Imago Mundi

ISSN: 0308-5694 (Print) 1479-7801 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rimu20

Chosn Korea in the Rykoku Kangnido: Dating

the Oldest Extant Korean Map of the World (15th
Century)

Kenneth R. Robinson

To cite this article: Kenneth R. Robinson (2007) Chosn Korea in the Rykoku Kangnido: Dating
the Oldest Extant Korean Map of the World (15th Century), Imago Mundi, 59:2, 177-192, DOI:
10.1080/03085690701300964

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Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido: Dating the Oldest
Extant Korean Map of the World (15th Century)

KENNETH R. ROBINSON

ABSTRACT: The date of the earliest extant Korean world map, entitled Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to (Map
of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals) and now in the Omiya Library,
Ryukoku University Academic Information Center, Kyoto, Japan, is unknown. The Ryukoku Kangnido (as
the map is commonly referred to), along with three other Korean world maps believed to have been made in
Choson Korea in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, is thought to have been derived from a now-lost world
map made in Choson Korea in 1402. Opinions on possible dates for the Ryukoku Kangnido have varied
widely. In this paper, a revised date of between early 1479 and late 1485 is proposed on the basis of a study of
the Korean place-names in the map and changes in the Korean civil and military administration they reflect.
It is also suggested that, despite showing most of the rest of the world, the Korean officials who produced the
Ryukoku Kangnido were less interested in portraying current images of neighbouring Asian countries than in
presenting an up-to-date image of Choson Korea.
KEYWORDS: World maps, 1402 Kangnido, Choson Korea, civil provincial administration system, Honil
kangni yoktae kukto chi to (Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals),
Ryukoku Kangnido, military provincial administration system, Paltodo (Map of the Eight Provinces), Yang
Songji, Yi Hoe.

Four undated world maps, all now in Japan, are
believed to have been produced in Choson Korea
in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries.1 They
show the world in similar form and extent,
stretching from Korea and Japan in the east to
continental Europe in the west, and including
China, India, the Middle East, Africa and numer-
ous islands. All are thought to be based directly or
indirectly upon a Korean world map which is no
longer extant. One difference between the four
maps is that two of them carry a title along the top
and a commemoration along the bottom. These
commemorations indicate a date of 1402 for the
original Korean world map (henceforth referred to
as the 1402 Kangnido).
One or more of these world maps may have been
produced directly from the 1402 composition. One
such candidate, a map with the title Hwang Myong
iltong yojido ki yoktae yonhyok (Comprehensive Map
of Ming China, with Historical Chronology), was
mentioned by a Japanese official, Fukami Gentai,
in a letter written in the early eighteenth-century,

c Dr Kenneth R. Robinson is Associate Professor of History, Division of Social Sciences, International Christian
University. Correspondence to: K. R. Robinson, International Christian University, 3-10-2 Osawa, Mitaka-shi,
Tokyo 181-8585, Japan. E-mail: ,robinson@icu.ac.jp..

Imago Mundi Vol. 59, Part 2: 177192

# 2007 Imago Mundi Ltd ISSN 0308-5694 print/1479-7801 online
DOI: 10.1080/03085690701300964
178 K. R. Robinson
in which he refers to a map (no longer extant) that
he had seen in Kyoto, Japan.2 Fukamis comment
on the map includes the date in that maps
commemoration, 1402/8/4 (or the fourth day of
the eighth month of 1402 in the lunar calendar; 1
September 1402, according to the solar calendar).3
This title, however, differs from the titles on the
two extant maps that have the commemoration.
One of the two extant maps bearing titles is the
Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to (Map of Integrated
Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and
Capitals), which is held at Ryukoku University, in
Kyoto, and is the subject of this paper. It will be
referred to as the Ryukoku Kangnido.4 While the title
of the 1402 Kangnido remains unknown, it is
generally believed that the title of the Ryukoku
Kangnido and other aspects of its content are derived
from the 1402 Kangnido.5 Important keys to studying
the relationship between the two world maps and to
dating the later map are found in the depictions of
northeast Asian countries and Korea, known at the
time as Choson, the name given the country that
was founded in 1392 (and that lasted until 1910).6
The Ryukoku Kangnidos importance in Korean
history is widely acknowledged, partly because it
contains the oldest extant cartographic representa-
tion of Choson, and partly because the commem-
oration confirms its derivation from a still earlier
map, the lost 1402 Kangnido.7 It is clear that the
Ryukoku Kangnido was more than a straightfor-
ward reproduction of the earlier map (or, rather, its
assumed contents), since many of the Korean
place-names found on it were introduced after
1402. The Ryukoku Kangnido has been given
various dates ranging from the second half of the
fifteenth century to the early sixteenth century;
most commonly the early 1470s are cited on the
basis of the names of civil administration centres in
Choson.8
Two arguments are put forward in the present
article. The first leads to a re-dating of the Ryukoku
Kangnido through a re-examination of the Korean
administrative place-names in the map.9 The
second concerns the context from which, I am
suggesting, the Ryukoku Kangnido emerged, and
posits the idea that the Koreans involved in its
production were more interested in presenting a
new image of Choson than in creating a new
representation of northeast Asia.
The Ryukoku Kangnido
The Ryukoku Kangnido is a large, coloured map on
silk, measuring 164 6 171.8 centimetres (Plate 4).
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
The map has been attached to a baton, which
means it has to be unrolled, from top to bottom, for
viewing. No creases from folding are visible in the
map. Oceans and seas, marked by black lines
indicating waves, are coloured green. Rivers and
lakes are blue and lack the wave lines. Mountain
chains are outlined by jagged black lines over
which a yellow hue has been applied. Islands,
excluding Japan, are usually represented by circles,
with the place-name written within. Government
administrative centres, other urban centres and
natural features such as mountains and rivers are
identified through words written in black ink. The
map has north at the top.
The area portrayed extends from Choson and
Japan in the east (on the viewers right) through
China and central Asia to the Middle East and then
to continental Europe (on the viewers left), where
the Iberian Peninsula and the (unshaded)
Mediterranean Sea can be identified. In the bottom
half of the map two jutting land areas are
considered to represent Africa and the Arabian
Peninsula respectively. India, in contrast, is not
clearly defined. Islands and imaginary lands are
scattered about the Asian seas and to the south of
the Eurasian land mass.
All place-names, which include administrative
centres and natural features, are written in Chinese
characters. The capitals of Choson, China and
Japan are marked by circles, coloured red, as are
numerous other places within China. Circular
cartouches are also used to identify historical
dynasties in China. Within China there are also a
large number of vertical rectangular cartouches
coloured red and containing the name of a route
(lu). The route was an administrative unit sub-
ordinate to the circuit (tao), which was in turn
subordinate to the province (xingsheng) in Yuan
China. The administrative place-names in the
Ryukoku Kangnidos representation of China are
thus those of Yuan China, and the image reflected
in the map dates from after 1328 and 1329.10
Throughout the map country boundaries, if infor-
mation about them would have been available to
the early mapmakers or to the Korean officials
involved in the production of the 1402 Kangnido,
are not shown.
Finally, at the top of the map the title is written
from right to left. Directly below the title is a list of
historical Chinese capitals and a summary of admin-
istrative centres in Yuan China, including provinces,
routes, superior prefectures (fu), and prefectures
(zhou). These also are read from right to left.11 At
the bottom of the map is the commemoration written
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
by the Korean court official Kwon Kun. This text of
285 characters in forty-eight columns reads from
right to left.
The Ryukoku Kangnido is a heteroglossic arte-
fact.12 Its prototype, the 1402 Kangnido, had itself
been derived from maps in several cartographical
traditions. A variety of languages thus underlie the
Ryukoku Kangnido place-names. For instance, for
the representation of the Middle East, continental
Europe and Africa, the Korean officials used one or
two Chinese maps that are believed to have
reproduced place-names and other data from
Islamic cartography. The toponyms written in
Arabic on the Islamic maps would have been
rendered in Chinese characters on one or both of
these maps, which are thought to have reached
Korea on the return of a Korean embassy that had
visited China between 1392, when the Choson
government was established, and 1402.
In Korea, Yi Hoe and other officials compiling the
1402 Kangnidoand, much later, the Ryukoku
Kangnidocopied these Chinese character place-
names. The Japanese place-names in the Ryukoku
Kangnido derive from a Korean map of Japan,
presumed to have been used for the 1402 Kangnido,
which derived from Japanese source maps.13 For
the mapping of Choson itself in the 1402 Kangnido,
the Paltodo (Map of the Eight Provinces) is
believed to have been used. Yi Hoe had compiled
this map, now lost, and submitted it to King
Taejong (r. 1400/111418/8) in 1402/5.14
Kwon Kuns commemoration states that one of
the Chinese maps used in the compilation of the
1402 Kangnido was Li Zemins Shengjiao guangbei tu
(Map of the Vast Reach of [Civilizations]
Resounding Teaching), now lost. This map is
believed to have incorporated data culled from
Islamic cartography and to be that from which the
depictions of China, the Middle East, continental
Europe and Africa in the 1402 Kangnido had come.
The second map, the Hunyi jiangli tu (Map of
Integrated Regions and Terrains) by the Chinese
monk Qingjun, also now lost, is thought to have
been a map of China, and to have provided the title
for the 1402 Kangnido and the list of historical
capitals in China written below the title. (The five
characters in Hunyi jiangli tu all appear in the
Ryukoku Kangnidos title.)
Both maps are known today only from Kwon
Kuns preface. Li Zemins map probably was
completed around 1330; the other must have been
completed prior to Qingjuns death in 1392.15 If
indeed these two maps did reach Choson after that
countrys founding in 1392, the fact that Li Zemins
Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 179
Shengjiao guangbei tu depicted China under a
government that was not in power at the time
when the map reached Korea may be supposed to
have eased its transfer to a foreign country. Reliance
on the by now outdated Shengjiao guangbei tu
inevitably resulted in an anachronistic representa-
tion of China in the 1402 map of the world, an
anachronism perpetuated in the Ryukoku Kangnido.
Administrative Geography of Choson
Often remarked on is the enlarged size of Choson
in the Ryukoku Kangnido. Since the map was
designed in Choson, and its portrayal of Choson
was most likely intended for Koreans more than for
visiting dignitaries, the focus on the home country
is not surprising (Fig. 1). Of the 425 words in
the map of Choson, the great majority identify
locations related to civil or military provincial
administration, such as magistracies, military head-
quarters and army and navy bases.16 The capital at
Hansong is indicated, but the large circular
cartouche contains the name of the country, not
that of the city, although marks around the outer
edge of the circle would seem to indicate the citys
walls. In the rest of the country, where the Choson
government organized its hierarchy of counties
within the civil provincial administration system,
the names of the counties are typically written
vertically, but with only a few within a cartouche.
Yet, despite the focus on administration, there
are omissions. Of the 329 counties that existed in
1485, thirty-two are not recorded (Table 1). The
eight provinces into which the country was divided
are not marked in the map, either by lines denoting
boundaries or by name. Nor are the jurisdictional
boundaries of the county magistracies outlined.17
On the other hand, six provincial capitals are
distinguished from other magistracies through
vertical rectangular cartouches.
Besides civil administration, the Ryukoku
Kangnido also shows military defence. The central
government had appointed at least one Army
Commander (Pyongma Choltosa, junior second
grade), and at least one Navy Commander (Sugun
Choltosa, senior third grade) for each province. In
every case except one, where the Korean govern-
ment appointed more than one Army Commander
or Navy Commander to a province, thus elevating
the post to the highest rank in the military
provincial hierarchy, the place is marked in the
map. In contrast, little information is given about
army bases staffed by the Army Sub-area
Commander (Pyongma Manho, junior fourth grade),
Fig. 1. Choson Korea. Detail from the Ryukoku Kangnido. Rivers, mountain ranges, mountain passes, counties, military
bases and islands are shown. Place-names are written in Chinese characters, sometimes within rectangles or circles.
Around the coast, the encircled names may give the appearance of islands, but most identify naval bases. Only the capital,
the Hansong Magistracy (today, Seoul), is marked by a pictorial sign, the oval at mid-peninsula and near the west coast.
(Reproduced with permission from Omiya Library, Ryukoku University Academic Information Center, Kyoto, Japan.)
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007 Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 181

