Journal of Korean Studies

Yang Hi Choe-Wall is to be commended for taking on a very difficult task in translating the first three books of Pak Chiwŏn’s The Jehol Diary (Yŏrha ilgi). Yŏrha ilgi chronicles Pak’s travels with a Chosŏn diplomatic mission to the Qing Empire in the summer of 1780. One might be tempted to identify Pak’s work as one of the many examples of the yŏnhaengnok genre: the journals Chosŏn envoys kept on their travels between Seoul and Beijing. Yŏrha ilgi in its entirety, however, moves far beyond the usual yŏnhaengnok fare to encompass not only the sights and sounds from the road but also a great deal of commentary on Qing and Chosŏn society, economy, and politics as well as discourses ranging from discussions of Qing models for Chosŏn reform to sometimes snarky and often hilarious accounts of conversations with fellow travelers and sundry people from all manner of avocations in the Qing Empire of the late eighteenth century.

Translation of such a work requires a relationship with Classical Chinese, the language in which Pak was writing, which allows the translator to move with fluid comfort from the technical and official language of the agents of the Qing and Chosŏn governments to the obscurities of literary allusion and back again to the banality of the lowest rungs of everyday conversation, all with an understanding of the social, political, intellectual, and institutional contexts that contour the meanings of the text. There are few with such fluency in the currents of eighteenth-century Chosŏn elites to be able to produce a viable English rendering of Pak’s work, but there are some extended passages in Choe-Wall’s translation that initially suggest she may well be equal to the task. The most engaging and enjoyable of these is the section titled “At the Yisuzhai Antique Shop” (pp. 95–108). Pak spent two nights in this antique shop talking with the proprietors Tian Shike and Li Guimeng and their friends. As they ate and drank into the wee hours, their conversations ranged from travel, friendship, the Confucian classics, and calligraphy to personal histories, music, education, alcohol, and ribaldry. Of particular interest was Tian’s explanation of the business of forgery in Qing antique markets. Having developed a friendship of sorts during their brief time together in Shengjing, Tian did not want Pak to look like an idiot pausing over the all-too-common counterfeits in the Beijing antique markets, so he explained at length the differences between real and artificial patinas and how they were produced. It is interesting to note in this exchange that Pak recorded Qing merchants’ impressions of their Chosŏn customers. Much of the extant yŏnhaengnok literature is restricted to Chosŏn impressions of the peoples of Ming and Qing, but it is unusual to see the tables turned and find men of Chosŏn under examination. Here Choe-Wall’s translation is enjoyable and quite informative, pulling the reader into the pleasures of good wine, engaging conversation, and even some of the disquiet in the sudden realization that one has drunk too much and stayed out too late. [End Page 219]

While such passages in Choe-Wall’s translation are a great deal of fun to read, they do come at a price. As Marion Eggert noted in her insightful critique,¹ Choe-Wall is rather free in her English rendering, often inserting a great deal of her own material that cannot be found in the source text. Rather than add to Eggert’s illuminating commentary on the literary merits of Choe-Wall’s translation, however, I will examine some problems and implications of Choe-Wall’s translation of technical terminology. I wish to stress that I do not pursue this line of critique in the interest of terminological accuracy alone but rather to illustrate a larger problem in her translation concerning the broader context in which Pak was traveling and writing.

Early in the text there is a problem with Choe-Wall’s understanding of the term “local products” () in Pak’s account of the embassy’s stay in Ŭiju before crossing the Yalu River into Qing territory.² Consider the following:

Pak Chiwŏn:

³

Choe-Wall translation:

Earlier, when we stayed in Yongman Inn for ten days and before our river crossing, we received various local products from the local people. They, being aware that our departure date was immanent, had chosen these gifts. Although we had not had prolonged rain for four days the river was still very swollen. The current was so strong that tree branches and stones were being swept downstream, and it seemed as if the muddy waters were almost touching the sky

(p. 2).

Pangmul is commonly translated as “local products,” and in and of itself, this is a perfectly acceptable rendition, but the role Choe-Wall ascribes to the local people is a curious one in which they are aware of diplomatic itineraries and make decisions on which local products to present as gifts to the mission before its departure. Pak, however, made no indication that the local people were aware of the mission itinerary or that they had made any decisions concerning gifts. In fact, the local people are wholly absent from the text. Pak wrote only that the local products had all arrived (). Had Choe-Wall thus augmented the text in the interest of providing the modern lay reader with the background knowledge Pak would have assumed his contemporaries possessed, it would be acceptable and indeed of salutary effect, but in this case, it is unfortunately neither. These local products were prepared by the Chosŏn government to be submitted to members of the Qing imperial family as part of Chosŏn tribute to the Qing court. The types, amounts, and qualities of these goods were not decided by the local residents of Ŭiju but rather by the Qing court; and, by the summer of 1780 when Pak made his journey, the preparation of Chosŏn local products for the Qing imperial family was a routine matter governed by established precedent in which the “local people” had no decision-making powers whatsoever.⁴ Choe-Wall’s addition thus comes across as [End Page 220] implausible at best and suggests a tenuous grasp of the institutional contexts and routine operations of Chosŏn missions to Qing.

While certainly not the final word on the English translation of this passage, I venture to provide the following as a possible alternative:

Earlier we stayed in Yongman (the official guesthouse in Ŭiju) for ten days. By the time the local products had all arrived, our departure date was immanent but there was a great rain that grew into a deluge and the two channels of the Yalu flowed into one another. Amid all this the weather cleared and indeed four days had already passed but the power of the water only increased, trees and stones rolling together as the muddy torrent touched the skies.

Although this translation is certainly not without its own problems, it does eliminate the issue of the involvement of the local people in determining which local products the mission would take to Qing, and it goes some distance to explain the floodwaters of the Yalu that seemingly appear without cause in Choe-Wall’s translation. The mission had all it needed and was ready to go but had to wait for the river to crest. Pak was simply explaining why the mission had to delay its departure from Ŭiju. This passage is relatively straightforward, but the limited understanding of the key term “local products” and the resultant improvisation of a role for the local people make for a confusing and misleading translation.

The issue here is not so much that Choe-Wall misunderstood a technical term or that she added extra material in an attempt to clarify the text. It is rather that her acceptance of this translation as viable makes it appear as though she does not have a clear grasp of the purposes and functions of Chosŏn missions to Qing. Without an understanding of the way in which Chosŏn missions routinely operated, it is hard for those without a background in Chosŏn-Qing relations to appreciate the ways in which Pak’s experiences and accounts are both so unusual and so intriguing. Neither Choe-Wall’s introduction nor her annotations provide the reader with any significant information as to what the purpose of the mission was and what Pak’s role might have been. What might it have meant to Pak to have this opportunity to travel in the Qing Empire? Why is it that Pak was able to roam about as he pleased, drinking all night with his newfound friends? Was this typical of Chosŏn diplomats? Was Pak traveling as a diplomat himself or was he simply tagging along? A general explanation of the operation of Chosŏn missions would have gone a long way in contextualizing Pak’s experiences and highlighting just how atypical they really were. This is certainly not to suggest that Choe-Wall is unappreciative of the unusual character of Yŏrha ilgi; she is quite explicit in her claim that the text is indeed unique, but she does not provide any comparisons to other yŏnhaengnok so that the reader might understand why it is unique (pp. xvi–xvii). One might point out that Pak had unusual freedom during the journey, unlike official members of the embassy, or that his journal covers a wide variety of topics and experiences not usually found in yŏnhaengnok, but [End Page 221] Choe-Wall does not provide an explanation of the duties and functions of the embassies or of the content and organization of the more common yŏnhaengnok so that a reader might see the differences.

Choe-Wall’s prose is often enjoyable and engaging, but her rather liberal translation and intemperate interpretation, coupled with loose understandings of the technical and institutional aspects of the embassy, cause me to be hesitant in recommending this work. Being somewhat familiar with the original text as well as with the general features of yŏnhaengnok and the dynamics of Chosŏn-Qing relations, I found Choe-Wall’s translation useful in my own readings of Yŏrha ilgi and other primary source materials concerning the interactions of the Qing and Chosŏn states. In the case of those without any background in the Chosŏn-Qing relationship, Classical Chinese, or the yŏnhaengnok genre, however, Choe-Wall’s translation must be approached with great caution. This translation of the first three of the twenty-six books of Pak’s Yŏrha ilgi was no mean feat, and Choe-Wall deserves respect for the attempt, but there is still space for a definitive English translation that will be of use and interest to the specialist and layperson alike.