Book Review

한국학진흥사업단 해외한국학씨앗형사업의 지원을 통해

2024년도 교육부 학술연구지원사업 '우수성과 50선' 한국학 분야에 선정된 성과물 리뷰 입니다.

한종진

해외한국학씨앗형사업 연구자

● 사업명

해외한국학씨앗형사업

● 과제명

한국학연구소 설립과 지역특화형 한국학 교육·연구 환경 구축 및 조선 사신의 중국 문화공간 연구

● 연구수행기관

웨이팡대학교 濰坊學院 (중국)

● 연구기간

2017-06-09 ~ 2020-06-08 (36개월)

Review

21세기 다시 쓴 연행록 - 문헌과 현장의 만남으로 잊혀진 해로사행길을 복원하다

  1624년 가을 어느 날, 광해군을 몰아내고 반정(反正)으로 왕위에 오른 인조의 책봉 승인에 감사를 표하고 고명과 면복을 빨리 보내줄 것을 요청하기 위해 파견되었던 조선사신 이덕형은 산동 임치현(臨淄縣) 경계에 이르렀다. 멀리 바라보니 민둥산인 우산(牛山)이 황량한 벌판 가운데 우뚝 솟아 있었다. 『맹자』에 기록된 바로 그 산이었다. 원래 초목이 무성했으나 사람들이 벌목하고 가축을 방목하여 민둥산이 되어버린 우산—맹자는 이 산의 변화를 인성(人性)에 본질에 대한 알레고리로 삼아 인의(仁義)가 사람의 본성이라는 성선설을 설파했다. 또한 이곳은 제경공(齊景公)이 올라 아름다운 임치성을 바라보며 "인생이 유한하여 제나라 왕으로서의 부귀영화를 영원히 누릴 수 없음"을 탄식하며 눈물 흘렸던 곳이기도 했다. 사행 당시 정사 이덕형은 부사 오숙, 서장관 홍익한과 함께 우산에 올라 유람하기로 약속했으나 끝내 그 약속을 지키지 못했다. 다만 멀리서 바라보며 시 한 수를 남겼다. "(다른 두 사신과 함께) 우산에 오르자는 약속을 지키지 못하고서 / 홀로 남았으니 늙어 병들어감을 한탄할 따름이네. / (제환공이) 옛 제나라 땅에서 제후들을 만났으니 그 덕 밝게 빛나고 / 아홉 번 회맹하여 천하를 안정시켰으니 그 업적 장구하네./ (그러나 지금은) 아무도 그의 패업을 이어가는 자가 없어 / 세월에 마모된 (제환공의) 글자없는 묘비석만이 덩그러니 남았네."

웨이팡대 한중 공동연구팀의 『명청교체기 대명 해로사행로의 노선과 지명 재구 및 인문지리학적 고찰』 시리즈는 바로 우산 앞에서 눈물 흘렸던 조선 사신들이 걸어간 잊혀진 해로사행로를 21세기 현재로 소환하는 야심찬 학문적 도전이다. 본서는 그 네 번째 권으로, 산동성 청주부(靑州府)의 하반부 구간—청주부성에서 우산을 지나 금령역(金嶺驛)을 거쳐 익도현(益都縣) 서쪽 경계까지—을 다룬다. 명청교체기라는 동아시아 대격변의 시기, 후금(後金)이 요동을 장악하자 조선 사신들은 목숨을 걸고 바닷길을 택할 수밖에 없었다. 평안도 해안에서 출항하여 발해를 건너 산동 등주(登州)에 상륙한 뒤 육로로 북경까지 이어지는 이 '대명 해로사행로'는 조선 외교사의 결정적 순간을 증언하는 통로였지만, 정작 학계에서는 오랫동안 간과되어 왔다. 기존 연행록 연구가 청대 육로 사행을 중심으로 『열하일기』, 『노가재연행일기』 같은 명편들에 집중되어 온 반면, 명말 해로사행의 구체적 실상은 베일에 가려져 있었다.

본서는 '문헌 고증'과 '현장 답사'라는 이중 교차 검증 방식을 통해 4백 년 전 조선 사신들이 실제로 걸었던 길을 재구하고 복원해냈다. 한국에 전하는 20여 종의 명말 조선해로사행록(등주에 상륙했던 사신 기록에한 한정)을 총망라하고, 중국 현지의 방대한 지방지를 섭렵하며, 나아가 산동 현지를 수십 차례 직접 답사하여 옛 역로(驛路)의 흔적을 추적했다. 특히 주목할 것은 현지 학예연구사와 촌로(村老)들과의 인터뷰를 통해 구전(口傳)으로만 전해지던 지명의 변천과 옛길의 위치를 확인한 대목이다. 어떤 지명은 명대 이후 여러 차례 바뀌었고, 어떤 옛길은 현대 국도 아래 묻혀버렸지만, 대대로 그 땅에 살아온 주민들의 기억 속에는 여전히 살아 있었다. 이는 단순한 실증 연구를 넘어, 인문학과 지리학, 역사학과 민속학이 융합된 총체적 지식 생산의 모범을 보여준다.