Table 1. Counties and Navy Bases Not Recorded in the Ryukoku Kangnidos Image of Choson

Counties Navy Bases Province

Majon Choji-yang Kyonggi
Yongpyong Kyodong-yang Kyonggi
Pochon Kyonggi
Choksong Kyonggi
Yonchon Kyonggi
Okchon Tangjin-po Chungchong
Hongsan Sochon-po Chungchong
Hoedok Chungchong
Isan Chungchong
Nampo Chungchong
Yongchon Tadae-po Kyongsang
Hayang Ok-po Kyongsang
Hamchang Kyongsang
Sanum Kyongsang
Tansong Kyongsang
Shillyong Kyongsang
Ungchon Kyongsang
Changpyong Yo-do Cholla
Okkwa Popsong-po Cholla
Hungdok Mok-po Cholla
Chinwon Oran-po Cholla
Changsu Namdo-po Cholla
Haeju Kwangam-yang Hwanghae
Pyongsan Yongmae-yang Hwanghae
Anak Hwanghae
Shingye Hwanghae
Pyonghae Anin-po Kangwon
Kumsong Kosong-po Kangwon
Kilsong Toan-po Hamgyong
Myongchon Chosan-po Hamgyong
Yongwon Pyongan
Yongyu Pyongan

and of the eighteen army bases existing in early
1485, seventeen are not identified. Since all
eighteen bases were located in the two northern
provinces of Hamgyong and Pyongan, their near-
absence from the map could be attributed in part to
concerns about security in provinces where Korean
communities were often raided by Jurchens.18
Rather more attention has been paid to the navy
bases. A large number of these, which were each
staffed by a Navy Sub-area Commander (Sugun
Manho, junior fourth grade), are marked along the
coast of the Korean peninsula and on offshore
islands, with the greatest concentration found in
the two southern provinces of Kyongsang and
Cholla, where the need for protection from attack
by Japanese pirates was greatest. The names of the
navy bases are given within circular cartouches set
in the sea along the coast, which makes them
resemble islands. Although the names of these
navy bases were written offshore, the bases
themselves were usually on the coast or, occasion-
ally, as in the case of those in Koje County,
Kyongsang Province, on an island. However, of the
fifty-five navy bases in early 1485, seventeen are
not represented in the map of Choson (Table 1).
Physical Geography
The physical geography depicted in the Ryukoku
Kangnidos representation of Choson includes riv-
ers, mountains and mountain passes. Numerous
waterways are outlined in the map, but only three
are identified: the Yalu River (Amnok-gang) and the
Chongchon River (Chongchon-gang) in the north-
west, and the Naktong River (Naktong-gang) in
Kyongsang Province in the southeast. Con-
temporary Korean interest in geomancy, the
shapes and forces theory according to which
energy was believed to flow through mountain
arteries, helps to account for the prominence of
mountain chains in the map. Long sinuous,
mostly unnamed chains course down the penin-
sula with branches extending to the east and to the
west. Some twenty-four individual peaks or ranges
and four passes are identified by name. These
include Mt. Myohyang (Myohyang-san), Mt. Kaya
182 K. R. Robinson
(Kaya-san), Mt. Chiri (Chiri-san) and Mt. Halla
(Halla-san).
Neither the individual mountains nor the passes
across the ranges are given any special map sign.
Even the volcanic Mt. Paektu (Paektu-san), in the
northeast of the peninsula, receives none of the
special treatment accorded to it by later map-
makers. Mt. Paektu acquired great significance in
Korean geomancy as the key site in the transmis-
sion of energy through the peninsulas mountain
chains in part from the belief that this was the place
to which Hwanung descended and, taking human
form, contributed to the creation of the Korean
people. The mountain began to be differentiated
from other peaks in Choson only from the
sixteenth century. The Tae Myong-guk to (Map of
Great Ming China) from the second half of the
sixteenth century, for example, shows the moun-
tains slopes and its volcanic crater lake, and depicts
the lake as the source of the Tumen River flow-
ing eastward and of the Yalu River flowing
westward.19
The 1402 Kangnido in Korean History
Korean court officials completed the earliest con-
firmed maps of the new country ten years after the
Choson government was founded in 1392. It is not
known what had stimulated the court to prepare a
map of the country, but the Paltodo was presented
to King Taejong in 1402/5 and the 1402 Kangnido
was completed in 1402/8 according to the com-
memoration text. The portrayal of Choson in the
1402 Kangnido is generally thought to have been
based upon the Paltodo.
Given its origins in a state project, the 1402
Kangnido almost certainly became a state instru-
ment, not least inasmuch as a map showing the
whole world would have helped the new govern-
ment, and the kings subjects, to know about places
both near and far.20 The king and his officials also
needed to know the history of their country as well
as its geography. The writing of histories began
during the rule of the founding king, King Taejo
(r. 1392/71398/9).21 In 1395, Chong Tojon and
his colleagues fulfilled a royal command by
presenting King Taejo with the history of Koryo
(Koryo kuksa; not extant), the kingdom founded in
918 and replaced by Choson in 1392.22 This project
followed the Chinese practice of a new government
writing the previous governments history. And in
1402/6 Kwon Kun and two other officials sub-
mitted a history of the still earlier Three Kingdoms
(Samguksa).23 Later that year, in response to a royal
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
order, Kwon Kun and his colleagues embarked on
a revision of the Samguksa, presenting the new
volume (Tongguk saryak; History of the Eastern
Country) in 1403/8.24
The history writing projects situated and con-
firmed Choson and its rulers in the genealogy of
peninsular governance. Maps too played historical,
political and ideological roles in the effort to
legitimize the nascent government, which had
come to power through a coup detat. And the
construction of buildings in the new capital, like
maps, made visible the new governments rule.
The Commemoration Text
Below the mapped world in the Ryukoku Kangnido
is the commemoration by Kwon Kun, who served
in the State Council (Uijongbu), the highest office
to which the monarch appointed officials. The
space for the commemoration extends along the
bottom of the map (see Plate 4). The text begins at
the right edge of the map and continues to about
three-quarters of the way towards the left edge.
The commemorations prominence in the Ryukoku
Kangnido suggests that space had likewise been set
aside for it in the 1402 Kangnido. If so, this would
further emphasize the prestige invested in the
map-making project. Like the visual text, Kwons
commemoration embedded Choson in a wider
world.
Kwon set the 1402 map in the intellectual and
political contexts of early fifteenth-century Korea,
when officials were emphasizing Confucian polit-
