War, commerce, and tributary relations in the Sino-Korean borderland of the late sixteenth century∗

Now that all under heaven is unified by the imperial court, the language that is used is Chinese. This Korean language of mine is only used in Korea. Once one has passed Ŭiju and reaches Chinese soil, Chinese is spoken everywhere. If someone asks [us] a question [in Chinese] and we can’t answer it, what will others think of us [Koreans]? ¹