SpringerLink
Log in

Mining networks in MARKUS: A study of Chosŏn interpreters’ trade networks in Qing China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Digital Humanities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article presents a study on the trade networks reported in Korean envoys’ travelogues Yŏnhaengnok (燕行錄, Chosŏn envoys’ travelogues) using the relational annotation function in the text analysis and reading platform MARKUS (https://dh.chinese-empires.eu/markus/). The tributary relations (Ch: chaogong guanxi Kr: chogong kwan’gye 朝貢關係) established between the Qing and Chosŏn dynasties not only defined the nature of their political ties but also shaped their economic connections. Many studies have shown that participants in the Chosŏn tribute embassy undertook private trade and smuggling with Qing merchants. By map** trade networks using the MARKUS and DocuSky (https://docusky.org.tw/DocuSky/home/) platforms in combination, my research examines how Chosŏn interpreters, one of the most vital components in the Chosŏn tribute embassy, undertook non-official trade in Qing China. The analysis concentrates on issues such as with whom the Chosŏn merchants traded, what kind of commodities they bought, and where they traded. This study makes significant methodological contributions to the literature, illustrating the utility of examining annotation-based networks built in the MARKUS and DocuSky environments, which involve entity extraction, creation of an ontology for network building, relational annotation, and visualization of networks and GIS data.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available in the Database of Korean Classics (한국고전종합 DB), https://db.itkc.or.kr/.

Notes

  1. Scholars variously use the terms “tributary system” (Ch: chaogong tixi Kr: chogong ch’egye, 朝貢體系), “suzerain-vassal institutions” (Ch: zongfan guanxi Kr: chongbŏn kwan’gye, 宗藩關系), or a “tribute-investiture system” (Ch: chaogong cefeng tixi Kr: chogong chaekpong ch’egye 朝貢冊封體系) to describe the framework sha** the premodern East Asia order depending on how they view Sino-foreign relations of the period. To avoid confusion, I selected one term, “tributary system,” to refer to the fundamental framework in which Qing and Chosŏn diplomatic relations operated, and use “tributary mission” to refer to the practice of Chosŏn dispatching envoys to the Qing court.

  2. Fairbank and Têng (1941), pp. 140-141.

  3. Mancall (1968), pp. 77-78.

  4. Deng, G. (1997), pp. 256, 258.

  5. Crossley (1997), p. 598.

  6. Millward, J. A. pp. 7-9.

  7. Wills (1984), p. 173.

  8. Zhao, G. (2013), p. 112, 115.

  9. Wills (1988). p. 225.

  10. Van Lieu (2017). pp. 81-82.

  11. Larsen (2013). p. 238.

  12. Wang (2018), pp. 56-57, 60.

  13. Wang (2015), p. 43.

  14. While smuggling might be considered a form of private trade, I follow Korean scholars in using the term “private trade” (Kr. samuyŏk 私貿易) to refer specifically to procurement ordered by the for the Chosŏn court but conducted privately with Qing merchants, and the term “smuggling” (Kr. milmuyŏk, 密貿易) to refer to trade through irregular markets, which was completely underground and illegal.

  15. For scholarship on Chosŏn’s official trade, please refer to works by Chang (1978), Kim (1985), Kang (1996), Yi (2000), Kim (2000), etc.

  16. Masanori (1981).

  17. See Liu (1970), Yim (2004) and Wang (2016).

  18. http://trcons.edina.ac.uk/about. The database includes over six million British parliamentary paper pages, almost four million documents from Early Canadiana Online, and a smaller series of letters, British documents, and other correspondences. See Graham et al. (2016), pp. 8-9.

  19. Detailed information on building text corpora through MARKUS and Docusky can be found in Stanley-Baker and Keat (2019), Stanley-Baker and Ho (2015), De Weerdt et al. (2020), Lin (2018). MARKUS text analysis and reading platform, developed by De Weerdt and Ho: http://dh.chinese-empires.eu/beta/. For more information on MARKUS, please refer to De Weerdt, Hilde [2020]; DocuSky Collboration Platform, developed by Hsiang Jieh, Tu Hsieh-chang et al.: https://docusky.org.tw/DocuSky/home/. For introduction on Docusky, see: Tu et al. (2020).