ical and social theory as they strove to transform
their society into a Confucian society.25 Such views
informed the conceptualization and ordering of the
world depicted in the 1402 Kangnido, and
the commemoration would have served to guide
the readers understanding of the visual image. In
expressing the view common among Korean
governing elites that civilization extended outward
from China, Kwon was situating his country and
Koreans culturally, ideologically, diplomatically
and geographically within discursive and visual
frameworks that privileged China and
Confucianism. He began by noting that The world
is very wide. We do not know how many tens of
millions of li there are from China in the center to
the four seas at the outer limits . . .26 By placing
China at the centre of this mapped world, Kwon set
China at the apex of an ordering of the civilized
and the uncivilized in the world.
Kwons text also gives a date for the completion
of the commemoration, a date which may also be
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
read to indicate the completion of the 1402
Kangnido. However, surviving commemorations,
or references to commemorations on now-lost
maps, are inconsistent in the dates they cite. The
version of the commemoration found in Kwons
collected writings and those recorded in the
Ryukoku Kangnido and also in the world map at
the Honkoji temple provide the same account
regarding the work on the map. In the summer
of 1402 Yi Hoe was ordered to carefully collate
[the two Chinese maps noted above] and combine
them into a single map. Yi also supplemented and
expanded the map of our country and added a map
of Japan, making it a new map entirely . . .27
The commemoration in Kwons posthumous
collected writings is dated to this year/autumn/8/
day, that is, to an unspecified day in the eighth
month of 1402. In the two world maps the
commemorations date is this year/autumn, or
the autumn of 1402. The most complete date in a
commemoration, however, comes from Fukami
Gentais comment on the Korean map he saw in
Kyoto. He stated that the commemoration on that
map was dated Jianwen 4/autumn/8/4, that is,
1402/8/4, or 1 September 1402, which would
mean that the 1402 Kangnido could have been
completed with the addition of Kwons commem-
oration on 1402/8/4.28
Dating the Ryukoku Kangnido
Scholars have dated the Ryukoku Kangnido to
between the 1450s and the early sixteenth century
on the basis of the Korean counties named in the
map and the changes in civil provincial adminis-
tration they reflect.29 The Korean scholar O
Sanghaks recent study of Korean military provin-
cial administrative centres led him to suggest that
the map was finished sometime between 1480 and
1534.30 The study of changes in the administrative
geography of Choson in the second half of the
fifteenth century takes us a step nearer to a specific
date for the Ryukoku Kangnido. First, though, note
should be taken of changes made earlier in the
fifteenth century that confirm that the Ryukoku
Kangnido was more than a copy of its 1402
predecessor.31
Place-Name Changes in the 1410s
In the 1410s, the Choson court introduced various
changes in local civil administration. These
included the realignment of province boundaries,
the reorganization of the administrative hierarchy
of counties and the renaming of counties. The
Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 183
changes affected provincial and county levels of
administration.
In 1413, for example, the jurisdictional area of
Kyonggi Provincewhich included the royal
palace, the capital and the central government
was reshaped by the transfer of six counties into
this province. In that year, the court redistributed
seventeen counties among five provinces.32 And in
1413/10 the court raised the two northern districts
(myon) to provinces (to) and renamed them as
Pyongan Province (in the northwest) and Yonggil
Province (in the northeast).33
Other changes affected the administrative status
of some of the magistracies inherited from the
Koryo government and the names of county
magistrate posts. For example, twenty-two magis-
tracies were reclassified as Town (tohobu) in 1413,
and another seven in 1415.34 Many lower-level
magistracies were elevated to Great County (kun),
while the lowest-ranking county became a Small
County (hyon, staffed by a Hyongam, or Small
County Magistrate).35 The scale of such changes
was considerable; more than one hundred men
were appointed to magistracies below Town, with
more than seventy of these new appointments to
Small County magistracies.36
The Choson government also considered the
names of counties.37 The new toponyms expressed
the new governments rule and reinforced its
administration in the provinces. J. B. Harley wrote
regarding the replacement of North American
Indians toponyms by English settlers that A name
could be a potentially dangerous symbol of survival
as much as its elimination was public proof of
conquest.38 In the tenth and early eleventh
centuries the previous Koryo government had
affixed the character for prefecture, or chu, to
place-names of territories where supporters and
other individuals or families who were considered
politically important lived.39 In 1413/10 King
Taejong ordered the removal of the character chu
from the names of counties at the kun and hyon
levels and its replacement by the character for
mountain (san) or river (chon).40 Thus, for
example Kapchu in Hamgyong Province became
the Kapsan, and Chunju in Kangwon Province
became the Chunchon that are recorded in the
Ryukoku Kangnido. The result was some sixty-six
new place-names by the end of 1416.
Further place-name changes occurred in 1416/10,
when the court renamed seven magistracies in order
to eliminate homophonous county names. For
example, in the case of the two counties, in
Hamgyong Province and Chungchong Province
184 K. R. Robinson Imago Mundi 59:2 2007

Table 2. Administrative Changes to Counties, 14541469

Note: STYS is an abbreviation of Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32).

County (Province) Closed or Merged Source Re-established Source

Samsu (Hamgyong) 1454/10/29 Tanjong sillok 12:18b 1461 STYS 49:39ab
Yoyon (Pyongan) 1455 Ledyard, 283
Muchang (Pyongan) 1455 Ledyard, 283
Uye (Pyongan) 1455 Ledyard, 283
Sunhung (Kyongsang) 1457/8/2 Sejo sillok 8:26a
Chasong (Pyongan) 1459/1/15 Sejo sillok 15:5b6a
Unsan (Pyongan) 1459/1/20 Sejo sillok 15:7b8a 1462/6/28 Sejo sillok 28:33b34a
Asan (Chungchong) 1459/1/23 Sejo sillok 15:8b9a 1465/9/5 Sejo sillok 37:4a
Pakchon (Pyongan) 1459/1 STYS 54:12a 1464/5/30 Sejo sillok 33:23b
Wiwon (Pyongan) 1459/7/1 Sejo sillok 17:1a 1464/7/4 Sejo sillok 33:33a
Suchon (Pyongan) 1466/2/3 Sejo sillok 38:11b
Myongchon (Hamgyong) 1469 (established) STYS 50:8a9b,
50:15b16a

respectively, that were pronounced identically
Chongjubut written differently, the court
renamed one (in Hamgyong Province) as
Pukchong.41 By such acts, the Choson court was
able to inscribe its own governance onto the
territory and to remove reminders of relationships
between the Koryo state and local elites forged
under the previous government.
The administrative status of a county, and
consequently its name, could be changed at any
time. A county might be elevated to a higher status
based upon some form of connection to the royal
family, or as a reward for a service rendered by a
member of the local elite, or for some military
reason. Adjustments were also made to the rank of
a county according to an increase or decrease in its
population. Yet other place-name changes resulted
from a criminal act, which brought about a
reduction of the places administrative status, as
happened to Kilchu (1469; renamed as Kilsong),
Kwangju (1489; renamed as Kwangsan)
and Chungju (1549; renamed as Yusin).42 In
these three cases, the reduction to Small County
necessitated the replacement of the character chu
in the place-name with another character. The
court replaced the character for prefecture in
Kilchu with fort (song) and the character for
prefecture in Kwangju with that for mountain,
but replaced Chungju with a new two-character
place-name (Yusin). The subsequent restoration of
these counties to the previous administrative status
involved the reinstatement of the prefecture
character.
Such changes to local administration after 1402
could not have been included in the representation
of Choson in the 1402 Kangnido. Any map, such as
the Ryukoku Kangnido, made after the second
decade of the fifteenth century inevitably carried
county names and depicted county and provincial
administrations that differed from that recorded on
any map made in 1402.
Place-Names Changes in 1450s and 1460s
Changes to civil provincial administration in the
1450s and 1460s were concentrated in the north-
ern provinces, where they altered the roster of
magistracies and reshaped the administrative geo-
graphy. The place-name changes also help to
identify other possible sources, in addition to the
1402 Kangnido, for the Ryukoku Kangnidos por-
trayal of Choson.
The Choson court merged, or closed, and then
re-established or renamed, several counties
between 1454 and 1469 (Table 2). For example,
the court closed the counties of Yoyon, Muchang
and Uye, in the north of Pyongan Province, in
1455, and the county of Chasong, also in the north
of Pyongan Province, in 1459/1. One likely reason
for the withdrawal of government officials and
magistrates from these rugged, distant areas was
the difficulty in protecting the scattered Korean
communities against raids by Jurchens living along
the China-Choson border.43 However, while the
Ryukoku Kangnido shows the prefix old (ko)
before the names of Yoyon, Muchang and Uye,
that prefix is not attached to the name of
Chasong.44 Also recorded in Pyongan Province
are Wiwon and Suchon counties. Wiwon had
been closed in 1459/7 but was re-established in
1464/7. Suchon was closed in 1466/2.45
Similarly, Asan (Chungchong Province) and
Unsan and Pakchon (both in Pyongan Province)
are shown. Asan had been divided among
three neighbouring counties in 1459/1 but was
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
re-established as a county in 1465/9. Unsan was
also closed in 1459/1 and its area placed within
Yongbyon County, but three years later, in 1462/6,
Unsan recovered its former status. Pakchon was
merged with Yongbyon County in 1459/1 and then
re-established in 1464/5. And in Hamgyong
Province the court closed Samsu County in 1454/
10 and reopened it as a Great County magistracy in
1461.46 Samsu too appears in the Ryukoku
Kangnido.
The dates of the closure and re-establishment of
these counties assist in identifying a potential
Korean source map for the Ryukoku Kangnido.
On 1463/11/12 (21 December 1463) Chong Chok
and Yang Songji, both of whom were involved in
cartographic and other geographic projects during
their government careers, presented the Tongguk
chido (Map of the Eastern Country) to King Sejo (r.
1455/Intercalary 6-1468/9). This map, however, is
not extant. The Tongguk chido is likely to have
included the counties of Samsu and Unsan, both of
which had been re-established prior to the maps
submission. The presence in the Ryukoku Kangnido
of Suchon, which the court closed in 1466/2, also
may have derived from the Tongguk chido. While
these and other place-names in the Ryukoku
Kangnido may have derived from the Tongguk chido,
the delineation of the northeast in the Ryukoku
Kangnido is more likely to have followed that in the
1402 Kangnido.47
Military Administration Changes, 14791485
O Sanghaks examination of military provincial
administration centres led him to offer two new
dates for the Ryukoku Kangnido, 1480 for the
earliest and 1534 for the latest. The first date is later
than most dates suggested as the earliest at which
the map could have been completed. It derives
from the establishment in Sunchon County,
Cholla Province, of the headquarters of the
Cholla Left Province Navy Commander (Cholla-do
Chwado Sugun Choltosa, senior third grade), which
O Sanghak dates to that year. O Sanghaks closing
date represents what he considers was the earliest
by which the central government transferred the
headquarters of the Kyongsang Left Province Navy
Commander (Kyongsang-do Chwado Sugun Choltosa,
senior third grade) from the port (po) of Kaeun, in
Ulsan County, to the port of Haeun, in Tongnae
County.48 O Sanghaks research has encouraged
me to focus on the military provincial administra-
tion system in attempting to date the Ryukoku
Kangnido.
Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 185
In my view, there are good reasons for
suggesting that the establishment of the Cholla
Left Province Navy Commander headquarters
occurred before 1480. On 1479/1/6 (28 January
1479), King Songjong (r. 1469/111494/12)
ordered that a navy base (chujin) be built at
Naeye, a port to the east of the Sunchon County
magistrates office, and that a Navy Commander
be stationed there. The official who proposed the
construction of the navy base and the appoint-
ment of a Navy Commander had argued that
should there be a Japanese pirate attack (wae-
byon), the eastern half of Cholla Province (a fertile
agricultural area) would without doubt be tar-
geted.49 In Japan, civil war had engulfed much of
the country since 1467, and although fighting had
waned since 1477, the Choson court was not well
informed in early 1479 about the current situa-
tion. The concern about piracy was based on
several decades of experience in the late four-
teenth and early fifteenth centuries when
Japanese coastal raids and inland incursions had
flared while civil war raged in the islands.
Four days later, on 1479/1/10 (1 February 1479),
King Songjong appointed officials to the new posts
of Cholla Left Province Navy Commander and
Cholla Right Province Navy Commander (Cholla-do
Udo Sugun Choltosa, senior third grade).50 The
Cholla Left Province Navy Commander was dis-
patched to Sunchon County, the Cholla Right
Province Navy Commander to Haenam County,
which was to the west of Sunchon. In the
Ryukoku Kangnido the event is recorded by the
word suyong (or navy commandery) in Sunchon
County and in Haenam County (Fig. 2).
North of Sunchon and Haenam counties and
along the west coast of Choson is the headquarters
Fig. 2. The Ryukoku Kangnido. Detail showing locations
of the Cholla Left Province Navy Commander head-
quarters in Sunchon County (to the right) and the Cholla
Right Province Navy Commander headquarters in
Haenam County (to the left). In the circles at each
location are the words Sunchon and suyong, and
Haenam and suyong. (Reproduced with permission
from Omiya Library, Ryukoku University Academic
Information Center, Kyoto, Japan.)
186 K. R. Robinson
of the Navy Commander (Kyonggi-do Sugun
Choltosa, senior third grade) at Hwaryang, in
Namyang County, Kyonggi Province. This head-
quarters is identified by one cartouche set in the
sea bearing the place-name Hwaryang and by a
second cartouche, also in the sea, with the term
suyong (Fig. 3).51 The Navy Commandery at
Hwaryang was closed by the court on 1485/11/28
(3 January 1486).52 For the next seventy years the
highest ranking military official in Hwaryang was a
Navy Deputy Commander (Sugun Chomjolchesa,
junior third grade).53 The latest confirmed appoint-
ment of a Navy Deputy Commander is from 1555/6.
Shortly thereafter, by 1556/1/4 (14 February 1556),
the court had reopened the Navy Commander
headquarters at Hwaryang.54
The Ryukoku Kangnido Redated
There is no doubt that the compilers of the
Ryukoku Kangnido took as the base map an existing
map of the world, possibly the 1402 Kangnido. That
may be confirmed by the commemoration. Still
requiring consideration are questions such as when
the Ryukoku version was made, why it may have
been made, and how it fits the cultural and political
context.
Much about the map remains cloudy and
uncertain, but internal evidencethe military
administration place-names in Chosonhas shed
new light on the dating of the map. It can be stated
with reasonable certainty that the Ryukoku
Kangnido was most likely to have been completed
between 1479/1/10 and 1485/11/28.55 As an initial
Fig. 3. The Ryukoku Kangnido. Detail showing the
Hansong Magistracy in the upper right and (circled)
Namyang County (on the peninsula), Hwaryang (in the
sea, upper), and the word suyong for the Kyonggi (Gazetteer of the Eight Provinces), a work that had
Province Navy Commander headquarters (in the sea,
lower). (Reproduced with permission from Omiya
Library, Ryukoku University Academic Information
Center, Kyoto, Japan.)
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
date, I have chosen the day on which King
Songjong appointed officials to the two new Navy
Commander headquarters in Cholla Province
(1479/1/10), rather than the day on which he
ordered the construction of a new naval head-
quarters at Naeye, in Sunchon County (1479/1/6).
My argument against the earlier date is that the
appointment of the officials confirms the Choson
courts establishment of the two new headquarters
and the incorporation of both the headquarters and
the Navy Commanders into the military provincial
administration system.
Of the two dates proposed for the Ryukoku
Kangnidos completion the later one is the less
convincing. It is possible that the compiler or
compilers of the image of Choson in the world map
may not have been aware of the courts closure of
the Kyonggi Province Navy Commander head-
quarters at Hwaryang on 1485/11/28. In which
case, the next administrative change that could
have been recorded in the map would be the
courts reduction of the administrative status of
Kwangju County, Cholla Province, and the
countys renaming as Kwangsan on 1489/6/29
(27 July 1489).56 In fact, the Ryukoku Kangnido
shows the old name Kwangju, not Kwangsan.
Another administrative change was the restora-
tionon 1501/8/12 (23 September 1501)of the
place-name Kwangju, but this would seem too
late.57
The Context of the Ryukoku Kangnido
Answers to the questions of why the Ryukoku
Kangnido would have been composed between
1479/1/10 and 1485/11/28, and what the context
of its production was may perhaps be found in state
projects reminiscent of those of the 1390s and
1400s that were submitted to King Songjong in this
period. One such project was the courts comple-
tion in 1484 of the revision of the law code (the
Kyongguk taejon or Great Code of Administration)
and its printing early in 1485.58 Several months
later, in 1485/7, after a long gestation, the Tongguk
tonggam (The Comprehensive Mirror of the
Eastern Country), the first history of the peninsula
to cover from ancient times to the end of the Koryo
period, was also completed.59
Gazetteers were also prepared and presented. In
1478/1 King Songjong received the Palto chiriji
been compiled intermittently by Yang Songji from
the time he received a royal command in 1468/
11.60 Planning for a second gazetteer had begun
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
either before or soon after the completion of the
Palto chiriji.61 Together with other elder statesmen
Yang oversaw the compilation of the Tongguk yoji
sungnam (Complete Conspectus of the Territory of
the Eastern Country), which was presented to the
king in 1481/4. The court revised this second
gazetteer between 1485 and 1487, then updated
that second edition in 1499, and upon adding new
material completed what became the final edition
in 1531. The 1531 edition, which is extant, is
entitled Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam (New and
Expanded Complete Conspectus of the Territory of
the Eastern Country).62
Throughout his career, Yang Songji was one of
the Korean governments leading geographers and
cartographers. He was uniquely qualified to parti-
cipate in the Tongguk yoji sungnam project. He had
been active from the mid-1440s until the late
1460s in state geography and cartography projects
such as those that resulted in maps of Choson and
of the three districts in Pyongan Province. In the
mid-1440s Yang had prepared the Chiriji
(Monograph on Geography) in the Koryosa
(History of Koryo), the newest official history of
the Koryo period, and in 1455 he compiled the
gazetteers of Kyonggi and Pyongan provinces. He
had also composed maps of the northern border-
lands in Hamgyong Province.63 Thereafter, from
the late 1460s, he served in high-ranking posts in
the capital and seems to have been involved in
decision-making rather than active in map making.
Finally, though, the experience of a career engaged
in the surveying, mapping and administration of
Choson was displayed in his last (recorded)
memorial to the throne. In 1482/2, just four
months before he died, Yang wrote to King
Songjong urging, among other recommendations,
that certain mapssuch as representations of
Choson, the northern provinces, other areas in
Choson and foreign countriesshould not be
allowed to circulate outside the government.64
It is tempting to wonder if the idea of reprodu-
cing the map of the world with an updated map of
Choson had not been proposed by Yang. It may
perhaps be suggested that one of the rationales, or
even the rationale, for embarking on a new map
of the world was precisely to provide a cartograph-
ical context for a contemporary view of Choson.
The compilation, completion and printing of the
law code, the compilation and completion of what
later became the first edition of the Tongguk yoji
sungnam, and, perhaps even, Yangs death together
seem to have provided an environment not for a
simple reproduction of the 1402 Kangnido, but for
Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 187
the insertion into the anachronistic map of the
world of an updated portrait of the country.
Northeast Asia in the Ryukoku Kangnido
It has been suggested here that the Ryukoku
Kangnido was produced during a period of state
focus upon countrywide projects in Choson. Apart
from the new depiction of Choson, this world map
contains little to indicate that the Korean officials
involved in its composition might have been
interested in similarly updating, correcting or
enhancing the representation of neighbouring
countries. For example, their presentation of
China was anachronistic, and that of Japan
clumsy.
The seeming lack of interest in the treatment of
northeast Asia beyond Choson cannot be attributed
to lack of source material. A copy of Ming Chinas
state gazetteer, Da Ming yitong zhi (Comprehensive
Gazetteer of Great Ming), printed in 1461, was at
the Korean court by 1477/8/27 (3 October 1477).
Korean officials consulted the Chinese gazetteer
when preparing the Tongguk yoji sungnam, and King
Songjong required that it be consulted again when
he ordered the 1481 gazetteers revision.65 The
Chinese gazetteer could have provided the compos-
ers of the Ryukoku Kangnido with information
about the current provincial administration in
China. Similarly, there is no information in the
portrayal of Choson, or of the area of China
immediately north of Choson, regarding the
Jurchen villages that Korean officials would have
known about through, for example, a survey that
the Korean government completed in 1455.66
There is also scant evidence to suggest that the
portrayal of the countries of Japan and Ryukyu
diverged much from the 1402 Kangnido. The
position of Japan in the Ryukoku Kangnido
frequently attracts comment. The Japanese archi-
pelago actually lies not to the east of Choson, but
far to the south. In the map, the three main islands
of fifteenth-century JapanHonshu, Shikoku and
Kyushuhave been rotated in such a way that the
western provinces of Japan appear at the north,
and eastern Honshu (where modern Tokyo is
located) is found in the south. As Ledyard has
suggested, it seems that insufficient space had been
left to allow Japan to be shown to the east of
Choson.67 However, despite the displacement of
the islands, the rotation does preserve the essential
proximity of the western provinces of Japan to
Choson. By contrast, Ryukyu, which lies to the
south of Japan, and today is Japans Okinawa
188 K. R. Robinson
Prefecture, is marked by a circular cartouche
enclosing the name Ryukyu.
It is clear that the Korean officials who produced
the new Kangnido were not working closely from
the government texts known to have been at the
court in the first half of the 1480s. Recent, detailed,
maps of both Japan and Ryukyu could be found in
the Haedong chegukki (Records of Countries across
the Seas to the East), a government report on
Chosons relations with both countries that had
been presented to King Songjong in 1471/12.68 An
earlier map of Japan and Ryukyu (or possibly two
separate maps) had been distributed in 1453 to the
palace, to the State Council, to the Board of Rites
(Yejo; the office responsible for, among other
duties, the management of foreign relations), and
to the Bureau of State Records (Chunchugwan).69
The mapping errors in the Ryukoku Kangnidos
portrayal of Japan presumably could easily have
been avoided by consulting the Haedong chegukki.
The conclusion must be drawn that the Korean
mapmaker, or mapmakers, consciously embedded
an updated vision of Choson in a world map
presenting an out-of-date image of northeast Asia,
notwithstanding the Choson courts knowledge
about its neighbours. A contemporary picture of
Ming China and newer representations of Japan
and Ryukyu were not, it would seem, deemed
essential for the Ryukoku Kangnido. Foreign
countries were less important for this world map
than they had been for the first world map.
Whereas the 1402 Kangnido had set the new
country of Choson into the world pictured, the
Ryukoku Kangnido updated Chosons visual profile.
By leaving the rest of the world as it had been in
the 1402 Kangnido, the makers of the Ryukoku
Kangnido made Choson the focal point of the map.
Efforts at dating the Ryukoku Kangnido have
focused on the counties in the maps portrayal of
Choson, but O Sanghaks study of Korean military
administration sites has opened a new line of
inquiry, one pursued further in this paper. My
examination of the problem of the date and origins
of the map suggests that the Ryukoku Kangnido
was completed between 1479/1/10 (1 February
1479) and 1485/11/28 (3 January 1486). Stated
differently, the Choson depicted in the Ryukoku
Kangnido is that of the period between 1479/1/10
(1 February 1479) and 1485/11/28 (3 January
1486). The world shown in the Ryukoku Kangnido
includes, however, the anachronistic representa-
tion of China of the 1402 Kangnido, and the map as
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
a whole does not represent a world mapped
between 1479/1/10 and 1485/11/28.
The compiler, or compilers, of the Ryukoku
Kangnido produced their world map in a period
when the Korean government was engaged in a
series of projects, such as the Kyongguk taejon law
code and the Tongguk yoji sungnam gazetteer, that
treated the whole of the country. Yet, despite the
availability of these texts, the Ryukoku Kangnidos
portrayal of Choson lacks the names of thirty-two
counties, seventeen army bases and seventeen
navy bases recorded in the Kyongguk taejon. It
may be that the compilers of the image of Choson
did not, or for some reason could not, refer to the
law code, in either its manuscript or its printed
form, or to the 1481 edition of the Tongguk yoji
sungnam.
The general outline of Choson in the Ryukoku
Kangnido, though, was almost certainly derived
directly or indirectly from the 1402 Kangnido. And
if counties and military administration centres did
not come from the law code or the gazetteer, many
of these and possibly other place-names could have
been transcribed from the Tongguk chido, the map
of Choson presented in 1463/11. The question of
why so many counties and military administration
centres were not recorded thus lingers over the
portrayal of Choson in the Ryukoku Kangnido. We
have, however, been able to confirm earlier
research asserting that the Honil kangni yoktae kukto
chi to map held at Ryukoku University presents the
oldest representation of the world and of Choson
among the four extant Korean world maps.
Acknowledgements: I wish to thank Omiya Library,
Ryukoku University Academic Information Center, for
its kind assistance. Funding for projects associated with
this paper have come from the joint research projects
Umi o kakeru hitomonojoho: 817 seiki no Higashi
Ajia funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkokai); Higashi Ajia
kaiikishi kenkyu ni okeru shiryo no hakkutsu to
saikaishaku: KochizuGishi shiryoBungaku hyogen
funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science;
and 15-16-17 seiki seiritsu no ezuchizu to sekaizo, a
project in the Kyoto University 21st Century Center of
Excellence programme Gurobaruka jidai no tagen-teki
Jinbungaku no kyoten keisei funded by the Japanese
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (Monbu Kagakusho). These research
projects, their leaders and their participants are gratefully
acknowledged. The Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science and The Korea Foundation, for a Field Research
Grant, are gratefully acknowledged for their funding of
individual research projects. Also, presentations were
given in Japan at Kyoto University on 10 July 2004 and
in South Korea at Sogang University on 1 December
2004.
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007 Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 189

Manuscript submitted February 2005. Revised paper received Aoyama Sadao, Gen-dai no chizu ni tsuite, Toho gakuho
October 2006. (Tokyo) 8:1 (1938): 10352; Aoyama Sadao, Ri-cho ni
okeru ni san no Chosen zenzu ni tsuite, Toho gakuho
(Tokyo) 9:1 (1939): 14371; Takahashi Tadashi, Tozen
NOTES AND REFERENCES
seru chusei Isuraamu sekaizu, Ryukoku daigaku ronshu
1. The reproductions originating directly or indirectly 374 (1965): 8694; Yi Chan, Hanguk ui ko segye chido:
from the 1402 map are the Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to Chonhado wa Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to e
held at Omiya Library, Ryukoku University Academic taehayo, Hanguk hakpo 2:1 (Spring 1976): 4766; Gari
Information Center, Kyoto, Japan; the Honil kangni yoktae Ledyard, Cartography in Korea, in The History of
kukto chido held at the Honkoji temple, Shimabara, Japan; Cartography, vol. 2, bk. 2: Cartography in the Traditional
the Tae Myong-guk to held at the Tenri Library, at Tenri East and Southeast Asian Societies, ed. J. Brian Harley and
University, Tenri, Japan; and the Tae Myong-guk chido held David Woodward (Chicago, The University of Chicago
at the Honmyoji temple, Kumamoto, Japan. Press, 1994), 24449, 26567, 284, 28991.
2. Fukami Gentais mention of the map viewed in Kyoto 7. The best English-language introduction to the
is discussed in Yi Wonsik, Chosen tsushinshi to Fukami Ryukoku Kangnido is Ledyard, Cartography in Korea
Gentai: Nikko-san hakkei wain shishokan o chushin ni, (see note 6).
Nihon rekishi 384 (1980:5): 5556. 8. The range of dates is great. From the second half of
3. A comment regarding the dates in the main text and the 1450s: Yi Chan, Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to,
notes may be helpful. The year is the solar calendar year, in Hanguk minjok munhwa taebakkwa sajon, vol. 25
and the month and the day are the lunar calendar month (Songnam, Republic of Korea, Hanguk Chongsin
and day. As an example, 1463/12 refers to the twelfth Munhwa Yonguwon, 1991), 5354. From the 1450s: Yi
lunar calendar month in the solar calendar year of 1463. Chan, Sejong sidae ui chirihak: Pukpang chido wa
The solar calendar year is derived from the year chiriji, in Sejong munhwasa taegye 2: Kwahak (Seoul,
numbering system employed in Korean sources. The Sejong Taewang Kinyom Saophoe, 2000), 504. Between
lunar calendar month and day reflect the month and day 1455 and 1466: 65. Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to, in
in the sources. While not a perfect procedure, this method Choson chongi kukpo chon: Widaehan munhwa yusan ul
retains the month and the day from the documents and chajaso (2) (Seoul, Samsong Munhwa Chaedan, 1996),
identifies the year in a manner recognizable to readers 302. From during the reign of King Yejong (r. 1468/9
who may not be familiar with year dating systems in 1469/11): Yi Sangtae, Hanguk ko chido paltalsa (Seoul,
Korea, China and Japan. It should also be noted that a Hyean, 1999), 13. By or around 1470: Aoyama, Gen-dai
date such as 1463/12/26 will when converted into the no chizu ni tsuite (see note 6), 11112; Ledyard,
solar calendar fall in the year 1464. (This date is the Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 248. From around
equivalent of 3 February 1464.) In converting year/ 1472: Unno Kazutaka, Shugaisho ko shahon ni okeru
month/day dates into the solar calendar I have relied chizu (ge): Tenbon junananen-bon o chushin to shite,
upon two tables: Keith Hazelton, A Synchronic Chinese- Biburia 102:10 (1994): 19 n.27; Kuroda Hideo, Gyoki-
Western Daily Calendar 13411661 A.D. (Minneapolis, Minn., shiki Nihonzu to wa nani ka, in Chizu to ezu no seiji
Ming Studies, 1984), and the online conversion system bunkashi, ed. Kuroda Hideo, Meari Erizabesu Beri and
provided by the Academia Sinica, in Taibei, at ,http:// Sugimoto Fumiko (Tokyo, Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai,
www.sinica.edu.tw/,tdbproj/sinocal/luso.htm.. 2001), 30. From about 1500: Walter Fuchs, The Mongol
4. The other extant world map that bears a title and the Atlas of China by Chu Ssu-Pen and the Kuang-yu-tu
commemoration is the Honil kangni yoktae kukto chido held (Peiping, Fu Jen University Press, 1946), 10. Around the
at the Honkoji temple (see note 1). Although this title 16th century: Chon Sangun, Hanguk kwahaksa (Seoul,
differs from that of the Ryukoku Kangnido, both titles may Saionsu Puksuu, 2000), 293. In the 16th century: Pang
be translated as Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Tongin, Hanguk chido ui yoksa (Seoul, Singu Munhwasa,
Historical Countries and Capitals. The world map at the 2001), 63.
Honkoji temple presents an updated image of China and 9. My study thus involves internal evidence only;
an improved image of Japan which does not repeat the scientific analysis of the artefact (the surface, pigments,
various errors found in the image of Japan in the etc.) would be rewarding.
Ryukoku Kangnido. To explain the abbreviation 10. Aoyama, Gen-dai no chizu ni tsuite (see note 6),
Ryukoku Kangnido, Ryukoku is the first word in the 11339.
universitys name and Kangnido combines the second 11. The first four characters in the title of the 1402
word and the last character to, or map, in the Sino- Kangnido as it appears in the title of the commemoration
Korean title. The mark over the u in Ryukoku is a in Kwon Kuns collected writings, Yoktae chewang honil
standard diacritic in the romanization of Japanese- kangni to chi (see note 5), match the first four of the six
language words. The spelling of to in the Sino-Korean characters in the title of the list of administrative units
title as do in the English-language abbreviation results below the title in the Ryukoku Kangnido and the title in
from rules in the McCune-Reischauer romanization the map held at Honkoji temple. The title of that list is
system for Korean used in this paper. Yoktae chewang kukto, or Historical Emperors,
5. In the version of the commemoration to the 1402 Countries and Capitals.
Kangnido that is found in Kwon Kuns posthumous 12. For the heteroglossic characteristics of maps see
collected writings, the 1402 map has a different title, John Pickles, A History of Spaces: Cartographic Reason,
Yoktae chewang honil kangni to (Map of Integrated Lands Mapping and the Geo-Coded World (London, Routledge,
and Regions of Historical Emperors): Kwon Kun, Yoktae 2004), 121.
chewang honil kangni to chi, in his Yangchon sonsaeng 13. A map produced in Japan was brought back to
munjip (Seoul, Kyongin Munhwasa, 1993), 22:2ab. Korea by an official who visited Japan between 1397 and
6. Valuable studies of the Ryukoku Kangnido include 1399 and perhaps again in 1401. On these Arab, Chinese
Ogawa Takuji, Kinsei seiyo kotsu izen no Shina chizu ni and Japanese source maps, see Ledyard, Cartography in
tsuite (shozen), Chigaku kenkyu 260 (1910): 6078; Korea (note 6), 24547.
190 K. R. Robinson
14. For the Paltodo: Taejong sillok 3:27a [1402/5/16];
Songjong sillok 138:9a11a [1482/2/13]; Yang Songji,
Chin sinchan Chiriji, in Yang Songji, Nulchae sonsaeng
munjip (Seoul, Kyongin Munhwasa, 1993), 4:45b. Yi
Hoes Paltodo is also referred to in scholarly writing as the
Palto chido (Map of the Eight Provinces). Sillok in this
note and in notes below refer to the veritable (sil) records
(rok [lok]), an annalistic history of a kings reign that the
Choson government compiled after each rulers death.
The word that precedes sillok in the reference is the
temple name, or a posthumous name, for the ruler.
15. See Ledyard, Cartography in Korea (note 6), 244
47.
16. Hironaka Yoshio, Shimabara-shi Honkoji zo
Konitsu kyori rekidai kokuto chizu 2, Chizu 27:4
(1989): 4.
17. The court assigned to each county an administrative
status that set the county within the hierarchy of
provincial administration and appointed a county magis-
trate to each of these administrative units. The lower the
administrative status of the county, the lower was the
bureaucratic rank of the magistrate post. The magistrate
posts were from the junior second grade to the junior
sixth grade in the governments eighteen-rank bureau-
cracy, which ranged from the senior first grade to the
junior ninth grade, with the senior first grade being
highest.
18. For the concern about Jurchens and security see
Ledyard, Cartography in Korea (note 6), 29293.
19. For the myth of the origin of the Korean people, see
Peter H. Lee, ed., Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, vol. 1:
From Early Times to the Sixteenth Century (New York,
Columbia University Press, 1993), 47.
20. Yi Chan, Hanguk ui ko segye chido (see note 6),
65; Ledyard, Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 248;
Han Yongu, Uri yet chido ui paltal kwajong, in Han
Yongu, An Hwijun and Pae Usong, Uri yet chido wa ku
arumdaum (Seoul, Hyohyong Chulpan, 1999), 26; O
Sanghak, Choson sidae ui segye chido wa segye insik,
Chirihak nonchong 43:8 (2001): 60.
21. Ledyard has noted the overlap in these projects in
Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 24243 n.17.
22. Taejo sillok 12:8b9a [1397/11/30]; Chong Chong,
Koryo kuksa so, in Tongmunson (Keijo, Chosen Kosho
Kankokai, 1914), 5:4445.
23. For the Samguksa (not extant), see Taejong sillok
3:31a [1402/6/8]. Kwon Kuns preface to this history, as
preserved in his posthumous collected writings, has the
title Samguk saryak (Kwon Kun, Samguk saryak so, in
