Cultural Exchange between Korea and China under the Cultural Policies of the Late 18th Century: Exploring the Friendship between Pak Chega (1750-1805?) and Luo Pin (1733-1799) through Their Poetry

This thesis examines the rich cultural exchange between Korean and Chinese scholars during the late 18th century. It focusses on the friendship that developed between two prominent figures in the cultural scene of the time—the Korean diplomat and scholar, Pak Chega (1750-1805?), and the Chinese artist, Luo Pin (1733-1799). It argues that their personal connections, while initially facilitated through official diplomatic relations between Korea and China, ironically resulted in nurturing forms of cultural production that ran counter to their national leaders’ conservative cultural policies. To demonstrate this argument, this thesis explores the political and cultural contexts of Chosŏn Korea and Qing China under the respective reigns of King Chŏngjo and Emperor Qianlong. Both rulers promoted conservative views of textual and art production, and yet the diplomatic relations between their two countries had the unforeseen consequence of furthering avant-garde rather than orthodox cultural forms as friendships were forged through intellectual and creative bonds between individual scholars that went beyond the controls of government. Ultimately, the diplomatic and cultural activities sponsored by the Chosŏn and Qing governments enabled cultural exchanges and scholarly interactions that nurtured cultural trends in literary content and artistic style that ran counter to their official policies. The thesis draws its evidence from poetry, prose, and paintings produced by Pak and Luo and their network of literary and artistic friends and from the activities occurring in key sites of cultural production in both countries—the Kyujanggak (Royal Library), in Korea, and the bookstores in Liulichang and artistic community in Yangzhou, in China