12세기의 여일교류(麗日交流)와 송상(宋商)

Abstract

Japanese merchants as well as envoys deployed by Japanese local governments visited Goryeo for maritime trade in the 11st century, the records of which are frequently found in the History of Goryeo. However, the book contains a little content regarding the trade activities during the 12th century, leading to the interpretation that the number of Japanese visits to Goryeo ports dramatically decreased. Meanwhile, in the History of Goryeo, the articles about sea trade between Song Dynasty and Goryeo by Chinese merchants are founded on a nearly annual basis until 1104 and since then such record was written in a sporadic manner. Aside from the History of Goryeo, however, other Goryeo anthologies and Chinese historical materials prove the existence of regular visits by Chinese merchants throughout the Goryeo period. Given the difference between contents of the History of Goryeo and actual traffic of Chinese merchants, the decline in the number of such records in the History of Goryeo could not be considered as the evidence of actual shrinkage of sea traffic between the two countries and it appears more accurate to perceive such decline as a result of selectively recording in the 12th century. The selective recording adopted in the History of Goryeo requires a careful approach to translate a decrease in articles about Japanese merchants' visits in the 12th century as actual decline in trade between Goryeo and Japan. Therefore, this paper reviews exchanges between Goryeo and Japan in the 12th century with a focus on Chinese merchants who engaged in sea trade with a foothold in Japan. The port of Hakata in Kyushu was the Japanese official trade port governed by the Dazaifu, the Japanese regional government, especially in charge of external affairs. As the Chinese quarters were formed in Hakata in the middle of 11th century, the region severed as the center of overseas trade. Those Chinese merchants who settled down at the quarters were called hakata goshu 博多綱首 meaning Chinese ship owners residing the port of Hakata. They mainly concentrated on trade between Japan and Song Dynasty but were sometimes found to engage in intermediate trade between Goryeo and Japan. It is found that Japan obtained Buddhist scriptures of Goryeo three times during the period from 1097 to 1120; in the first case, a Dazaifu minster sent an envoy to Goryeo while in the two other cases, Chinese merchants brought the Buddhist texts to Japan at the requests of Japanese Buddhist monks who traveled from Nara to Hakata. Transit trade with Goryeo by Chinese merchants dwelling in Japan can be found in as early as the 1070s. In the 11th century, a lot of merchants who did trade with Goryeo lived in the Dazaifu region and some of them are deemed as Chinese merchants. One historical record shows that a figure, assumed as a Chinese merchant in Japan, traveled between Goryeo and Japan even in 1147. This suggests that merchants still continued to trade with Goryeo even in the 12th century although only little record exists in Goryeo historical materials. Those merchants could be seen as an extension of the merchant group who did maritime trade with Goryeo in the 11th century.