Kwon Kun, Yangchon sonsaeng munjip (see note 5),
19:10b11b).
24. Taejong sillok 6:9b [1403/8/30].
25. See Martina Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation
of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology (Cambridge, Mass.,
Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992).
26. Commemoration to the Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi
to (Ryukoku Kangnido); translation quoted from Ledyard,
Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 245.
27. Commemoration to the Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi
to (see note 26); translation quoted from Ledyard,
Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 245; for the world
map held at the Honkoji temple, see note 1.
28. Yi Wonsik, Chosen tsushinshi to Fukami Gentai
(see note 2), 5556.
29. See note 6.
30. O Sanghak, Choson sidae ui segye chido wa segye
insik (see note 20), 6869.
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
31. Aoyama Sadao was the first scholar to examine the
counties. See his Gen-dai no chizu ni tsuite (note 6),
11112, 14950 n.12. However, there has yet to be a
concentrated discussion of changes to the roster of
counties and to place-names as they relate to the 1402
Kangnido and the Ryukoku Kangnido.
32. Taejong sillok 26:10a [1413/8/1]; Sinjung Tongguk
yoji sungnam, (Seoul, Myongmundang, 1959), 47:37b.
The Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnams geography text was
completed in 1530, but the postface was appended in
1531.
33. Taejong sillok 26:30a [1413/10/15]. The two north-
ern districts were called the Northwest District (Sobuk-
myon) and the Northeast District (Tongbuk-myon). The
Choson court frequently changed the name of the
northeast province. At different times it was called
Yonggil, Yongan, Hamgil and Hamgyong. For the sake
of consistency, I will refer to it hereafter as Hamgyong
Province.
34. The Town was at the junior third grade in the
hierarchy of county magistracies. See Kim Tongsu,
Choson chongi kunhyon uui sung-kang mit myongho
ui kaejong, Chonnam sahak 5 (1991:12): 4647.
35. The English-language translations of the magistracy
statuses and posts and of the military administration
statuses and posts are from Edward Willett Wagner, The
Literati Purges: Political Conflict in Early Yi Korea
(Cambridge, Mass., East Asian Research Center, Harvard
University, 1974), 12829.
36. Taejong sillok 26:30a [1413/10/15]. The counties to
which the court made these appointments are found in
two gazetteers compiled by the Choson government, the
Sejong sillok chiriji (passim), and in the Sinjung Tongguk yoji
sungnam (see note 32), passim. The Sejong sillok chiriji is in
the veritable records for the reign of King Sejong (r. 1418/
81450/2).
37. However, elevation to a high administrative status
did not always accompany renaming.
38. J. B. Harley, New England cartography and the
Native Americans, in J. B. Harley, The New Nature of Maps:
Essays in the History of Cartography, ed. Paul Laxton
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001),
182.
39. In the McCune-Reischauer system for romanizing
Korean, the spelling of the character for prefecture will
vary depending upon the final letter in the romanization
of the preceding character. If that final letter is the
consonant k or the consonant l, for example, then ch is
written. The letter j is written if the final letter in the
preceding characters romanization is a vowel or, for
example, the consonant g.
40. Taejong sillok 26:30a [1413/10/15].
41. Taejong sillok 32:11b [1416/8/10].
42. Kim Tongsu, Choson chongi kunhyon ui sung-kang
mit myongho ui kaejong (see note 34), 5263.
43. See Ledyard, Cartography in Korea (see note 6),
283, 28990.
44. Chasong: Sejo sillok 15:5b6a [1459/1/15], Sejo sillok
18:1ab [1459/10/3]. In 1455, Yang Songji was dis-
patched to Pyongan Province as Investigation Official
(Pyongan-do Kyongchagwan). On his return to the capital
later that year, he submitted what appears to have been a
single map of three districts in that province (samup to)
(Sejo sillok 2:39b41a [1455/11/10]). Yang Songji also
mentions a map entitled Yoyon Muchang Uye samup to
(Map of the Three Districts of Yoyon, Muchang and Uye)
in his memorial of 1482/2 (Songjong sillok 138:9a11a
Imago Mundi 59:2 2007
[1482/2/13]), and it is possible that the two references are
to the same map.
45. Wiwon: Sejo sillok 17:1a [1459/7/1], Sejo sillok
33:33a [1464/7/4]; Suchon: Sejo sillok 38:11b [1466/2/3].
46. Asan: Sejo sillok 15:8b9a [1459/1/23], Sinjung
Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32), 20:16ab, Sejo shillok
37:4a [1465/9/5]. Unsan: Sejo sillok 15:7b8a [1459/1/20],
Sejo sillok 28:33b34a [1462/6/28]. Pakchon: Sinjung
Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32), 54:12a, Sejo sillok
33:23b [1464/5/30]. Samsu: Tanjong sillok 12:18b [1454/
10/29]; Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32),
49:39ab.
47. For the delineation of the northeast, see Ledyard,
Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 29193.
48. O Sanghak, Choson sidae ui segye chido wa segye
insik (see note 20), 6869.
49. Songjong sillok 100:3a [1479/1/6].
50. Songjong sillok 100:5a [1479/1/10]; Songjong sillok
79:3a [1477/4/5]; Kyongguk taejon (Seoul, Asea
Munhwasa, 1983). 4:7a, 4:10b; Sinjung Tongguk yoji
sungnam (see note 32), 40:5a, 37:23a. The designations
Left and Right in the Army Commander and Navy
Commander posts accorded with the kings view as he
sat on the throne and faced south. Left was superior to
Right.
51. Kyongguk taejon (see note 50) 4:6b7b; Sinjung
Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32), 6:4b.
52. Songjong sillok 185:21b [1485/11/28]; Sinjung
Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32), 9:16b; Myongjong
sillok 21:43ab [1556/10/20]; Yoji toso, vol. 1 (Seoul,
Tamgudang, 1973), 73.
53. Between 1485/11/28 and sometime before 1556/1/4,
the Choson court is known to have appointed seven
men to the post of Navy Deputy Commander. (Songjong
sillok 279:15a16a [1493/6/22]; Chungjong sillok 9:24ab
[1509/9/17]; Chungjong sillok 11:48ab [1510/6/9];
Chungjong sillok 30:42b [1514/11/8]; Chungjong sillok
35:57b [1519/4/5]; Chungjong sillok 50:2ab [1524/1/10];
Myongjong sillok 18:66b [1555/6/21].)
54. The new Navy Commander can be confirmed on
1556/14 (Myongjong sillok 20:1b2b), but he had been
appointed earlier. Also see Yi Sangtae, Hanguk ko chido
paltalsa (note 8), 50, who links the re-establishment of the
Navy Commander headquarters at Hwaryang to an attack
by some seventy Japanese pirate ships in Cholla Province
the previous year.
55. King Songjong ordered the establishment of the
Navy Commandery at Hwaryang on 1473/6/18 (12 July
1473). The first Kyonggi Province Navy Commander at
Hwaryang was appointed ten days later on 1473/6/28
Choson Korea in the Ryukoku Kangnido 191
(22 July 1473). A new Governor of Kyonggi Province
also was appointed that day. (Songjong sillok 31:9a
[1473/6/18], Songjong sillok 31:15a [1473/6/28]).
56. Songjong sillok 229:30b32b [1489/6/29]; Sinjung
Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32), 35:15b17a.
57. Also on 1501/8/12 the Choson court re-established
Sillyong County, in Kyongsang Province. However, this
magistracy is not recorded in the image of Choson. That
absence is due most likely to error rather than to the
countys closure in 1496 (possibly during the intercalary
third month when the king ordered his ministers to
discuss whether to close the magistracy or to reduce its
administrative status). Yonsangun ilgi 41:5a [1501/8/12];
Yonsangun ilgi 14:8a [1496/Intercalary 3/19].
58. The Kyongguk taejon included lists of the magistracies
and the military headquarters and bases in each province.
59. Songjong sillok 181:28a [1485/7/26].
60. Tongguk yoji sungnam so, in Sinjung Tongguk yoji
sungnam (see note 32), 1a6b (1012).
61. Chong Tuhui, Choson chongi chiriji ui pyonchan
(IIhwan), Yoksa hakpo 70:6 (1976): 104; So Inwon,
Choson chogi chiriji yongu: Tongguk yoji sungnam ul
chungsim uro (Seoul, Hyean, 2002), 12122.
62. Chin Tongguk yoji sungnam chon, in Sinjung Tongguk
yoji sungnam (see note 32), 1a5b (79); Songjong sillok
138:9a11a [1482/2/13]; Kyosu Tongguk yoji sungnam
kwanin chingmyong, in Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam
(see note 32), 1a (13); Chin Sinjung Tongguk yoji
sungnam chon, in Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note
32), 1a5b (13).
63. For the Chiriji, see Tanjong sillok 8:21b [1453/10/17];
for other projects, see Yang Songji, Chin sinchan Chiriji
(see note 14), 4:45b.
64. Songjong sillok 138:9a11a [1482/2/13].
65. Songjong sillok 83:23ab [1477/8/27]; Tongguk yoji
sungnam so, in Sinjung Tongguk yoji sungnam (see note 32),
1a6b (1012); Songjong sillok 138:9a11a [1482/2/13];
postface to the 1499 edition, in Sinjung Tongguk yoji
sungnam (see note 32) 1a3a (101314).
66. See Tanjong sillok 13:45a56a [1455/3/24].
67. Ledyard, Cartography in Korea (see note 6), 247.
68. Sin Sukchu, Haedong chegukki (Keijo, Chosen
Sotokufu, 1933); Pohanjae sonsaeng nyonbo, in
Haedong chegukki (Chongju, Republic of Korea, Koryong
Sin ssi Chongyakhoe, 1970), 20a. The date 1471/12 offers
an example of the inadequacy of the dating system
employed in this paper. The date of this reports
submission is early 1472 in the solar calendar.
69. Tanjong sillok 7:2b [1453/7/4].
192 K. R. Robinson Imago Mundi 59:2 2007

