Pak Tong-chi

Pak Tong-chi was a Korean scholar-bureaucrat, diplomat and ambassador, representing Joseon interests in the tongsinsa (diplomatic mission) to the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi bafuku) in Japan.

King Taejo dispatched a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1398-1399. This embassy to shogunal court of Ashikaga Yoshimochi was led by Pak Tong-chi. In part, the envoy was charged with conveying a response to a message sent to the Joseon court by the Japanese shogun. In part, the Joseon ambassador sought Ashikaga involvement in suppressing pirate raiders which were believed to come from Japan. These pirates were variously known as wokou (Chinese character: 倭寇; Chinese pronunciation: wōkòu; Japanese pronunciation: wakō; Korean pronunciation: 왜구 waegu).

Pak Tong-chi and his retinue arrived in Kyoto in the early autumn of 1398 (Ōei 5, 8th month). Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi presented the envoy with a formal diplomatic letter; and presents were given for the envoy to convey to the Joseon court. When Pak returned from Japan in 1399, he brought with him more than 100 wakō captives, an explicit earnest of good fatih.

Pak also bore letters from the Ashikaga shogun requesting original texts of Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist altar fittings.

Pak Tong-chi conveyed the following letter from Shogun Yoshimitsu to the governor of Kyushu:

The Japanese hosts may have construed this mission as tending to confirm a Japan-centric world order. Pak Tong-chi's words and actions were more narrowly focused in negotiating protocols for Joseon-Japan diplomatic relations.

Pak Tong-chi's historical significance was confirmed when his mission was specifically mentioned in a widely distributed history published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1834.

In the West, early published accounts of the Joseon kingdom are not extensive, but they are found in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (published in Paris in 1832), and in Nihon ōdai ichiran (published in Paris in 1834). Joseon foreign relations and diplomacy are explicitly referenced in the 1834 work.

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