Cháoxiān zhì 朝鮮志
Treatise on Chosŏn (Korea) by 闕名 (anonymous, Chosŏn-Korean compiler) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 2-juan late-Míng-period anonymous treatise on Chosŏn-period Korea, the work of an unidentified Chosŏn-Korean compiler (Sìkù tíyào: “chū qí guórén suǒ shù” — “produced by a man of that country”). The work cites the DàMíng yītǒng zhì — placing its composition within the Míng period. Front matter briefly outlines the country’s jiāngyù yángé (administrative-historical changes); the body is structured as a grid (jīngwěi): six gāng (warps) — jīngdū (capital), fēngsú (customs), gǔdū (ancient capitals), gǔjì (ancient sites), shānchuān (mountains-rivers), lóutái (towers-and-pavilions); cut with eight dào (provinces) as wefts: Jīngjī (centre), Zhōngqīng (southwest), Qìngshàng (southeast), Quánluó (south), Huánghǎi (west), Jiāngyuán (east), Píngān (northwest), Xiánjìng (northeast). The Sìkù tíyào notes irregularities in format: the capital section records only palaces and offices but not city-and-market matters; the customs section conflates institutional regulations with anecdotes; provincial sections lack sìzhì bādào (cardinal directions); the gǔjì section is heavy with supernatural matter — overall the work is somewhat informally arranged. But it preserves substantial Chosŏn-source material on Korean history and topography not detailed in Chinese sources, and is a useful supplement to the lost Sòng Wáng Yún Jīlín zhì and to Xú Jīng’s Gāolì tújīng KR2k0138 (which is brief on mountains-rivers and ancient sites). The Sìkù compilers retain the work as documentation of Korea, whose strategic-historical relationship to the Qīng — fully recognized as a fānfēng (vassal-frontier) — they emphasise.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Cháoxiān zhì in two juan does not record the compiler’s name. In the work it cites the DàMíng yītǒng zhì — so it was completed in the Míng period. The opening of the volume briefly narrates the territorial changes-and-evolution but does not give a heading; below it is divided into six great gāng (warps): jīngdū, fēngsú, gǔdū, gǔjì, shānchuān, lóutái. The eight subordinate dào (provinces) form the wefts: middle is Jīngjī; southwest is Zhōngqīng; southeast is Qìngshàng; south is Quánluó; west is Huánghǎi; east is Jiāngyuán; northwest is Píngān; northeast is Xiánjìng — all roughly like a Chinese dìzhì.
Only the jīngdū (capital) section records only palaces and bureau-offices but does not extend to city-and-market; the customs section much records that country’s institutional regulations mixed with old stories; further the provinces all lack sìzhì bādào; the gǔjì section is much mixed with supernatural — rather similar to xiǎoshuō; in format these are all not coherent.
But what is bequeathed report and trivial events not detailed in the Chinese histories — often appears here; rather worth consulting for kǎozhèng. Its narration is also all yǎjié (refined-and-clean); compared to the various prefectural-and-county yútú that are diffuse-and-orderless, it is rather better.
Sòng Wáng Yún once compiled the Jīlín zhì — the work is not transmitted; Xú Jīng’s Gāolì guójīng KR2k0138 on mountains-rivers and ancient sites is also brief. This work, produced by a man of that country, must not be off the truth. Our state’s awesome virtue spreads everywhere, the eight directions submit; Chosŏn — one country — its road is close, its submission especially earlier; though called fānfēng, in fact like a county. Its mountains-rivers and territorial limits ought to be entered in the zhífāng. Recording-and-preserving it is also enough as one variety of yújì. Respectfully proof-read in the eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Cháoxiān zhì is a late-Míng-period anonymous Chinese-language treatise on Chosŏn-period Korea, evidently composed by a Korean author and circulated in the Míng. It is structured as a jīngwěi (warp-and-weft) grid combining six thematic categories with the eight Chosŏn-period provinces. The work treats: Hànseong (the jīngdū), Korean customs and institutional regulations, ancient capitals, ancient sites (much heavy with legend), mountains and rivers, and towers-and-pavilions; province by province across the Jīngjī, Zhōngqīng (Ch’ungch’ŏng), Qìngshàng (Kyŏngsang), Quánluó (Chŏlla), Huánghǎi (Hwanghae), Jiāngyuán (Kangwŏn), Píngān (P’yŏngan), and Xiánjìng (Hamgyŏng) provinces.
Modern scholarship has tentatively identified the work with a partial Chinese-language abridgement of the standard Chosŏn-period Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam 東國輿地勝覽 (compiled 1481; revised 1530 as Sinjŭng Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam) — the foundational Chosŏn-period geographical encyclopaedia, with its Tongguk (Eastern Kingdom = Korea) treatment of the Jīngjī / Hansŏng centre and the eight provinces. The work is a useful Chinese-language witness to the late-Míng-period state of Chosŏn topographical-historical knowledge.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 594.10).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. See John Duncan, The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty (Honolulu, 2000); for the Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam tradition see Yi Pyŏng-do 이병도, Tongguk yŏji sŭngnam yŏn’gu 東國輿地勝覽研究 (Seoul, multiple editions). For the broader context of Míng-period Sino-Korean knowledge transfer see Donald N. Clark, “Sino-Korean Tributary Relations under the Ming,” in Cambridge History of China, vol. 8 (1998).
Other points of interest
The work’s anonymous transmission and its Chosŏn-source content make it an unusual late-Míng artifact of Sino-Korean cultural exchange — a Korean-produced text circulating in China and ultimately preserved in the Sìkù as documentation of Korean-Qīng relations.
Links
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