  20. The Qing court prohibited foreigners from collecting or buying works of history; cloth in black, yellow, purple-black, or patterned with large flowers; satins patterned in lotus; Tibetan goods; and all implements of war such as the saltpeter and oxhorn. See: “不許收買史書黑黃紫皂大花西番蓮緞, 並一應違禁兵器焰硝牛角等物.” Qingding daqing huidian. p. 7057.

  21. “象胥之家, 皆衣錦繡.” See hujaesŏnsaengjip, available at the Database of Korean Classics:

    http://db.itkc.or.kr/inLink?DCI=ITKC_MO_0426A_0030_010_0090_2003_A155_XML (accessed Nov 26th, 2022).

  22. The character, a tycoon called Mr Pyŏn, appears to be based on an interpreted named Pyŏn Sŭngŏp 卞承業 (1623-1709).

  23. The Daedong Institute for Korean Studies (Kr: Taedong munhwa yŏn’guwŏn) published the first hardcopy version of Yŏnhaengnok sŏnjip in 1962. The Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics developed the digital version based on the 1962 version. Currently 20 travelogues are available at the Database of Korean Classics with access to full texts, scanned pages from the original volume, and Korean translations.The Database of Korean Classics (han’guk kojŏn chongap DB, 한국고전종합 DB): https://db.itkc.or.kr/. And the entry of the Yŏnhaengnok sŏnjip is available at https://db.itkc.or.kr/dir/item?itemId=GO#/dir/list?itemId=GO&gubun=book&upSeoji=ITKC_GO_1409A (accessed Nov 26th, 2022).

  24. As Matthew Jockers explains, close reading is a methodological approach that is applied to individual texts or a small subset of texts. See Jockers (2013), p. 19; For a more detailed discussion on the limitations of close reading, see Moretti (2000), p. 57; Jockers (2013), p. 25-26; and Stanley-Baker et al. (2015), p. 118.

  25. K-MARKUS was developed by De Weerdt, Gelein, Ho, Hu, Kim, et al. For more information on the development of K-MARKUS, see Hu, **g (2020):

    https://app.chinese-empires.eu/forum/topic/36/the-development-of-k-markus-the-korean-version-of-markus (accessed Nov 26th, 2022).

  26. Usiskin et al. (2020). pp. 184-185.

  27. De Weerdt et al. (2020). p. 79.

  28. Further information and main outcomes of the project are available at: http://jiamdiary.info/intro. For more details on the ontology structure, please refer to the developer Ryu, Intae’s website: http://dh.aks.ac.kr/~red/wiki/index.php/JiamDiary#Network_Graph (assessed Nov 26th, 2022).

  29. Although event entities like accommodation, entertainment, and sightseeing are also marked up in the MARKUS files of travelogues, they are not processed in the relational markup, because these entities have lower relevance. However, the relationship between events and trade will be included in future studies on this topic.

  30. For the instruction of the relational markup, see Hilde De Weerdt’s video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yLPcNdaa9U&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=DID-ACTE (accessed Nov 26th, 2022).

  31. To prevent network dispersion caused by the use of different terms for the same individual, I unify terms for the tags according to their semantic meaning and assign a unique ID to each tag. For instance, there are various terms referring interpreters, such as 員譯, 譯官, 譯員, 譯輩, 通事, 象胥. I use the English translation “Interpreters” to unify these terms and designate a unique ID for it.

  32. The node labels present in the networks are based on English translations of terms used in the original texts. For the original term (in Korean classical Chinese) of each node, please refer to the Appendix.

  33. Yifan H. (2005).

  34. China Biographical Database: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/cbdb/home.

References

Digital platforms

  • De Weerdt, Hilde, Ho, Hou Ieong Brent. (2014). MARKUS. Text Analysis and Reading Platform. http://dh.chinese-empires.eu/beta/. Funded by the European Research Council and the Digging into Data Challenge. The Korean version of MARKUS, developed by De Weerdt, Gelein, Ho, Hu **g, Kim Hyeon, and Kim Baro, funded by Asian Modernities and Traditions (AMT), Leiden University.

  • Hsiang, Jieh, Tu, Hsieh-Chang, et al. (n.d.). DocuSky; the National Taiwan University Research Centre for Digital Humanities: https://docusky.org.tw/DocuSky/home/.

Journal articles & Books

  • Chang, Tsun-wu. (1978). Qing Han zong fan mao yi 1637–1894 [Sino-Korean tributary trade: 1637–1894]. Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.

