[KS] inquiry of Koryo period during the Yuan period

BakerDon ubcdbaker at hotmail.com
Sun Dec 19 16:18:14 EST 2010


Mapmakers are not comfortable with ambiguity.  Koryo was largely autonomous in its internal affairs, but had been incorporated into the Mongol empire and therefore was under the overall authority of the Yuan dynasty. The reason why Silla and Choson are shown as independent countries on maps and Koryo during the Mongol period is not is that  the Mongols exercised much more control over Koryo than Tang ever did over Silla or Ming and Qing ever did over Choson. A careful mapmaker might try to draw the distinction between fully independent countries and countries that are autonomous within a larger empire by using dotted lines for the border between Koryo and the territory the Mongols ruled directly, and solid lines to distinguish the Yuan empire from countries it never drew into its orbit. Did that map do that? 

Don Baker ProfessorDepartment of Asian Studies University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2 don.baker at ubc.ca



> Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:59:02 -0800
> From: dilj at pdx.edu
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: [KS]   inquiry of Koryo period during the Yuan period
> 
> Dear members,
> 
> I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday and saw the Kubhlai 
> Khan exhibition.  The map of Yuan dynasty in the exhibition shows that 
> there was no Koryo dynasty and Yuan dynasty territory extends to the 
> Korean peninsula.  Koryo was no where seen.  Is this correct? 
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Junghee Lee
> 
 		 	   		  
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