrants was only to strengthen the boundary between inside and outside by focusing on their own identity.

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