Culture1780

Park Ji-won’s journey to Rehe

Park Ji-won joined the embassy for the Qianlong Emperor’s birthday, travelling to Beijing and Rehe; his Yeolha ilgi urged Korea to learn from Qing.

The Mountain Resort at Rehe (Chengde), the Qing summer palace Bak Ji-won visited
takwing.kwong · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

In 1780 Park Ji-won accompanied his kinsman Park Myeong-won, envoy for the Qianlong Emperor’s seventieth birthday. The emperor was at his summer retreat in Rehe, so the mission went on there from Beijing.

In Yeolha ilgi Park argued for adopting Qing carts, bricks and other technology and for promoting commerce and industry. The stories “Heosaeng jeon” and “Hojil” in it mocked the hypocrisy and idleness of the yangban. Jeongjo criticised its new prose style in his campaign to restore classical writing. Park, with Hong Dae-yong and Park Je-ga, is counted among the Northern Learning school.

Show on the map

The map in 1780

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time: Joseon — Jeongjo
Qing — Qianlong Emperor

People

Park Ji-won (Yeonam)1737 – 1805
author · Silhak scholar who wrote the Yeolha ilgi after travelling to Qing
Hong Dae-yong (Damheon)1731 – 1783
related figure · Northern Learning scholar whose Uisan mundap argued that the earth rotates and the universe is infinite, challenging the China-centred worldview

Before and after

Earlier: 1780 Kim Hong-do’s Genre Paintings
Later: 1784 Yu Deuk-gong’s Balhaego

Related works

Documentary: HD History Special Episode 55: Following Park Ji-won's Jehol Diary, Part 1: Past the Goguryeo Fortresses and Across the Liao RiverDocumentary · 2006 · KBS1
Book: The Jehol DiaryBook · 2009 · Park Ji-won (tr. Kim Hyeol-jo) · Dolbegae

Themes that include this event

Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800
The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning