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근대한국외교문서

수신사 金綺秀의 동정 및 森山茂 회견 보고

조약 체결 이전 영국의 조선 관련 보고
  • 발신자
    H.S. Parkes
  • 수신자
    Derby
  • 발송일
    1876년 6월 9일(음)(1876년 6월 9일)
  • 출전
    FO 46/206.
(No. 100)
The Earl of Derby
Yedo
June 9, 1876

My Lord,

In my dispatch No. 97 of the 6th instant I reported the arrival of the Corean Mission which I informed Your Lordship in my dispatch No. 77 was being sent from Corea to Yedo.
The Japanese Government are gratified to find that the object of the Mission is entirely friendly and intended by the Corean Government to confirm the new relations established by the recent Treaty.
The Envoy is a functionary of the third rank, and he is accompanied by two Assistants who are believed to be of even higher rank than their Chief. His suite is composed partly of officers who have been stationed at Fusan and who are, therefore, familiar with the past relations of Japan at that Port, and partly of officers who were employed in the negotiation of the Treaty at Kokwa. The Japanese Government seem to have expected that some of the members of the Mission would have been authorized to study and report upon the new institutions of Japan, but the Envoy has explained that this part of the plan has been deferred until a later period, and that his visit is intended as one of ceremony only, having for its chief object to express the hope of his Government that the friendly relations now established between Corea and Japan should be strengthened and maintained.
The Japanese Government naturally wish to show the Envoy all the principal objects of interest in Yedo, but I have been informed that he has responded to their invitations with great reserve, and that he considers that it would be unbecoming of him to indulge in amusement, or to evince curiosity in the novel scene which surrounds. It appears that he will only accept arrangements made for his entertainment, or edification when assured that it is the express wish of the Mikado that he should do so, and he then complies because he considers that his duty requires him to respect the commands of the sovereign to whom he has been sent. Another peculiarity, real or professed, is his alleged aversion to foreigners, and in showing him over the public departments the Japanese Government assign this as the reason for desiring the absence of their foreign employees.
He also appears to avoid as far as possible incurring obligations towards the Japanese Government, and two or three days after his arrival he declined their offer to supply his table, and the wants of his suite during his stay, and insisted on using his own inferior provisions which he had brought with him from Corea. He also thinks it necessary to move about only in his own conveyance, which is a clumsy kind of chair carried on the shoulders of twelve men; he is always accompanied by his band which plays most discordant music, and by a numerous retinue equipped in very fantastic dresses, and carrying halberts and other strange ensigns of rank. The contrast between the appearance of the Corean and that of the Japanese is very striking, and is, I need scarcely add, very favourable to the latter.
It is aborous, however, that the forced, and unnatural rigidity of the Coreans must relax when it comes in contact even with such solvents as the Japanese are able to apply, and Mr. Moriyama, the well known Japanese agent at Fusan for many years, has observed to me that he considers that great advances have already been made in persuading the Coreans to modify their prejudices. Last year, he remarked, the Corean Authorities would not receive me at Fusan, because I went there in a foreign built ship and wore clothes of foreign fashion. Now a Corean Envoy has traveled to Japan in a foreign built ship, and has prostrated himself before our Sovereign who wore a foreign costume, when entertained by us at table they have always been served in foreign form, with foreign food and wines, of both of which they partook freely; they have listened to foreign music, some of them have been driven in foreign carriages, and at the military shows which they have witnessed they have seen nothing but foreign uniforms, arms, accoutrements, artillery and drill, and cannot but be sensible of the superiority of these, and of the greater comforts enjoyed by the Japanese as compared to those of their own country. The railway by which they traveled from Yokohama to Yedo caused them great surprise which they were entirely unable to conceal.
Mr. Moriyama also mentioned to me a satisfactory instance of their being ready to profit by scientific knowledge. The Japanese surgeon of one of the ships lately sent to Fusan was freely allowed to dispense gratuitous medical aid to sick Coreans who came to him in large numbers, and he profited by the opportunity to introduce vaccination among them to a considerable extent.
I enclose a translation of an interesting article from a Japanese newspaper which compares the present condition of Japan and Corea, and argues that although Japan has suffered some inconvenience from having been forced into relations with the outer world, she has been more than compensated by the superior knowledge she has there acquired. The writer contrasts the reception which Japan is now able to give to the Corean Envoy with the feebler course they would have followed if they had remained in their old condition, and he congratulates his country on being able to assume towards Corea an attitude similar to that of Commodore Perry when he appeared with his squadron in Japanese waters in 1853.
I have, &c.
Harry S. Parkes

Inclosure
“Hochi Shimbun”―(May 31, 1876)

Newspaper article upon the advantages gained by Japan and her relations with foreign countries.