본서가 복원해낸 청주부 구간의 여정은 그 자체로 한 편의 역사 서사시다. 청주부성 북문 첨성문(瞻星門)을 나서면 미타사(彌陀寺)와 맹상군유지(孟嘗君遺址)가 나타나고, 만년교(萬年橋)를 건너 운문산(雲門山)을 바라본다. 서쪽으로 향하면 부공정[富公亭, 북송의 명재상 부필(富弼)을 기리는 정자]와 범공천[范公泉, 범중엄(范仲淹)의 유적]을 지나게 된다. 임치현(臨淄縣) 경계에 들어서면 제환공과 제경공의 무덤, 전국사공자(戰國四公子) 중 한 명인 맹상군의 흔적들이 곳곳에 남아 있고, 우산을 바라보며 치하(淄河)를 건너면 강태공(姜太公)의 의관총(衣冠塚)과 삼사묘(三士墓)가 이어진다. 본서는 이 구간의 총 34개 경유지와 관련 지명 50 여 곳을 정밀하게 고증하고, 각 지점에서 조선 사신들이 남긴 160여 수의 시문(詩文)을 분석하여 그들이 해당 공간에서 느낀 감흥과 역사 인식을 입체적으로 재구성했다.

특히 우산과 맹자 고사에 대한 분석은 이 연구의 백미다. 저자들은 이덕형, 윤훤, 이민성, 홍익한 등 여러 사신이 남긴 우산 관련 시를 교차 분석하며, 각자가 우산에서 느낀 역사적 감회가 어떻게 다르고 또 어떻게 공명하는지를 섬세하게 포착했다. 이덕형은 제환공의 패업을, 윤훤은 관중과 전단의 충절을, 이민성은 제경공의 무상감을 각각 노래했다. 그러나 이들의 시는 단순한 회고가 아니었다. 명말의 혼란한 정세 속에서 조선이라는 약소국의 사신으로 위태로운 여정을 떠나야 했던 그들에게, 우산은 단순한 관광지가 아니라 충신과 명군, 패도와 왕도, 성쇠와 무상을 사유하는 철학적 공간이었다. 저자들은 이처럼 사행로를 단순한 물리적 '선(線)'이 아닌 문화적 의미가 내재된 '장소'으로, 사행록을 단순한 '기록(記錄)'이 아닌 '체험의 서사'로 복원해냈다.

본서가 지닌 또 하나의 미덕은 조선 사신들의 시선을 통해 명말 중국 사회의 생생한 단면을 포착했다는 점이다. 사행록에는 단순히 노선과 지명만 기록된 것이 아니라, 당시 산동 지역의 풍속, 백성들의 생활상, 명조 말기의 정치적 긴장, 현지 문인들과의 시문 창화(唱和), 심지어 여관 주인의 성씨까지 세밀하게 담겨 있다. 안경이 청주에서 출발하던 날 왕씨(王姓) 민가에서 아침을 먹었다는 기록, 최응허가 금령역에 도착하여 장씨(張姓) 집에 묵었다는 기록은 사소해 보이지만, 이는 곧 초국경적 인적 네트워크와 민간 교류의 구체적 증거다. 저자들은 이러한 미시적 기록들을 놓치지 않고 꼼꼼히 주석하고 해설함으로써, 거시 역사와 미시 생활사를 유기적으로 결합시켰다.

이 연구는 또한 한중 공동연구의 성공적 사례로서도 주목할 만하다. 한국의 한문학·역사학 전공자와 중국의 중문학·지방사 전공자가 8년 넘게 긴밀히 협력하며, 각자의 전문성을 교차 검증하고 상호 보완하는 과정에서 탄생한 이 책은 "21세기에 다시 쓰여진 연행록"이라 불릴 만하다. 저자는 "현지 답사 과정에서 조선 사신들이 직접 걸었던 들판, 직접 보았던 산천을 직접 체험했을 때, 그들이 남긴 시문 한 구절 한 구절이 생생하게 살아나 가슴에 와 닿는 묘한 경험을 했다"고 고백한다. 이는 단순한 학술적 성취를 넘어, 인문지리학적 연구가 도달할 수 있는 공감의 지평을 보여주는 감동적인 순간이다.