La Coree Choson dans le Kangnido de Ryukoku: dater la plus ancienne carte

coreenne du monde existante (15e siecle)
La date de la plus ancienne carte coreenne du monde existante, intitulee Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to
(Carte des Regions et Terres Reunies des Capitales et Pays Historiques), actuellement conservee a la
bibliotheque omiya, Centre dInformation Academique de luniversite de Ryukoku, Kyoto, Japon, est
inconnue. On pense que le Kangnido de Ryukoku (ainsi que la carte est couramment designee), de meme que
trois autres cartes du monde coreennes que lon croit avoir ete faites en Coree Choson au 15e ou 16e siecle,
derive dune carte du monde aujourdhui perdue, faite en Coree Choson en 1402. Les avis sur la datation du
Kangnido de Ryukoku ont largement varie. Dans cet article, nous proposons une date revisee comprise entre
debut 1479 et fin 1485, en sappuyant sur letude des toponymes de la carte et des changements quils
refletent dans ladministration civile et militaire coreenne. Il est aussi suggere que bien que la carte montre
lessentiel du reste du monde, les fonctionnaires coreens qui produisirent le Kangnido de Ryukoku etaient
moins interesses par une representation mise a jour des pays asiatiques voisins que par une image actualisee
de la Coree Choson

Das koreanische Choson-Reich in der Ryukoku-Kangnido: die Datierung der altesten erhaltenen
koreanischen Weltkarte (15. Jahrhundert)
Die genaue Entstehungszeit der altesten bekannten koreanischen Weltkarte mit dem Titel Honil kangni yoktae
kukto chi to (Karte der eingegliederten Lander und Regionen historischer Territorien und Hauptstadte), ist
nicht bekannt. Die Ryukoku-Kangnido (wie die Karte gewohnlich genannt wird) befindet sich heute in der
Omiya Library des Ryukoku University Academic Information Centers in Kyoto, Japan. Aktueller Stand der
Forschung ist, dass sie, wie auch drei weitere Weltkarten, die im koreanischen Choson-Reich des
funfzehnten Jahrhunderts angefertigt worden sein durften, von einer mittlerweile verlorenen Weltkarte
abgeleitet wurde, die 1402 in Choson entstand. Die Meinungen uber mogliche Datierungen der Ryukoku-
Kangnido zeigen eine groe Variationsbreite. Mit diesem Beitrag wird eine Prazisierung auf die Zeit zwischen
Anfang 1479 und Ende 1485 vorgeschlagen, die sich aus dem Studium der in ihr enthaltenen koreanischen
Ortsnamen ergibt, weil diese Veranderungen in der Zivil- und Militarverwaltung Koreas widerspiegeln.
Obwohl die gesamte Erde dargestellt ist, hatten die koreanischen Beamten, die die Ryukoku-Kangnido
herstellten, weniger Interesse an einer aktuellen Darstellung der benachbarten asiatischen Lander, als an der
zeitgemaen Abbildung Chosons.

Corea Choson en el mapamundi Ryukoku Kangnido: Datacion del mas antiguo

mapamundi coreano existente (siglo XV)
La fecha del mapamundi coreano mas antiguo que existe, titulado Honil kangni yoktae kukto chi to (Mapa de las
tierras y las regiones compuestas por pases y capitales historicos), ahora en la biblioteca omiya, Centro de
Informacion Academica de la Universidad Ryukoku, en Kioto, Japon, es desconocida. El Ryukoku Kangnido
(nombre con el que se le conoce), junto con otros tres mapamundis coreanos, se cree que fue hecho en Corea
durante la dinasta Choson, en el siglo XV o XVI, y se piensa que deriva de un mapamundi perdido, de 1402.
Las opiniones sobre las posibles fechas del Ryukoku Kangnido han sido muy variadas. En este artculo se
propone una nueva fecha, entre 1479 y 1485, basada en el estudio de los toponimos coreanos del mapa, y en
los cambios en las administraciones civil y militar coreanas que ellos reflejan. Tambien se sugiere que, a pesar
de que el mapa representa el resto del mundo, los oficiales coreanos que hicieron el Ryukoku Kangnido
estaban mas interesados en presentar imagenes puestas al da de la Corea Choson que en la representacion de
los pases asiaticos vecinos.
Plate 4. The Ryukoku Kangnido. Fifteenth-century map of the world made in Korea and entitled Honil kangni yoktae kukto
chi to (Map of Integrated Lands and Regions of Historical Countries and Capitals). On silk. 164 6 171.8 cm. North is at the
top. The map extends from an exaggeratedly large Choson Korea and, displaced to bottom right, a reduced Japan to
continental western Europe (the Mediterranean Sea remains unshaded, but the Iberian peninsula is clearly depicted).
Chinese characters are used throughout. The title is written across the top, above a summary list of historical Chinese
capitals and administrative centres in Yuan China, and a commemoration fills most of the bottom margin; all to be read
from right to left. (Reproduced with permission from Omiya Library, Ryukoku University Academic Information Center,
Kyoto, Japan.) See p. 178.