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A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Chosŏn Dynasty

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A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Chosŏn Dynasty Article／論文 A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Chosŏn Dynasty A Study Based on the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido ( 混一疆理歷代國都之圖 ), or The Unified Map of Territories and Capitals of the States of 1402(1) CHOI, Chang-Mo Ⅰ . Introduction Ⅱ . Arab and Africa Geographical and Topographical Characters and Names Ⅲ . Conclusion 조선시대 고지도(古地圖)의 아라비아-아프리카 이해 소고 《혼일강리역대국도지도(混一疆理歷代國都之圖)》 (1402년)를 중심으로 崔 昌模 고지도는, 기본적으로는 과거가 이해하고 있던 실재 세계를 보여주는 ‘재현된 시각예술 의 한 형태’（이미지）로서, 본질적으로는 특정한 사실과 이야기를 공간적/지리적 상황에 서 보여주는 ‘재현된 담화의 한 형태（언어）로서, 역사이해의 ‘거울’이자 ‘텍스트’이다. 고지도에는 당시의 역사-지리적 지식-정보뿐만 아니라 과학기술 및 예술성 등이 도상학적 27 A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Choso˘ n Dynasty (Choi) 中東学会28-2.indb 27 2013/02/14 13:15:27 기호와 상징적 이미지를 통해 투영되어 있으며, 더 나아가 그 속에는 한 개인과 사회의 지 배적인 사상과 이념, 권력과 신앙 등의 ‘가치’가 담겨 있다. 특히 세계지도 ― 고지도의 여 러 유형들 가운데서 ― 는 지역 간 공간정보의 교류와 당시 사람들의 세계관/세계인식 혹 은 세계이해의 공적 소통구조를 엿볼 수 있는 ‘해독이 필요한 시각언어’이다. 본 논문에서는 아직까지 본격적으로 논의된 바 없는《혼일강리역대국도지도》（1402） 에 나타난 아라비아-아프리카지역의 지리적-지형적 특성과 지도에 표시된 약 71개 ― 아 라비아 24개, 아프리카 47개 ― 의 지명（地名）들과 조선시대가 보여주고자 했던 아라비 아-아프리카지역, 즉 ‘외부세계’에 대한 인식을 일반적인 역사적 배경 ― 지도제작의 목적, 과정, 지리적 정보의 유래, 지도제작자 등 ― 에서 살펴보되, 지도에 담긴 담론과 지도콘텐 츠 ― 그런 의미에서 지도의 역사는 담화와 이미지의 한 형태로서 해석될 수 있으며, 지도 학은 문학비평, 미술사, 지식사회학 등과 이론적으로 관련된다. ― 를 정치권력의 맥락에 서 왜 그렇게 표현/묘사했는가 ― 지도는 결코 가치중립적 이미지가 아니며, 지도지식은 하나의 사회적 생산물이다. 따라서 표현/묘사의 정치-사회적 의미를 간과한 어떤 지도제작 사 연구도 그 자체로 ‘역사와 관계없는’（ahistorical）역사로 분류될 뿐이다. ― 에 주목하 여 탐구함으로써《혼일강리역대국도지도》의 새로운 해석의 가능성을 열고자 한다. Old maps are slippery witnesses. But where would historians be without them? John Horace Parry, 1976. I. Introduction By supplying a “mirror” and “text” that reflect the world through a historical pictorial representation or image, an old map illuminates our understanding of that world. Alternatively, an old map, through representational discourse or language, tells us about the spatial and geographic situation current at the time at which the map was drawn [Harley 2001; Cosgrove 1988; Blakemore 1980a]. Therefore, an old map not only integrates historical and geographical knowledge, but it combines scientific technology and artistic value; reflects iconological signs and symbolic images; and contains individual and socially dominant thoughts and values, such as ideology, power, and religious beliefs. In particular, world maps(2) are “a graphic language to be decoded.” It is through the language of maps that interregional spatial information AJAMES no.28-2 2012 28 中東学会28-2.indb 28 2013/02/14 13:15:27 and a world-view or perception of a model of the world, or even formal systems for communication, can be glimpsed. Spatiality of the map: While the Portuguese Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci’s western-style world map Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (the Map of the Ten Thousand Countries of the Earth) was introduced to Korea in the seventeenth century, the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido (the Unified Map of Territories and Capitals of the States of 1402) predates this map as the oldest surviving map in East Asia. Produced in the second year of King T’aejong’s reign during the Chosŏn dynasty, the map not only depicts the largest areas in the world, it is also the earliest known map of the world from the East Asia cartographic tradition. If we look at the map, spatially we see that China is in the middle of the world; Japan and South East Asia are in the South; Central Asia is in the West; and India, the African continent, the Arabian Peninsula, the Iberian Peninsula, the European continent, and the Mediterranean Sea are in the Far West. The age of map-making: Here does the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido fit in the history of map-making? Insofar as map-making in the West is concerned, it was drawn well before Spain and Portugal initiated maritime expansion during the so- called “Age of Discoveries” in the early 15th century. It also appeared about 90 years before the “New World” was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. In respect to East Asian map-making, the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido appeared before the Chinese junks of the Zheng He expedition (Ming dynasty) sailed through the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Arabian Peninsula and Africa [Guangqi 1992; Hsu 1988]. Meetings during Zheng He’s expedition left indelible imprints concerning the West on the minds of the Ming and Qing Chinese [Bae 2006, 150]. The Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido even predates the introduction of Ptolemy’s cartology to European countries via Islam. From the perspective of a history of map-making and its develop- ment in the Chosŏn dynasty, the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido is a significant step in the development of cartology in its transition to scientific map-making [Yi 1977, 58], even though the world (or all under heaven [Korean: ch’ŏnha; Chinese: Tian xia]) was then perceived only as an idealized