Gyorin (lit. "neighborly relations") was a neo-Confucian term developed in Joseon Dynasty Korea. The term was intended to identify and characterize a diplomatic policy which establishes and maintains amicable relations with neighboring states. It was construed and understood in tandem with a corollary term, which was the Sadaejuui or "serving the great" policy towards Imperial China.Yim Min-Hyeok. "The Establishment of Literati Governance Society in Early Joseon, and Its Continuation," The Review of Korean Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (June 20050, pp. 223-254.
Confucian learning contributed in the formation of gyorin and sadae as ritual, conceptual and normative frameworks for construing interactions and political decision-making.Steben, Barry D. "The Transmission of Neo-Confucianism to the Ryukyu (Liuqiu) Islands and Its Historical Significance: Ritual and Rectification of Names in a Bipolar Authority Field," p. 54. National University of Singapore.
The long-term, strategic gyorin policy played out in Bilateralism diplomacy and trade dealings with the Jurchen people, Japan, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, Siam, and others.Kim, pp. 76-77; Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch (RASKB): Yi Sugwang with Vietnamese counterpart Phùng Khắc Khoan in 1597. Over time, diplomatic and trade policies were perceived by Joseon's partners as the traditional door through which trends in neo-Confucian philosophical principles were recognized.Steben, p. 57.
The Joseon kingdom made every effort to maintain a friendly bilateral relationship with China for reasons having to do with both realpolitik and a more idealist Confucian worldview wherein China was seen as the center of a Confucian moral universe.Mansourov, Alexandre Y. "Will Flowers Bloom without Fragrance? Korean-Chinese Relations," Harvard Asia Quarterly (Spring 2009). Joseon diplomacy was no less aware and sensitive to realpolitik in the implementation of gyorin policy.
The unique nature of gyorin bilateral diplomatic exchanges evolved from a conceptual framework developed by the Chinese. Gradually, the theoretical models would be modified, mirroring the evolution of a unique relationship.Toby, Ronald P. (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu, p. 87.
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