Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Era Embassy to Koryŏ

In Northeast Asian states of the pre‑modern era, the so‑called tribute‑investiture relations played an important role in cultural and political exchanges. Many of the people who took part in the embassies that were dispatched either to present tribute (by the vassal state) or to grant investiture (by the suzerain state) wrote records of their visits, which are now invaluable sources of information about the countries visited. Among Chinese records of Korea, the Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Era Embassy to Koryŏ, is without doubt the most famous embassy record. It was finished in 1124 by Xu Jing (1091‑1153), who had visited Koryŏ the previous year. It builds on previous Chinese embassy records, but stands out for his meticulous attention to detail: he faithfully records the names of everyone he meets, as well as the names and locations of islands, cities, palaces, and other important buildings. For Koryŏ’s history and social customs, however, he relied mostly on other sources, and as a result the information is often very terse and partial.