Examining Chosŏn’s Revering the Zhou and Longing for the Ming Ideology Through Historiography

During the Chosŏn dynasty, many historical works were compiled. Those related to the ideology of Revering the Zhou and longing for the Ming fall into two categories: the first consists of histories of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as of the Song and Yuan dynasties, which were closely tied to questions of legitimacy; the second consists of Revering the Zhou histories that examined Chosŏn’s own process of Revering the Zhou. By analyzing the purposes behind the compilation of these works and the characteristics of their formats, we can gain a deeper understanding of the substantive content of Chosŏn’s Revering the Zhou and longing for the Ming ideology, which in turn sheds light on the inner characteristics of the suzerain-vassal relationship between the Qing and Chosŏn.