  • Crossley, P. K. (1997). Review of Cherishing Men From Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and The Macartney Embassy of 1793. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 57(2), 597–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weerdt, De., Hilde, X.-L., & Jialong, L. (2020). Rethinking Space and Power in East Asia: Digital Approaches to the History of Infrastructure. Ming Studies., 2020(81), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/0147037X.2020.1736862

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Weerdt, Hilde. (2020). Creating, linking, and analyzing chinese and korean datasets: Digital text annotation in MARKUS and COMPARATIVUS. Journal of Chinese History, 4(2), 519-527.https://doi.org/10.1017/jch.2020.23.

  • Deng, G. (1997). The Foreign Staple Trade of China in the Pre-Modern Era. The International History Review, 19(2), 253–285. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40107783.

  • Fairbank, J., & Têng, S. (1941). On The Ch’ing Tributary System. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 6(2), 135–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, S., Milligan, I., & Weingart, S. (2016). Exploring Big Historical Data: The Historian’s Macroscope. Imperial College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatachi, Masanori. (1981). seichō to ri shi chōsen to no chōkō bōeki nitsuite – tokuni tei shō no seisui omegutte [On the Ch'ao-kung Trade between Ch'ing and the Li-shih Korean Empires –– Particularly concerning the Rise and Fall of the Trader Chêng-shih]. The Journal of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, 62(3・4), 286–319.

  • Jana Millar Usiskin, Christine Walde, and Caroline Winter. (2019). Ontologies for Digital Humanities. In Crompton, C., Lane, R.J., & Siemens, R. (Eds.), Doing More Digital Humanities: Open Approaches to Creation, Growth, and Development (1st ed.) (pp. 184–198). Routledge.

  • Jockers, M. L. (2013). Macroanalysis digital methods and literary history. University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kang, D. C. (2010). East Asia before the West: five centuries of trade and tribute. Columbia University Press.

  • Kang, Y. (1996). Chosŏn shidae taech’ŏng muyŏk kujo e kwanhan yŏn’gu [A Study on the Trade Between Chosun Dynasty and Chung Dynasty]. Journal of Industrial Economics and Business, 9(1), 19–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, C. (1985). Choch’ŏng kyosŏpsa yŏn’gu: Muyŏk kwan’gye rŭl chungshimŭro [A study on the relation between Qing and Chosŏn: Focused on trade relations]. Seoul National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, S. (2006). Borders and Crossings: Trade. Duke University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim, T. ’aemyŏng. (2000). Chogong muyŏk ch’eje e kwanhan yŏn’gu [A study on the tributary trade]. Han’guk Chŏnt’ongsanghak Yŏn’gu, 14(2), 19–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, K. W. (2013). Comforting Fictions: The Tribute System, the Westphalian Order, and Sino-Korean Relations. Journal of East Asian Studies, 13(2), 233–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, S.-j. (1970). Chosŏn hugi taech’ŏng muyŏk ŭi chŏn’gaegwajŏng [Development of Trading with Ch’ing in the Latter Yi Dynasty]. The PAEK-SAN HAKPO, 8, 326–401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley-Baker, M., & Ho, H. I. B. (2015). Map** drugs across epistemic and geographic domains in early medieval China. In The 6th International of Digital Archives and Digital Humanities, Taipei, December 2nd, 2015 (pp. 117–127).

  • Stanley-Baker, M., & Keat, W. C. E. (2019). Materia medica in Chinese religious sources: Towards a critical digital philology for modelling knowledge distribution in early Chinese texts. In 2019 Pacific Neighborhood Consortium Annual Conference and Joint Meetings (PNC) (pp. 1–8).

  • Ma, G. (2020). Chaogong zhi wai: Mingdai chaoxian fuhua shichen de siren maoyi [Beyond Tributary Trade: Korean Tributary Missions and Their Private Trade in Ming China]. Journal of Nan**g University, 3, 134–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mancall, Mark. (1968). The Ch’ing Tribute System: An Interpretive Essay. In Fairbank, J. K., & Chʻen, T. The Chinese world order : Traditional China's foreign relations (63–89). Harvard University Press.

  • Millward, J. A. (1998). Beyond the pass: Economy, ethnicity, and empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864. Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moretti, F. (2000). Conjectures on world literature. New Left Review, 1(1), 54–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosca, M. (2017). China and the Asian World, 1500–1900. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-128

  • Song, N. (2019). Power and Trade between Qing China and Chosŏn Korea. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.165

  • Takeshi, Hamashita. (1986). The Tribute Trade System and Modern Asia. trans. Nell Burton and Christian Daniels. In Mark Selden, & Linda Grove. (eds., 2008). China, East Asia and the Global Economy: Regional and Historical Perspectives (12–26). Routledge.

