Perspectives of Border Studies about the Northern Area in the Early Joseon Period, and Rethinking about the Northern Policy of Joseon in the King Sejong Era

This paper is an as part of the “Rethinking of the Sejong Era” plan which has been produced by the〈Historical Criticism〉. It begins from the perspective of identifying the Yalu-Tuman River area, which has been identified only as Joseon’s clearly exclusive territory, as a “Border” where several boundaries meet.<br/>By examining the reality of the northern boundary area and the lives of the border people in the king Sejong era, this paper tries to understand their transnational characteristics and examine the ups and downs of the northern policy of the Joseon dynasty, represented by the establishment of the Sagun and Yukjin area.<br/>Through it, we will be able to critically think about the interpretation from the historical academia after modern era that the king Sejong era was the moment when clarified the original territory of modern Korea.<br/>The characteristic of border was not only at the northern boundary. The policy of searching for the Mureung Island at the east sea and new land at the Hamgyung province in the king Sejong era shows that the hybridity inside the boundary, and also, the conflict between residents in boundary to escape from ruling power and the ruling power to put it back.<br/>Meanwhile, after the establishment of the Sagun and Yukjin, the king Sejong promotes an increasingly powerful and compulsory policy to maintain the northern boundary. In this process, the policy of forced migration, which was close to violence, was repeated, but the side effects only got worse and worse. In the late Joseon period, the northern area even became to have the dishonorable image of the land of barbarism.<br/>We need to re-read the ‘Sejong era’ again, noting that the northern boundary of the Joseon dynasty was as a Border where transnational space beyond the control of the ruling power, unlike the interpretation so far, and also residents of the area should also be interpreted as ‘Border people’.