Pak Chega (1750–1805) was a far-sighted, intellectually curious poet, writer, and official in Korea who participated in four diplomatic missions from the Chosŏn court of King Chŏngjo to Beijing, in 1778, 1780, 1790–91 and 1801. A brilliant student, he received exceptional permission to take the civil service examinations despite the rule prohibiting sons of secondary wives like him from doing so. He was a disciple of Pak Chiwŏn (1737–1805), the leading light of the Practical Learning school which questioned Chosŏn's sterile focus on ritual and orthodox philosophical studies, proposing that court and society should pay attention to real-life subjects like agriculture and engineering in order to improve life for the people of Korea.
The Discourse on Northern Learning was written after Pak Chega's first visit to Beijing, and brims with arguments in favour of adopting Chinese customs and recognizing the superior achievements of China in most spheres of activity. It first appeared in the autumn of 1778, only months after Pak's return to Korea. Unlike many surviving envoy travel diaries, Pak's record of his time in China is concerned with the design, operation, and quality of material life in China. Pak was fully aware that, having enjoyed support from the Ming during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s, most Koreans were horrified by the Manchu conquest of China in the seventeenth century. The painful memory of King Injo's humiliating surrender to invading Qing forces in 1637 was very much alive. Pak Chega asserted that, over a century after the Qing conquest, “Confucian élites in [Korea] have felt embarrassed about the necessity of conducting relations with China” (p. 77). Nevertheless, he was so inspired and excited by his Chinese experiences that he advocated developing Korea's economy by building better roads, ships, and carts; by encouraging trade; and by challenging the complacent habits of the Confucian élite: “Did it ever occur to you to inquire from whence the expenditure for the food and dress they require comes? They have little choice but to rely on those in power for their personal gains. Consequently, the practice of seeking favors and knocking on the doors of fortune has taken root, and that is something of which even the merchants in the marketplace would feel ashamed. Therefore I say that this is not any better than doing business openly as in China” (p. 71).
This copiously annotated translation, based on the original text of the Discourse as edited by An Taehoe, consists of: a lengthy introduction (pp. 3–20); the translation of the Discourse, including prefaces by the author and by Pak Chiwŏn and Sŏ Myŏngŭng; and the memorial presented to King Chŏngjo in 1786, based on the Discourse, in which Pak Chega boldly makes the case for a radical change in Korea's relationship with China, and in the economic structure of Korean society. His forthright proposals, plainly expressed, were based on the belief that poverty was at the root of Korea's problems. “Those who live idly while profiting from the labor of other men are the great destructive moths of our country. That they increase in number every day is because the privileged literati grow more prosperous every day. They now cover virtually the entire country, and there aren't enough official posts to keep them occupied. Because of this, another approach is needed if their prevarications are to cease and the country's rule to prevail. Your servant requests that the literati be allowed to register for selling and trading on land and at sea, that they be provided with capital, if needed, to set up stores, and that those who are successful be recommended for public service. If they can be brought to seek a profit every day, the idleness they are accustomed to will gradually diminish … ” (p. 127).
Subjects that sparked Pak's interest include: bricks and tiles; porcelain, windows, roads and bridges; types of saddles; horse troughs; lumber; and many more. In considering arts and culture, Pak praises the shopkeepers of Liulichang, Peking's antique area, and ridicules the Korean convention that Confucian scholars should not participate in commerce. He prefers Chinese to Korean paper, quoting the painter Xu Wei (1521–93) who criticized Korean paper as being too thick; and laments the poor quality of ink sticks made in Korea. He bemoans the short-sighted views of Korean literati who “have no use for things of the past” (p. 86). He praises China's custom of printing local gazetteers, compendia of information on the topography and cultural geography of different areas, and even advocates studying the Western medical texts brought to China by missionaries (p. 79).
Pak Chega argued consistently that Qing China was well governed, and that the pursuit of wealth through commerce and trade was essential to human wellbeing. His arguments are summed up powerfully in the preface by his friend and teacher Pak Chiwŏn: “Scholars in our country, inhabiting a remote corner of the world, are apt to be partial and biased. They have not traveled to China, a land of great culture, nor have they observed any of the people living there … . They regard squalor as a sign of frugality, contending that the stuff of true courtesy is homespun and really rather simple … . If they really wish to learn in the right way, where can they turn except to China? Yet they aver, ‘The people ruling China today are barbarians’. And they feel it is beneath them to learn from the Chinese.” (p. 23).
As presented here, the Discourse is a lively, accessible text. Since Pak's literary style was notoriously unconventional, the translators’ achievement is impressive, and this volume, with its helpful chronology of Pak's life, glossary, and bibliography, will find a welcome in the libraries of all students of later Chosŏn history and politics.
