A Study Of Korean Envoys' Intelligence Collection

Collecting information is the basement for Joseon to set up its diplomatic politics toQing dynasty. Joseon sent Yeonhaeng(燕行) envoy to Qing per year. With theinfluence of “hua-yi” ideology and the victim of the wars, Joseon had built a crisisawareness toward Qing dynasty. The thesis discusses the background of how tributaryrelationship established between Joseon and Qing dynasty, accounting for why Joseongathered information about Qing dynasty; while Joseon maintained official diplomaticrelationship with Qing, the Yeonhaeng envoy gathered information of diplomacy,politic, economy, local customs and geography of the Qing, according to the increaseof necessary of increasing their military power with the crisis of wondering thegovernment of the Qing dynasty.The mainly-discussed content in this thesis can be divided into four sections.Chapter1discusses mainly about the background of the purpose of gatheringinformation about Qing dynasty by the tribute mission, through revealing the twowars to Joseon, to explaining the reason why Joseon wanted to collect informationabout Qing dynasty, and the purpose of collecting information is to guard againstQing dynasty. Chapter2begins with the questions about how the tribute missioncollected information about Qing dynasty. Chapter3focuses on the content ofgeography information collected by the Joseon envoy, and chapter4discusses theprocess how Joseon used the collecting information on Qing geography, such asSheng Jing Tong Zhi and the folk photocopy of Huang Yu Quan Lan Tu, which wasused by Joseon to negotiate for its territorial security, both played an important rolesin the Mukedeng’s delimitation in1712and the boundary settlement between Joseonand Qing in1883and1885.The thesis based on intelligence gathering, especially the collection of geographicinformation, which helped Joseon change and overcome its attitude and thecrisis consciousness toward Qing dynasty. The geographic information, which playedan important role in the demarcation of Joseon and Qing dynasty, maintained Joseonown territorial interests of the south of the Changbai Mountain. Researching thosewill help us to understand the complex of the relationship of Joseon and Qing dynasty.