(Translation)
Upon consideration of the first commencement of our relations with foreign lands, we find that since that time more than twenty years have elapsed. Now what was the actual nature of the stage of advancement to which Japan had attained twenty odd years ago? If we cast a backward glance over this period, there crowd across our vision, swarming like caterpillars, events, some of them worthy of laugher, others, of grief, and others again, of indignation. Two hundred years of profound peace had sapped the energies of the whole nation, and the policy of exclusion had become in their eyes a law as precious as gold or jewels, when some black vessels suddenly forced their way into the Shinagawa sea, and aroused us from our spring-tide dream of peace and tranquility. The fishermen who angled for profits left us, but again returned, and with a cast of their net caught and entangled the minds of the officials and Shogunate, alarming them with a display of their power. Their specious baits deceived the latter, who were approached both by persuasion and by threats, and even the settlement of those Treaties, by which an inch was granted but ten feet taken, was quietly agreed to by us, in our ignorance of the hardships those Treaties might in after time entail upon us. Our sole object was merely to avoid present troubles. How could we foresee that the peach blossoms of our tranquil state would fall scattered hither and thither, leaving no fragrance behind, and that when the spring time had passed and the summer had gone by, our former joys would eventually give place to present regrets; or that we should ever reach a day like the present, when the autumn winds blow shrill upon us!
Upon reflection, how could our countrymen, at the date of the first arrival of the Americans, possibly have known how to deal with them diplomatically? Even had we at the time resented and refused the Treaties, this would not have arisen from our calculations of future advantage. Intimate relations with foreigners being the matter of all others most distasteful to the Japanese people, the only anxiety of the Shogunate would have been the question of whether the people would create disturbances or would remain quiet. How should the Shogunate have felt the desire of extending, by means of these Treaties, its benefits down to the present day? For this reason, then, even though we may at the present time, when we look at the Treaties granted by the Shogunate, feel anger thereat, still, how can we exclusively ascribe them to the fault of the Shogunate. It was owing to an unavoidable tendency of affairs.
If, however, we consider how matters stood more than twenty years ago, and enquire into the state of progress then existing, and if we then make a comparison with the present time, we shall find that the period of over twenty years has certainly not merely passed by uselessly. For even though we cannot but feel regret that our wealth and possessions should have been driven forth beyond the seas, we must nevertheless feel pleased that we have acquired knowledge from foreigners, which we have developed amongst ourselves. Supposing that we had caused the spring-breeze of former days to blow warm even up to the present moment, had preserved our peach blossoms and our happy dreams, and had never at any time unfastened the lock on the entrance to our cavern, how could we at the present time be able to view the state of affairs we now behold? If we fix our attention on this, we must cease to chatter about the troubles that have arisen from our foreign relations, and consider for awhile the advantages accruing therefrom. When we reflect that we have by means of the wealth and treasure of our land acquired the knowledge and arts of foreigners, we ought not, even though the price be an exceedingly high one—to feel the slightest regret for this.
We will proceed in the same spirit to make some remarks on the nature of the circumstances which led to the recent arrival of a Corean embassy and the re-establishment of friendly relations with that country. Just consider what was the source of our ancient literature. It came originally from China. Thus, then, its real home was China, but still its introduction direct from China was a matter of much later date. In the first instance it must have been through the medium of Corea, a branch-establishment as it were of China, that we received it, second-hand. There is, therefore, no necessity for arguing the fact that one half of our literature in olden times was obtained from Corea. And at the present time, seeing that there are clear proofs of our literature having been imported from Corea, it is only necessary to give a glance at this evidence of her having, in olden times, rendered aid to that literature. The intercourse between Corea and ourselves was, however, all but wholly broken off after the expedition of the Toyotomi Taiko, and the single link connecting us with her was that still maintained by the merchants of Tsushima. But the Coreans looked upon the people of Tsushima solely with glances of hatred and suspicion, and their demonstrations of friendliness were of course for form approaching cordiality. Owing to these circumstances we had no means of ascertaining accurately the condition of the interior of the territory of Corea, or the extent to which her state of wealth and literature had advanced. But from the recent visit of our High Commissioner to that country we have at last acquired a knowledge of the natural condition of their internal affairs, and that condition has raised in our mind some quite unexpected impressions.
Supposing that the old condition of our country had been maintained up till the present time, consider what would have been presented to our view on the occasion of the recent arrival of the Corean embassy. Would we have seen those officials arrive on board ship, and, landing at Yokohama, at once proceed by rail to the Shimbashi station? They would have braved the waves in a single-sailed vessel and so come to Nagasaki. Next, they would have to come overland to Yedo. The persons appointed to look after them, again, would not only have been beings of a different stamp to the Coreans, but would on the contrary, as regards such matters as literature &c., have been actually inferior to them. At that period, even though they had ridiculed the Coreans, their laugher would merely have been excited by the difference apparent in their style of dress, and this would have been just the same as their laughter as they first saw the Americans. But still, when we now look at the Coreans and examine their condition, the ideas that spontaneously arrive in our minds do not, it is very clear, come from similar considerations to those which caused us in former days to laugh when we saw the Americans.
We have obtained an article recently published in the “Gazette” newspaper treating of the relations between Japan and Corea. It says: “At the present time the Japanese have dealt with the Coreans in the same manner as that in which they themselves were in former times being treated by others (meaning, by foreigners). Upon a consideration of the Treaty drawn up between the two nations, it will be found that they have already rejected the objectionable spirit of the East, and have adopted the usages of the West. Japan is the fore-runner of civilization in regard to the East…&c...” Now, although we cannot give full credit to this article, still there may not be wanting some reason for Western people to hold ideas of the above nature.
By the treaty which we have now concluded with Corea, we have not only dried up the source that has for many years given rise to internal disturbances in Japan, but we have also the satisfaction of observing that our present mode of dealing with Corea is unlike that existing twenty years ago, and is similar to that adopted by the Americans towards us at the time in question. Thus, if we now judge the Coreans by the standard of their appearance to our eyes, we can easily conjecture the degree of advancement to which we have attained during the period of twenty years and can also ascertain the extent of our advancement prior to the said twenty years. These reflections will assist us to forget the losses we have sustained for the past twenty years, and will afford us some slight degree of consolation.

색인어
이름
Derby, Moriyama, Moriyama, Perry, Harry S. Parkes
지명
Yedo, Yedo, Fusan, Yedo, Fusan, Fusan, Yokohama, Yedo, Fusan, Shinagawa sea, Tsushima, Tsushima, Yokohama, Shimbashi station, Nagasaki, Yedo
사건
negotiation of the Treaty at Kokwa
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수신사 金綺秀의 동정 및 森山茂 회견 보고 자료번호 : gk.d_0007_0230