Imperial Words, Spoken and Written - Two Dimensions of Sino-Korean Relation in the Youngle Era -

This study examined the process by which the Youngle Emperor’s orders were delivered to Chosŏn. Youngle Emperor, who had taken an aggressive foreign policy, gave many orders to Chosŏn. His orders were sometimes documented by the hands of secretaries, and sometimes delivered in the form of oral messages by the eunuchs. The emperor’s order in the imperial edicts addressed national issues like horse trade, initiative for Jurchen, repatriation of deserters. It was about the diplomacy of the public sphere. On the other hand, the emperor's will, conveyed verbally through the Ming eunuchs and Chosŏn envoys who was fluent in Chinese, was far from it. Through oral messages he asked for beauties, to take care of their families, and even to send food to his taste. Compared to the former, private interest is strongly reflected. The agents of the Ming Dynasty, who had been in charge of diplomatic relations with Chosŏn under the command of the emperor, can be divided into two groups. One is the people who are in charge of the emperor’s writings, namely the civil officials. The other group who conveyed the emperor’s words was mainly eunuchs. While Chosŏn was a partner of public diplomacy and a good companion of the Chinese world order for the former, for the latter, Chosŏn was an indefinite spring that would fill the emperor's private desires. Among them, the latter was far more likely to be dispatched to the Chosŏn court and to send the emperor's orders. And many of them were eunuchs from Chosŏn. It was the opposite to the expectation of his neighbor. Youngle emperor would have a macro and ideological dream of realizing the Chinese world order through diplomacy with Chosŏn. At the same time, he expected exotic beauties, clever servants, delicious food and chefs to cook it from Chosŏn. If the emperor’s public interest and goals in diplomacy were expressed in his writings, the desire of the private realm was transmitted to the Chosŏn court through words.