Pukyong National University

An insight into society and life in the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century through Japanese eyes

- PKNU published a collection of maritime humanities, 『the Picture of Drifting to the Qing Dynasty』

Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-Soo) has recently translated and published 『the Picture of Drifting to the Qing Dynasty 淸國漂流圖』 (Somyong books), which provides insight into society and life in the early 19th century from a Japanese perspective.

This book, published as the 5th edition of the maritime humanities' collection by the Institute for humanities and social science at Pukyong National University (Director Son Dong-Joo), is a story of the Japanese who drifted to the Qing dynasty and returned to their country.

At that time, the city and port, countryside and scenic views of the Jiangnan of the Qing are described in great detail. It was written by Moriyama Deyiziro and translated by Park Hwa-Jin, emeritus professor (Department of History) and HK professor Seo Gwang-Deok (Institute for humanities and social science).

29 people, including the Satsuma-Han, departed from Naha, Ryukyu, and landed at Haimen in Jiangnan in China in July 1810, and after that, Moriyama Deyiziro, captain of the ship 'Joku' recorded the journey from Zhapu, Zhejiang to Nagasaki, Japan through 『the Diary of Drifting to the Qing Dynasty』, and based on this, Hashikuchi Senppaku Shouho, the archivist of Sastuma-Han, completed 『the Picture of Drifting to the Qing Dynasty』 in 1814 at last.

From this point of view, this book has been recognized of great historical and literary value, in that they realistically expressed the process of returning from the area where they settled, and the impression of the area, it is possible to understand the times along with the public records of each country on maritime exchanges in east Asia before modern times.

Researchers in East Asia value it highly because the pictures in this book describe in great detail about the Qing dynasty perceived by the Japanese, especially the Jiangnan in China, it is a valuable resource for accessing the Qing society and life of ordinary people in the early 19th century, as well as the Japanese people's self-awareness.

This time, along with the typesetting work of the original text, the Korean translation attempt received good reviews. In fact, the original text of this book was written in Hentaigana (？態？名) from the Edo period in Japan, and the full text was not interpreted in modern Japanese, making it difficult for general researchers to use.

Professor Park Hwa-Jin said, "As a good resource for the study of pre-modern east Asian drift as well as comparison of urban village history and folk life, this book is expected to be used a lot as a basic data for the mutual comparison of maritime exchanges between East Asia in the future." <Pukyong Today>