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

VI. Principal Navigations
During the early stages of the Tudor dynasty, England was in political and religious turmoil. Accordingly, most of the publications leading up to the mid-16th century were related to the Reformation, and virtually nothing was published on the foreign markets of the Iberian Peninsula. However, from mid-16th century, the climate became conducive to the publication of new material on Asia, as more and more merchants, particularly in Plymouth, and intellectuals in London argued for the expansion of England's textile markets abroad.

The person who steered England towards the notion of the maritime empire was Richard Eden. Eden was a geologist by trade and had long been a stout advocate of English colonial expansion. In publishing A treatyse of the newe India in 1553, Eden had succeeded in reviving England's long held interest in the foreign colonies of Spain and Portugal. After Eden's death, Richard Willes translated and published several foreign texts on Asia such as Varthema's Travels, Pereira's Chinese accounts, and Maffei's Japanese accounts.

In particular, John Frampton translated Marco Polo's Travels, and is thus credited with being the first Englishman to introduce Korea to the English populace. The publication of the navigational records initiated by Eden got on track in earnest through the efforts of Richard Hakluyt. Although Hakluyt's life is well documented, few are aware of Hakluyt's contribution to the introduction of Korea to not only England but to all of Europe as well. In truth Hakluyt was instrumental in introducing to Protestant Europe the particulars about Korea, including its geography and culture. Hakluyt was an avid collector of Spanish and Portuguese maritime materials and, using Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi as a model, he published his Principal Nativation in 1589. This single volume book mainly dealt with English navigational records. Therefore, with the exception of the segment on travels to the Middle East, the first edition of Hakluyt's work did not include information directly related to Asia or Korea. Hakluyt's personal involvement with the East India Company, set the stage for England's maturity into a formidable seafaring world power.

In early 1580, Hakluyt realized that the Far East market could open up new opportunities for the exportation of England's wool products, and he determined that if he were to convince the English public, he had to educate them first. In the following years, Hakluyt devoted much of his time and effort to overseeing the translation and publication of scores of Portuguese and Spanish books on the Far East. In 1589, Hakluyt sponsored Richard Park's translation and publication of Mendoza's Historia. Subsequently in 1595, Hakluyt first introduced Linschoten's Voyages to English publishers and supported William Phillip's English translation of the work from the Dutch original. This particular work provided the English public with the first detailed geographical information on Korea. In 1601, Hakluyt himself translated Antonio Galvao's The Discoveries of the World.

In 1598, Hakluyt published the first volume of the second edition of Principal Navigation. Volume 2 followed in 1599, and volume 3 in 1600. In terms of content, there was such a disparity between the first and the second edition of Principal Navigation, that for all means and purposes they are separate books. This second edition was the fruit of Hakluyt's exceptional editorial skills and provided the foundations on which England was to eventually forge a maritime empire during the succeeding Elizabethan era. The second edition basically copied the format of the first. Volume 1 deals with materials related to the northeast sea route; volume 2, the southeast route; volume 3, the American continent. In providing a comprehensive overview of the maritime history of Europe during the age of discovery, the second edition of Principal Navigation was a working geographical dictionary. The second edition makes two significant references to Korea. Hakluyt managed to discover the Latin transcript of William of Rubruck's report to French King Louis IX, which had been lost for almost three centuries, and he included English translated segments in volume one of the second edition. In reality, Hakluyt had provided conclusive evidence for future historians that the existence of Korea was known to Europe even before Marco Polo. Furthermore, Hakluyt translated excerpts from 1590-1594 annual Jesuit letters written by Frois and Bresciano, dispatched to Rome and Lisbon, and included them in the second edition. As explained earlier, these annual letters had been translated into various languages throughout Europe between 1593 and 57 and had also been included verbatim in Guzman's Historia de las Missiones. The three letters, referred to as 'accounts' in Hakluyt's book, dealt with Korea's geographical characteristics and with the 1592 War between Japan and Korea. The first of these accounts was basically a translated excerpt from Frois's annual letter of 1590. Frois mentions that Hideyoshi "is to set forth his armies, & to passe to the land of Coray, which the Portugales call Coria, being devided from Japan with an arme of the sea." Frois points out that while the Portuguese in the past erroneously categorized Korea as an island country, it is in fact a peninsula lying merely 20 leagues to the West of Japan and bordering China. The second account is a compilation of translated excerpts from Frois's Annual Letters of 1591 and 1592, published in Rome in 1595. Some 14 typeset pages were devoted to Korea, a considerable amount at the time, and subsequently served as the basis for Martini's and de Halde's studies on Korea in the 17th century. Here Frois expounds upon Korea's geography, culture, and political system, Japan's preparations for war, the anticipated effects of the war on Hideyoshi's political influence in Japan, an assessment of Hideyoshi's political strategem during the whole affair, and personal hopes that the war would provide the Jesuits with a foothold into Korea and China. Although he refrains from making any direct criticism of Japan for instigating the war, Frois does mention that a large number of Koreans were captured by the Japanese and utilized in their war efforts, and that the Koreans were on the cause of justice in their struggles against the aggressors. Frois was particularly impressed by the Korean fleet force and provides a rather lengthy and detailed account of its exploits during sea battles with the Japanese fleet. The third account that deals with Korea is a translated excerpt of the Annual Letters of 1594, published in Milano in 1597. Here Bresciano lodges a stern criticism of Japan for maintaining a military presence in Korea in order to gain a upper hand in its negotiations with China. In sum, Hakluyt selected and translated representative Jesuit letters dealing with Korea for his second edition.

The second edition of Hakluyt's Principal Navigations was considered the most ideal model of maritime accounts to be published in Europe and was widely read among the European intellectuals of the time. And the 'accounts on Korea' included in the second addition remained the most authoritative introduction to Korea until the publication of Hamel's book in the mid 17th century. VII. Conclusion At the turn of the 16th century, what little Europeans knew about Korea could arguably be summed up in the single sentence on Korea featured in Polo's Travels.

By the end of the century, however, interest in Korea grew, as exemplified in Guzman's Historia de las Missiones, which allotted some 80 pages on the Hermit Kingdom. Sixteenth century Europeans had access to a considerably larger amount of information and knowledge about Korea than did their immediate predecessors; however, this information was nevertheless limited in scope and marred by prevalent biases. One explanation is that in the 16th century, Europeans necessarily saw Korea via the windows of China and Japan. Most of the Portuguese and Spanish documents on China dealt with Korea in reference to the tributary relationship between China and its neighboring countries, and this is the premise on which Europeans of the time understood Korea and other Asian countries in the region. Europe's main source of materials on Korea was the Jesuit missionaries in Japan, whose view of Korea was necessarily tainted by their inherent apprehensions about the unknown kingdom, zeal for Catholic evangelism, and personal hardships during the military invasion. In effect, the predominantly negative image of Korea that permeated the psyche of Europeans of the time is based on this backdrop. In the absence of copyright laws, these materials were readily translated and published in the major cities across Europe and served as the fundamental source on Korea for the Europeans until the publication of Hamel's Journal in the late 17th century.