『명청교체기 대명 해로사행로의 노선과 지명 재구 및 인문지리학적 고찰』은 완결되지 않은 진행형 프로젝트다. 청주부를 지나 제남부(濟南府), 덕주(德州), 하간부(河間府)를 거쳐 북경에 이르는 나머지 구간의 연구가 현재 진행 중이며, 향후 수년 내 전체 노선의 완전한 복원이 기대된다. 또한 이러한 연구 방법론은 명말 해로사행에 그치지 않고, 명초 남경(南京) 사행로, 더 나아가 신라·발해·고려 시대의 해상 교류로까지 확장될 잠재력을 지니고 있다.

이처럼 과거 동아시아 바닷길을 오갔던 옛 사신들의 발자취를 복원하는 작업은, 오늘날 한중 관계의 역사적 깊이와 문화적 연속성을 재발견하는 작업이며, 그런 의미에서 이 책은 단지 과거를 탐구하는 것이 아니라, 미래 동아시아의 학술 교류 확대와 상호적 문화 이해를 위한 든든한 주춧돌을 놓고 있는 작업이기도 하다.

 * *  * *   * *

2024 Korean Ministry of Education Research Excellence Award

Rewriting the Yeonhaengnok for the Twenty-First Century: Restoring a Forgotten Sea Route through Literature and Fieldwork

Han Jong-jin

(Weifang University, China)

One autumn day in 1624, Yi Deok-hyeong, a Joseon envoy dispatched to express gratitude for the approval of King Injo’s investiture—who had ascended to the throne through a coup that ousted King Gwanghaegun—and to request the swift delivery of his royal patent and ceremonial robes, reached the border of Linzi County 臨淄縣 in Shandong. Looking into the distance, he saw the barren Mount Niu 牛山 rising prominently from the desolate plain. It was the very mountain recorded in the Mengzi (Mencius). Originally lush with vegetation, the mountain had become bare as people cut down trees and grazed livestock—Mencius used this transformation as an allegory for human nature, expounding the theory of innate goodness that benevolence and righteousness 仁義 constitute human nature. This was also where Duke Jing of Qi 齊景公 had climbed and wept while gazing at the beautiful city of Linzi, lamenting that “life is finite and I cannot enjoy the wealth and glory of being the king of Qi forever.” During the embassy journey, Chief Envoy Yi Deok-hyeong had promised Vice Envoy O Suk and Secretary Hong Ik-han that they would climb Mount Niu together for sightseeing, but ultimately failed to keep that promise. He could only gaze at it from afar and compose a poem: “(Unable to keep) my promise to climb Mount Niu (with the other two envoys), / I remain alone, lamenting growing old and ill. / (Duke Huan of Qi) met the feudal lords on the old land of Qi, his virtue shining bright. / Nine times he convened alliances to stabilize the realm, his achievements lasting long. / (Yet now) there is no one to continue his hegemonic achievements, / Only his wordless tombstone, worn by time, stands alone.”

The Routes and Place Names of the Maritime Embassy Route to Ming China during the Ming-Qing Transition and Humanistic-Geographical Considerations series by the Weifang University Korea-China joint research team represents an ambitious scholarly undertaking to bring to life the forgotten maritime embassy route once traveled by those Joseon envoys who wept before Mount Niu. This volume, the fourth in the series, covers the lower section of Qingzhou Prefecture 靑州府 in Shandong Province—from Qingzhou Prefecture city through Mount Niu to Jinling Station 金嶺驛 and up to the western border of Yidu County 益都縣. During the Ming-Qing transition, a period of great upheaval in East Asia, after the Later Jin seized control of Liaodong, Joseon envoys had no choice but to risk their lives taking the sea route. This “maritime embassy route to Ming China,” which departed from the Pyeongan-do Province coast, crossed the Bohai Sea, landed at Dengzhou 登州 in Shandong, and then continued overland to Beijing, was a passage that witnessed decisive moments in Joseon diplomatic history, yet it had long been overlooked in academia. While existing research on records of the travels of Korean emissaries to Beijing, known as yeonhaengnok 燕行錄, focused on Qing-era overland embassies and masterpieces like the Yeolha ilgi (Diary of the Jehol River) and Nogajae yeonhaeng ilgi (Diary of a Journey to Beijing by Kim Chang-eop), the concrete reality of late Ming maritime embassies remained shrouded in mystery.

This volume reconstructs and restores the actual path walked by Joseon envoys four hundred years ago through a dual cross-verification method of “textual research” and “field investigation.” The authors comprehensively examined over twenty late Ming Joseon maritime embassy records (limited to those of envoys who landed at Dengzhou) preserved in Korea, thoroughly studied vast local gazetteers from China, and furthermore directly surveyed the Shandong region dozens of times to trace remnants of the old post roads 驛路. Particularly noteworthy are the sections where interviews with local museum researchers and village elders confirmed the evolution of place names and locations of old roads that had been transmitted only through oral tradition. Some place names had changed multiple times since the Ming dynasty, and some old roads were buried beneath modern highways, but they remained alive in the memories of residents who had lived on that land for generations. This demonstrates an exemplary model of integrated knowledge production that transcends simple empirical research, fusing humanities and geography, history and folklore.

