Study of 16th Century Western Books on Korea: The Birth of an Image

II. Travel Literature of Portugal
The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1493 secured Portugal's hegemony in Asia, giving it a free hand in Christian missionary labours and trade in the region. In 1498, Vasco Da Gama successfully reached the Indian port of Calicot, thus spearheading Europe's eventual venture into the Far East. Portuguese merchants and missionaries soon followed, producing various records on Asia. Portuguese records of the 16th century share two significant features: first, insofar as Portugal's contact with Asia was limited to India, Malacca, Molucca Islands, and Southeast Asia, the Portuguese records on Asia provided little new information on the Far East. Secondly, since the beginning of the age of discovery, the Portuguese Crown jealously guarded important information on the spice trade and the Far East, and as a matter of policy kept these records from the general public. These records remained in their original transcribed format until they were ultimately published in recent times. However, even without these restrictions, these 16th century Portuguese records had very little to say about Korea and would not have made a significant contribution to the introduction of Korea to Europe.

Along with the problem of the innate scarcity of information on Korea evident in these records, there is also the interpretive problem of the Portuguese use of the designation "Gores." Since Diogo Lopes de Sequeira's travel to Malacca in 1509, the Portuguese were known to have been in frequent contact with the Gores in Southeast Asia, a fact well documented in records of the time. Although some historians maintain that the Gores were in fact Koreans living on the island of Ryukyu, the 16th century Portuguese did not realize who the Gores really were. Consequently 16th century records on the Gores also made no contribution the introduction of Korea to Europe.

The first western literature on Asia written during the age of discovery was Tome Pires's Suma Oriental. And Book of Duarte Barbosa soon followed. Both books were written in Portuguese. Summa Oriental is the first recorded European manuscript in book format that mentions the Gores, whereas Book of Duarte Barbosa, written in 1518 by the brother-in-law of Magellan, makes a passing reference in Chapter 126 on the tribute-based diplomatic relationship between China and its immediate neighbors. However, both books were not published for a long time, remaining in transcript form, and they actually contributed little to the dissemination of new knowledge about the Far East at the time. However, they would go on to serve as a basis for numerous books on the Far East published in the late 16th century. Contemporary Portuguese historians such as Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, Joao de Barros, Damiao de Gois, and Jeronimo Osorio, used their influence in the royal court to gain access to such classified materials as Suma Oriental and Book of Duarte Barbosa, on the basis of which they were able to fomulate the history of the Portuguese empire in East Asia. Their works on Asia, which began in 1551 and took approximately 20 years in the making, focused primarily on India, South East Asia, and the Molucca Islands, with only intermittent references to China. In particular, Barros's Decades, published in 1552, conceding that the northern shores of China had yet to be properly charted by the Portuguese navigators, partitions the entire Asian continent into 9 territories, allocating the Chinese coast, Ryukyu, and Japan to the 9th territory. Barros, however, makes no mention of Korea. In his third edition of Decades, published in 1563, Barros provides a more detailed introduction of South East Asia, China, Burma, Sumatra, and the Molucca Islands. To his credit, Barros included in this edition a comprehensive introduction of China, based on information provided by the Chinese, as well as personal accounts from his Chinese servant. Barros writes at length about China's culture and customs, the names and characteristics of China's 15 main provinces, it's main cities, units of measurement, diplomatic relations with other countries, and also provides a detailed historical account of the first Portuguese ambassador dispatched to China, but says nothing about Korea. In contrast, Gois and Osorio merely cited previously published materials by Castenheda and Barros, and thus failed to contribute any new information on Asia.

In the mid-16th century Chirsitovao Vieyra, Vasco Calvo, and others who had been incarcerated by the Chinese authorities for smuggling, provided records on the diplomatic relationship between China and its neighboring countries, China's justice system, and details about Ryukyu and the 15 provinces. In particular, Galeote Pereira, who was captured by the Chinese for smuggling in March of 1549, only to escape in 1552, provided valuable insight into China. His writing, which provided a lengthy explication of China's justice system and its foreign relations, was frequently translated and widely distributed throughout Europe. It was translated into Italian in Venice, circa 1565, and into English by Richard Willes in 1577. It was also subsequently included in the Principal Navigation of Richard Hakluyt. Based on Pereira's accounts, Gaspat da Cruz published Tractado in 1569. With nine tenth of the book specifically devoted to China, Cruz's book is considered to be the first book on China published in Europe. However, since Cruz was primarily concerned with China's justice and administrative systems, no mention of Korea was made.