and abstracted idea with a Sino-centric bias— all of which is represented in the ch’ŏnhado (the Map of All Under Heaven) [Hulbert 1904]. It should be noted that the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido, which was based on knowledge inherited from an earlier period, was painted with various colored inks on silk fabric as a sort of artistic wall hanging. The knowledge it reflected was edited 29 A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Choso˘ n Dynasty (Choi) 中東学会28-2.indb 29 2013/02/14 13:15:27 Figure 1: The Honil kangni yǒktae kukto chido (the Unified Map of Territories and Capitals of the States) (Note) I accepted the copyright of the figure to print from Omiya library. (Source) Yi hoe and Kwŏn Kŭn (Omiya library at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan 150.0 × 160.0 cm). to produce a cartographical image built from information drawn from science; in a sense, it represented technology colored by creativity. Its uniqueness is drawn from the attention it paid to the world of scholarship.(3) In this paper, I will attempt to reinterpret the Honil kangni yŏktae kukto chido (hereafter referred to as the Kangnido) by focusing on the map and its contents. To do this, I will provide a general historical background concerning maps—such as the intentions of mapmakers, the process of map-making, geographical information reflected on maps—and will place this in the context of how political power shaped these disparate elements of map-makings. I will attempt to explain the perception AJAMES no.28-2 2012 30 中東学会28-2.indb 30 2013/02/14 13:15:27 created by the Kangnido of the “external world.” In particular, for the Arabia-Africa region, I will focus on geographical and topographical characters and place-names by identifying about 71 names and placing 24 of them in Arabia and 47 of them in Africa. A history of map-making can be seen as a historical discourse on a form of representation. Cartography can be theoretically related to literary criticism, the history of art, and the sociology of knowledge. It must be stressed that maps are never value- free; rather, they are value-laden. Knowledge drawn from maps is the result of a social product. Any history of cartography that demeans the politico-social significance of the expression of a map and the description it provides would be, therefore, an “ahistorical” history [Harley 1989, 303]. II. Arab and Africa Geographical and Topographical Characters and Names 1. Arabia: Geographical and Topographical Characters and Place-names At first glimpse, the Arabian Peninsula is shaped like an elephant’s leg on the Kangnido. Its north is magnified and its south is reduced. On the map, the Arabian Peninsula is vertically divided; the African continent is by the Red Sea, and its northern part is divided by the Tigris River in the east with the Mesopotamian alluvium. Its shape and size thus clearly differs from that of al-Idrisi’s world map, which was drawn in 1192. According to the Kangnido, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean are so close that there is no distinction between them. This view is identical with al-Idrisi’s world map [John 2003, 11]. Except for a big island called haedo (sea island) and several unknown small islands in the middle of the sea, it is almost empty between the two areas. A desert, which is called sasa, is indicated by a small circle adjacent to the Tigris River on the right side in the north of the Arabian Peninsula [Beeston 1979]. 2. Africa: Geographical and Topographical Characters and Place-names The African continent in the Kangnido, as depicted 100 years before the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama visited it, is smaller and its contours are simpler than in present times. West Africa, as portrayed in most early European maps of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries [Ledyard 1994, 248](4), is given a triangular shape that is almost similar to its present shape; by contrast, its shape is distorted in Islamic 31 A Reflection on Arabia-Africa in the Mappa Mundi of the Choso˘ n Dynasty (Choi) 中東学会28-2.indb 31 2013/02/14 13:15:28 Table 1: Geographic Terms of the Arabian Peninsula in the Honil kangni yǒktae kukto chido Korean Identifying with Names of place Chinese Names of places (McCune- the present-day Medieval Islamic in (Pinyin) Reischauer) names fifteenth century 1 哈難那 Hapnanna hānánnà Nopal or Oman 2 安尼 Anni ānní 3 那麻 Nama nàmá ‘book’ in Fārsi* 4 法它 Pŏpt’a fǎtā Fadak? 5 卜忽郞 Pokhollang bǔhūláng 6 撒阿忽都 Salaholdo sāāhūdū Saud? 7 揭非牙 Kepia jiēfēiyá Jedda? 8 臺伊 Taei táiyī 9 老麽它里那 Romat’arina lǎomėtālǐnà 10 庶合法 Sŏhampŏp shùhéfǎ 11 喝八里 Kalp’alli hēbālǐ 12 馬合里 Mahapri mǎhélǐ Mukallǎ? 13 渴思剌 Kalsala kěsīla Qasir? 14 外法剌 Oepŏpla wàifǎla Zufar? 15 者剌 Charal zhělá Jurash? 16 別俺 P’ŏlŏm biéǎn Ma’an? 17 長喝沒里 Chang’galmolli zhǎnghēméilǐ 18 馬喝 Magal mǎhē Mecca Makkah 19 住八剌 Chup’allal zhùbālà Zubala? 20 剌合 Ralhap làhé Raqqa? 21 阿剌馬失 Aralmagong ālàmǎshī 22 扒荅 Paetap bādá Sa’da? Jidda? 23 純都麻 Suntoma chúndūmá Aden (a port city 24 哈丹 Haptan hādān of Yemen) (Note) Most place-names on the map are in the upper part of the Arabian Peninsula; the lower part is devoid of place-names.
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