  • Tu, H.-C., Hsiang, J., Hung, I.-M., & Hu, C. (2020). DocuSky, a personal digital humanities platform for scholars. Journal of Chinese History = Zhongguo Li Shi Xue Kan, 4(2), 564–580.

  • Van Lieu, J. (2017). The Tributary System and the Persistence of Late Victorian Knowledge. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 77(1), 73–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J. (2016). Chaoxian yu qingchao simaoyi yanjiu – yi houshi maoyi wei zhongxin [Research on the private trade between Korea and the Qing Dynasty – the future of the city as the center of trade]. Yanbian University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, S. (2015). Co-constructing Empire in Early Choson Korea: Knowledge Production and the Culture of Diplomacy, 1392–1592. Columbia University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y. (2018). Remaking the Chinese Empire: Manchu-Korean Relations, 1616–1911. Cornell University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wills, J. E. (1984). Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi, 1666–1687. (1 ed.). Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program.

  • Wills, J. E. (1988). Tribute, Defensiveness, and Dependency: Uses and Limits of Some Basic Ideas About Mid-Qing Dynasty Foreign Relations. American Neptune, 48, 225–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yi, Ch'ŏlsŏng. (2000). Chosŏn hugi taech'ŏng muyŏksa yŏn'gu [A Study of Chosŏn's Trade Relation with Ch'ing]. Kukkajaryowŏn.

  • Yifan, H. (2005). Efficient and High Quality Force-directed Graph Drawing. The Mathematica Journal., 10(1), 37–71.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Yim, B. S. (2004). Shipch’il-shipp’al segi tongbugashia kukchegyoyŏk kwa chosŏn sangin e yŏk’al: Chosŏn sasang e chungwae chunggae muyŏk ŭl chungshimŭro [North-east Asia International Trade and Chosun Merchant during 17–18th Century]. Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 32, 239–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, G. (2013). Separating Trade from Tribute: Kangxi Ends the Tribute Trade System. In The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese Maritime Policies, 1684-1757 (pp. 99–115). University of Hawaii Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Primary sources

  • Aixinjueluo, Y. L., et al. (1994) Qinding daqing huidian (yongzheng chao) [Imperially endorsed collected statutes of the great Qing dynasty (the Reign of Yong Zheng)]. In Shen Yunlong (ed., 1994), Modern Chinese History Series III (Volume 761–790). Wenhai Press.

  • Daedong Institute for Korean Studies, Sungkyunkwan University. (1962). Yŏnhaengnok sŏnjip [A compilation of selected works of Korean envoys’ travelogues]. Daedong Institute for Korean Studies, Sungkyunkwan University. Electronic version by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics: https://db.itkc.or.kr/dir/item?itemId=GO#/dir/list?itemId=GO&gubun=book&upSeoji=ITKC_GO_1409A. Accessed 26 November 2022.

  • Kam, K. (n.d.) Hujae sŏnsaeng jip [Collected works of Kim Kam]. In Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics. (1988–2005). Han’guk munjip ch’onggan [The comprehensive volumes of Korean anthologies] (Vol. 155–166). Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics. Electronic version by the Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics: https://db.itkc.or.kr/dir/item?itemId=MO#/dir/node?itemId=MO&dataId=ITKC_MO_0426A. Accessed 26 November 2022.

  • Sŏ, Y., Sim, S. (1808). Man'giyoram [Manual of State Affairs for the Monarch]. Electronic version by Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics. https://db.itkc.or.kr/dir/pop/mokcha?dataId=ITKC_BT_1367A. Accessed 26 November 2022.

Databases & Websites:

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous referees for valuable comments that improved the quality of the paper. I would also like to thank all the editors for their careful reading and many insightful suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium

    **g Hu

Authors
  1. **g Hu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to **g Hu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author has no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Disclosure

Not applicable

Appendix

Appendix

Table 5

Table 5 Labels and Original Terms of the Nodes in Trade Networks
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hu, J. Mining networks in MARKUS: A study of Chosŏn interpreters’ trade networks in Qing China. Int J Digit Humanities 4, 61–86 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42803-022-00056-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42803-022-00056-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation