Transition under Ambiguity: Koryǒ-Mongol Relations around 1260

Abstract

A Koryô mission led by Wang Chôn visited the Mongol in 1259 and had intense contacts with pro-Qubilai forces. Especially the Confucian scholars in North China, and therefore turned to Qubilai in the political turmoil. With the mediation of the scholar-ministers in Qubilai’s court, another Koryô mission led by Wang Hûi in 1260 succeeded in seeking an allowance for postponement of the Koryô court’s return to the mainland (出陸). An edict composed by some scholar-minister of the Mongols in 1260 used the word fan (藩) to refer to the Koryô and defined it as a vassal under the tributary system. But Qubilai himself still regarded the Koryô as submitted following the tradition of the Mongols. Under a kind of ambiguity, the Koryô missions and the scholar-ministers of the Mongol together had brought new elements into the Koryô-Mongol relationship and altered the mongol tradition.

Keywords

• kim ku
• scholar-ministers
• tributary system
• six obligations