고려대학교

초록/요약

This article is my first step to illuminate the impact and the consequences, which Mongol had brought in to the Northeast Asian society in the early 13th century, by the eyes of Koryo dynasty. The sociolinguistic claim that address terms are chosen by the speakers in accordance with the solidarity and the power relations between the speaker and the addressees inspired me to focus on the address terms which Koryo carefully choose in its letters to the Mongol court in 1231-1232. Koryo selected “the Emperor(皇帝),” “His Majesty((皇帝)陛下)” to designate the Mongol emperor, “the dominant court(上朝),” “the magnificent state(大邦),” or “(our) great state((我)大國)” to the Mongol court and/or the dynasty. The self-addressing terms of the Koryo king and his court are also worth noting. The king addressed himself as a “vassal(臣)” while calling his own court “my humble land(弊邑),” “the subordinate state(下國),” “the minor state(小國),” “my fief(我國).” This wording shows that Koryo quickly admitted Mongol’s superior military power and cleverly complied with the shifting ‘world order’ under the Mongol emperor. However, interestingly enough, the Koryo king happened to call his own court “the dominant court” in the letter to the Mongol emperor; or, the king indicated the Mongol dynasty with “your esteemed state(貴國),” a term used among the dialogue participants sharing rather equal status, instead of the most honorific terms presented above. These examples were not typographic errors; rather, the Koryo’s diverse address terms for the Mongols reveal how Koryo perceived Mongol. I tried to trace the Koryo’s actual ‘mind-set’ towards Mongol by comparing the address terms for the Mongols with ones for other members of Northeast Asian society － the Jurchen Jin(金), the East Jin(東眞), the Khitan Liao(遼).