The journey through the Qingzhou Prefecture section restored in this volume is itself a historical epic. Exiting through Zhanxingmen 瞻星門, the north gate of Qingzhou Prefecture city, one encounters Mituosi Temple 彌陀寺 and the Mengchangjun Historic Site 孟嘗君遺址, crosses Wannian Bridge 萬年橋, and can look upon Mount Yunmen 雲門山. Heading west, one passes Fugong Pavilion 富公亭 (a pavilion commemorating the Northern Song prime minister Fu Bi 富弼) and Fangong Spring 范公泉 (a relic of Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹). Upon entering the border to Linzi County, the tombs of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Jing of Qi remain, along with traces of Mengchangjun, one of the Four Lords of the Warring States 戰國四公子. And after crossing the Zi River 淄河 while looking upon Mount Niu, one encounters Jiang Taigong’s 姜太公 cenotaph and the Tomb of the Three Knights 三士墓. This volume meticulously verifies a total of 34 waypoints and approximately 50 related place names in this section, analyzes over 160 poems left by Joseon envoys at each location, and three-dimensionally reconstructs the emotions and historical consciousness they felt in those spaces. The analysis of Mount Niu and the Mencius allusions is particularly brilliant. The authors cross-analyze poems about Mount Niu left by various envoys including Yi Deok-hyeong, Yun Hwon, Yi Min-seong, and Hong Ik-han, delicately capturing how each one’s historical sentiments differed and yet resonated with one another. Yi Deok-hyeong praised the hegemonic achievements of Duke Huan of Qi, Yun Hwon praised the loyalty of Guan Zhong and Tian Dan, and Yi Min-seong praised the sense of impermanence of Duke Jing of Qi. Yet their poems were more than simple acts of remembrance. As envoys of the vulnerable state of Joseon navigating the turbulent conditions of late Ming China, Mount Niu was not simply a tourist site but a philosophical space for contemplating loyal subjects and enlightened rulers, hegemonic and royal ways, rise and fall, and impermanence. The volume’s authors thus restored the embassy route not as a simple physical “course” but as a “place” imbued with cultural meaning, and the embassy records not as mere “records” but as “narratives of experience.”

Another virtue of this volume is that it captures vivid cross-sections of late Ming Chinese society through the eyes of Joseon envoys. The embassy records contain not merely routes and place names, but detailed accounts of contemporary Shandong regional customs, the lives of common people, the political tensions of the late Ming dynasty, poetic exchanges 唱和 with local literati, and even the surnames of inn owners. The record of An Gyeong eating breakfast at a Wang 王 family home upon departing Qingzhou, and Choe Eung-heo lodging at a Zhang 張 family house upon arriving at Jinling Station may seem trivial, but these are concrete evidence of transnational personal networks and civilian exchanges. By meticulously annotating and explicating such microscopic records, the volume’s authors organically combined macro-history with micro-history of everyday life.

This research is also noteworthy as a successful case of Korea-China joint research. Born from over eight years of close collaboration between Korean classical literature and history scholars and Chinese literature and local history scholars, this book—produced through a process of cross-verifying and mutually complementing each other’s expertise—deserves to be called “a yeonhaengnok rewritten in the 21st century.” The authors confess to “experiencing the strange sensation, during field surveys, of directly walking the fields the Joseon envoys walked and directly seeing the mountains and rivers they saw, bringing each phrase of the poems they left vividly to life and touching the heart.” This moving moment reveals the depth of empathy that humanistic-geographical research can achieve, going beyond purely academic accomplishment.

Routes and Place Names of the Maritime Embassy Route to Ming China during the Ming-Qing Transition and Humanistic-Geographical Considerations is an ongoing, unfinished project. Research on the remaining sections passing through Jinan Prefecture 濟南府, Dezhou 德州, and Hejian Prefecture 河間府 to Beijing is currently underway, and complete restoration of the entire route is anticipated within the coming years. Moreover, this research methodology has the potential to extend beyond late Ming maritime embassies to early Ming routes to Nanjing 南京, and further to maritime exchanges during the Silla, Balhae, and Goryeo periods. Restoring the journeys of ancient envoys who crossed East Asian seas also means rediscovering the historical depth and cultural continuity that underpin contemporary Korea-China relations. In this sense, the book does more than explore the past—it establishes a firm foundation for future academic collaboration and mutual cultural understanding across East Asia.