Description
For more than two hundred years after its establishment in 1392, the Choson dynasty of Korea enjoyed generally peaceful and stable relations with neighboring Ming China, which dwarfed it in size, population, and power. This remarkably long period of sustained peace was not an inevitable consequence of Chinese cultural and political ascendancy. In this book, Sixiang Wang demonstrates how Choson political actors strategically deployed cultural practices, values, and narratives to carve out a place for Korea within the Ming imperial order.
Boundless Winds of Empire is a cultural history of diplomacy that traces Choson's rhetorical and ritual engagement with China. Choson drew on classical Chinese paradigms of statecraft, political legitimacy, and cultural achievement. It also paid regular tribute to the Ming court, where its envoys composed paeans to Ming imperial glory. Wang argues these acts were not straightforward affirmations of Ming domination; instead, they concealed a subtle and sophisticated strategy of diplomatic and cultural negotiation. He shows how Korea's rulers and diplomats inserted Choson into the Ming Empire's legitimating strategies and established Korea as a stakeholder in a shared imperial tradition. Boundless Winds of Empire recasts a critical period of Sino-Korean relations through the Korean perspective, emphasizing Korean agency in the making of East Asian international relations.
About the Author
Sixiang Wang is assistant professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reviews
This is a book I have been waiting for. Wang argues that historically Korea was not the compliant vassal that Chinese imagined it to be, but a canny role-player manipulating China's imperial myth so as to constrain its capacity to dominate. An eloquent revision of what we thought we knew. -- Timothy Brook, coeditor of Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations Since Chinggis Khan
Sixiang Wang's Boundless Winds of Empire is destined to be a classic. Wang provides a new lens to study the historical relations between Ming and Choson. His emphasis on ritual and rhetoric as frames of reference and the extensive use of Chinese and Korean sources make a tremendous contribution to numerous fields. -- David C. Kang, author of American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century
Generations of scholars have stripped down the relationship of Choson Korea and Ming China into an abstract model of the 'tribute system.' With sensitive readings of poetry, apocryphal inscriptions, and other sources rarely considered by the model builders, Sixiang Wang brilliantly restores the idiosyncratic texture of Korean-Ming relations. -- Christopher P. Atwood, author of The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources
Boundless Winds of Empire sets a new standard for Anglophone scholarship on Choson Korea. -- Eugene Y. Park, author of Korea: A History
An exceptional work. Wang's stimulating and highly illuminating account should be read by anyone interested in Korea-China relations, the workings of empire, rhetorical strategies, or the history of diplomacy. -- Felix Kuhn * Journal of Chinese History *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231205474
Author Sixiang Wang
Format Paperback
Page Count 456
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
Boundless Winds of Empire is a cultural history of diplomacy that traces Choson's rhetorical and ritual engagement with China. Choson drew on classical Chinese paradigms of statecraft, political legitimacy, and cultural achievement. It also paid regular tribute to the Ming court, where its envoys composed paeans to Ming imperial glory. Wang argues these acts were not straightforward affirmations of Ming domination; instead, they concealed a subtle and sophisticated strategy of diplomatic and cultural negotiation. He shows how Korea's rulers and diplomats inserted Choson into the Ming Empire's legitimating strategies and established Korea as a stakeholder in a shared imperial tradition. Boundless Winds of Empire recasts a critical period of Sino-Korean relations through the Korean perspective, emphasizing Korean agency in the making of East Asian international relations.
About the Author
Sixiang Wang is assistant professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reviews
This is a book I have been waiting for. Wang argues that historically Korea was not the compliant vassal that Chinese imagined it to be, but a canny role-player manipulating China's imperial myth so as to constrain its capacity to dominate. An eloquent revision of what we thought we knew. -- Timothy Brook, coeditor of Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations Since Chinggis Khan
Sixiang Wang's Boundless Winds of Empire is destined to be a classic. Wang provides a new lens to study the historical relations between Ming and Choson. His emphasis on ritual and rhetoric as frames of reference and the extensive use of Chinese and Korean sources make a tremendous contribution to numerous fields. -- David C. Kang, author of American Grand Strategy and East Asian Security in the Twenty-First Century
Generations of scholars have stripped down the relationship of Choson Korea and Ming China into an abstract model of the 'tribute system.' With sensitive readings of poetry, apocryphal inscriptions, and other sources rarely considered by the model builders, Sixiang Wang brilliantly restores the idiosyncratic texture of Korean-Ming relations. -- Christopher P. Atwood, author of The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources
Boundless Winds of Empire sets a new standard for Anglophone scholarship on Choson Korea. -- Eugene Y. Park, author of Korea: A History
An exceptional work. Wang's stimulating and highly illuminating account should be read by anyone interested in Korea-China relations, the workings of empire, rhetorical strategies, or the history of diplomacy. -- Felix Kuhn * Journal of Chinese History *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231205474
Author Sixiang Wang
Format Paperback
Page Count 456
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
