Choe Bu
Choe Bu was a Korean diarist, historian, politician, and travel writer during the early Joseon Dynasty. He was most well known for the account of his shipwrecked travels in China from February to July 1488, during the Ming dynasty. He was eventually banished from the Joseon court in 1498 and executed in 1504 during two political purges. However, in 1506 he was exonerated and given posthumous honors by the Joseon court.
Choe's diary accounts of his travels in China became widely printed during the 16th century in both Korea and Japan. Modern historians also refer to his written works, since his travel diary provides a unique outsider's perspective on Chinese culture in the 15th century. The attitudes and opinions expressed in his writing represent in part the standpoints and views of the 15th century Confucian Korean literati, who viewed Chinese culture as compatible with and similar to their own. His description of cities, people, customs, cuisines, and maritime commerce along China's Grand Canal provides insight into the daily life of China and how it differed between northern and southern China during the 15th century.
Official career
Choe Bu of the Tamjin Choe clan was born in 1454 in the prefectural town of Naju in Jeollanam-do, Korea. Choe passed the jinsa examinations in 1477, which was a lower examination that did not immediately ensure a post in government; rather, it permitted enrollment in the National Academy, or Seonggyungwan, where he could study further for the higher mungwa examinations. In preparation for the exams, he studied the Five Classics as Confucian students had for centuries, but he also was taught the emphasis of the Four Books of Zhu Xi, which was in line with the Neo-Confucian doctrine first accepted in mainstream Chinese education during the mid-13th century. He passed his first civil service examination in 1482 and a second civil service examination in 1486, qualifying him for an immediate post in government. In a career as a graduate scholar-official that spanned 18 years, Choe was privileged with various positions. He held posts in the Hodang Library, printing office, and the National Academy. He also held posts involving the military, such as on the military supplies commission, with the office of the inspector-general, and with the Yongyang garrison. The culmination of his career was his promotion as a minister of the Directorate of Ceremonies in the capital, a distinguished office. Choe Bu was also one of the scholars who aided in the compilation of the Dongguk Tonggam in 1485, a history of Korea from ancient times. Choe was learned in Confucian ethics, Chinese letters, Chinese poetry, and well versed in Korean history, geography, and famous people; all this later helped him to dispel the notion of some Chinese officials that he was a Japanese pirate rather than a Korean official who had unfortunately shipwrecked in China. In 1487, Choe Bu was sent to Jeju Island to check the registers for escaped slaves from the mainland.A castaway in China, 1488
Southern China
While serving his post in Jeju as the Commissioner of Registers for the island, a family slave from Naju arrived on 12 February 1488 to alert Choe that his father had died. In keeping with his Confucian values, Choe prepared to leave his post immediately and begin the period of mourning for the loss of his father. However, while sailing to mainland Korea with a crew of 43 Koreans, Choe's ship was blown far off course during a violent storm that lasted 14 days, his ship aimlessly drifting off towards China until reaching the Chinese coast off of Taizhou, Zhejiang, near Ningbo. Before reaching the shores of Zhejiang, Choe wrote on the fifth day of his travel at sea during the storm:
This day a dense fog obscured everything. Things a foot away could not be made out. Towards evening, rain streamed down heavily, abating somewhat with night. The frightening waves were like mountains. They would lift the ship up into the blue sky and then drop it as if down an abyss. They billowed and crashed, the noise splitting heaven from earth. We might all be drowned and left to rot at any moment.
Upon the urging of his crewmen, Choe changed his clothes in a ritual fashion in preparation for death, although he prayed to the heavens to spare him and his crew, asking what sins they had committed to deserve this fate. On the sixth day, during fairer weather, their ship came upon a group of islands in the Yellow Sea where Chinese pirates were moored. The pirates robbed their ship of spare goods and rations, threw away the Koreans' oars and anchor, and left them to drift aimlessly into the sea.
Although it was still raining heavily, Choe's crew spotted a near-deserted strip of Zhejiang coastline on 28 February. Almost immediately, his ship was surrounded by six Chinese boats, the crews of which did not attempt to board Choe's ship until the following day. Although he could not speak Chinese, Choe was able to communicate with the Chinese in written Chinese in what are dubbed "brush conversations". Through writing, he questioned these Chinese sailors on how far the nearest official road and courier route was. When given three different estimates of the distance from there to the Taizhou prefectural capital, Choe was convinced that his hosts were deceiving him; historian Timothy Brook notes that it was more likely ignorance and inexperience of traveling inland than mere deception on behalf of the Chinese sailors. Regardless, the Chinese sailors began robbing the Korean ship of its remaining goods, convinced that they were Japanese pirates. When heavy rains inundated the region once more, the Chinese sailors returned to their ships; Choe's party, fearing for their lives should the sailors board their ship again, saw this as an opportune moment and made a dash for the shore under cover of rain. After traveling several days overland looking for the nearest courier route, Choe's party was found by Chinese authorities and taken to Taizhou Battalion. Like in the previous incident with the Chinese sailors and villagers along the shore, the Koreans were almost killed when they were first encountered by Chinese soldiers. Employing his wit and intellect in these dangerous confrontations of being misconstrued as a coastal pirate, Choe avoided disaster for him and his crew.
The battalion commander at Taizhou ordered his officer Zhai Yong to escort Choe Bu's Korean party to the regional command centre at Shaoxing on 6 March. From there they could be transferred to provincial authorities at Hangzhou and finally to the empire's capital of Beijing where the party could be officially escorted back to Korea. Choe Bu and his officers were carried in sedan chairs, an accommodation provided by the Taizhou Battalion, although in spots of rough terrain Choe Bu and his officers were forced to walk on foot like the others.
The battalion troops escorting Choe and his Korean party reached Jiantiao Battalion on 8 March; on the next day, they travelled by boat across Sanmen Bay to reach the Yuexi Police Station and Post House. On 10 March, the party travelled along the postal route to Baiqiao Station, a courier centre between Taizhou and Ningbo prefectures. The courier officials were eager to see the Koreans off, since a party of 43 was a somewhat large group for a courier station to provide sudden accommodations for.
File:Grand-Canal.png|thumb|left|The course of the Grand Canal; from Ningbo to Beijing, Choe Bu's escort party traveled a total distance of in 49 days of travel.
In a daylong trip, the party reached the next station located north by the second watch of the night. Heavy rains and wind made further advance impossible, but despite rain on the next day, Zhai Yong urged Choe and the Koreans to push on regardless, explaining that the regulations for prompt arrival times in China's courier system were very stringent. The party covered another on 11 March, completely soaked by the rain when they reached the next station. The station master provided the party with a small fire to keep warm, but a man who thought the Koreans were captured pirates barged in and kicked their fire out in a rage. Zhai Yong dutifully wrote an account of this assault and passed it on to the county magistrate's office before having the party continue en route to their destination on the following day, 12 March. They reached the Beidu River on that day, boarding ships that would lead them to the Grand Canal, the central courier and trade artery of China that would carry them all the way to Beijing. At this point, water transport was the preferable means of travel for the courier agents; Choe wrote "all envoys, tribute, and commerce come and go by water. If either the water in the locks and rivers is too shallow because of drought to let boats pass or there is a very urgent matter, the overland route is taken." When the party reached Ningbo on that day, Choe Bu remarked on the beautiful scenery; when they reached Cixi City, he noted the city's many markets and cluttering of warships; upon entering Ningbo and reaching the Supreme Piracy-Defense Office, Choe wrote that the gates and crowds there were three times as great as at Cixi.
After interrogating Choe Bu and Zhai Yong, Zhai was punished with a flogging for the recent fire-kicking incident, which officials of Ningbo cited as evidence of his lack of command. Yet that wasn't the only offense; Zhai was flogged again when the party reached Hangzhou, since he failed to meet the deadline in reaching his destination while escorting the Koreans. The standard punishment was 20 strokes for a day's delay, with an additional stroke for every subsequent three days of delay and a maximum of 60. Although this was perhaps a damper on their travel affair, Choe was impressed with the sights of Hangzhou, writing:
It truly seems a different world, as people say... Houses stand in solid rows, and the gowns of the crowds seem like screens. The markets pile up gold and silver; the people amass beautiful clothes and ornaments. Foreign ships stand as thick as the teeth of a comb, and in the streets wine shops and music halls front directly each on another.
File:Liuhe Pagoda 2.jpg|thumb|right|The Liuhe Pagoda of Hangzhou, built by 1165 during the Song dynasty
Brook states that Choe correctly observed the fact that Hangzhou was the central trade city where ships from areas throughout southeast China congregated to take goods into the Jiangnan region, the hotbed of commercial activity in China. Due to the hai jin laws, the Ming government was the only entity allowed to conduct foreign trade; regardless of this prohibition, Choe was informed of the rampant illegal smuggling that passed through Hangzhou, bringing in sandalwood, pepper, and perfumes from Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Yet this was a risky pursuit, as Choe was made aware that half the ships that engaged in this business did not return. On 23 March, the Hangzhou prefectural government granted Choe's party a new escort, an official document explaining their presence in China, and lofty provisions of food and other items that were complements of the transport offices in charge of large-scale national transportation needs. The party stayed in Hangzhou for another two days before departing on 25 March. The reason for the delay was due to courier officials' dutiful following of the handbook Bureaucratic System of the Ming Dynasty, which was used to calculate through geomantic principles which days were auspicious to depart on and which days were not. The Europeans, too, became aware of such divination practices later in the 16th century: Mendoza's mentions that among the Chinese books purchased by the Spanish Augustinian friar Martín de Rada in Fujian in 1575 were some that discussed how to "cast lottes when they beginne any journey...".
Traveling on average per day, it would take the party 43 days from 25 March to 9 May to travel from Hangzhou to Beijing; even though the party spent a day's time in Suzhou, they still beat their deadline by two days, since was the courier system's standard traveling distance per day.
File:Preciousbeltbridge.jpg|thumb|right|The Precious Belt Bridge of Suzhou, built in 1446 during the Ming dynasty
Choe Bu observed that, despite Hangzhou's greatness, it was no competition for Suzhou, while the former was merely a supplemental commercial feeder that served to enrich the Jiangnan region. After visiting Suzhou on 28 March, Choe Bu remarked on this economic hub of the southeast:
Shops and markets one after another lined both river banks, and merchant junks were crowded together. It was well called an urban center of the southeast... All the treasures of land and sea, such as thin silks, gauzes, gold, silver, jewels, crafts, arts, and rich and great merchants are there ... merchantmen and junks from Henan, Hebei, and Fujian gather like clouds.
Describing the suburban sprawl around Suzhou and other cities of the Yangzi delta, Choe wrote : "Often for as much as twenty li around them, village gates crowd the ground, markets line the roads, towers look out on other towers, and boats ply stem to stern."