• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.32
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• pp.71-101
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• 2008

This study is intended to review the war and the living of the common people of Choseon dynasty, through the true stories of captives kidnapped in the region of the Qing(胡地) during the Pyeongja horan in the 17th century. The common people, Kim seung kyung and Ahn chu won, who had been kidnapped in their young age, managed to escape from the region of the Qing to Choseon after having experienced a painful living as a captive for 27 years. Kim seung kyung and Ahn chu won had to make a choice to run away from the Qing in order to bring their war distorted life back to its original state. Kim seung kyung who had successfully escaped, could live without severe difficulties by the aid of his family living at his hometown, but Ahn chu won who had not found his own family or relatives, couldn't have got any helping hand from the people mentally or financially. So, he tried to escape again to Beijing, but discovered and captured so that a diplomatic problem was caused between the Choseon and the Qing Dynasty. Through the true story of Kim seung kyung and Ahn chu won, we can see the lives of Choseon common people who were trying to overcome the difficulties with their own iron will without being undaunted by hardships. Even though the captives had terrible experiences hating to remember, their experiences gave a chance to the Choseon people opening their eyes to the foreign cultures and the new world. At that time, the Choseon government was too weak to estimate how many captives were or what the captive's real fact was. Meanwhile the Choseon government managed to do the least duty in order to protect its people, by breaking the provisions of repatriation that the fled captives should be returned back to the Qing Dynasty. Through reviewing the captive's true story of the Choseon common people, we can ruminate the Choseon society in the 17th century which failed to establish an independent national history, and the issue of the Korean War captives in the modern history forgotten under the shade of the dustbin of history.