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Korea as "Little China" (So Chunghwa)
The setting in many contemporary South Korean historical dramas is the Chosŏn state (1392–
1897). The public has become familiar with ideas, institutions, and artifacts supposedly represent-
ing Chosŏn. Admiring Chosŏn arts and literature, some may dream about wearing hanbok, the
traditional clothing of Korea, and pacing along the Han River in the kingdom’s capital, Hansŏng
(present-day Seoul). Not so many would question the meanings of the clothing’s designs and
colors, Chosŏn society’s strict adherence to Confucian norms, and the importance of preserving
the established traditions in Chosŏn.
This chapter argues that the continuity of sadae (Ch. shida; “serving the great”) vis-à-vis
Korean relations and the emerging notion of Chosŏn as So Chunghwa (“Little China”) shaped
Korea’s self-identity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The discussion below explores
one of the most controversial, if not emotionally charged, topics in Korean history and culture.
The subject demands addressing an ideologically complex question. The main difficulty is that the
world has changed. Since the late nineteenth century, Korea has undergone a modern transforma-
tion that rejected ideas such as sadae and So Chunghwa, which were important in late Chosŏn.
An observation by James B. Palais is thought-provoking: “[C]ultural borrowing does not reduce
a nation to a cipher. Korea is no more a replica of China than Spain or France of Rome despite
their indebtedness to Rome for the source of their language and culture”. This
chapter discusses how Chosŏn Korea’s efforts toward autonomy capitalized on Sinocentric under-
standings of China as the civilized realm, chunghwa (Ch. zhonghua; “central efflorescence”).
In book
