18세기 사역원 역관의 부경사행 체아직 = Interpreters, Rotational Posts, and the Deungje System in 18th-Century Joseon Missions to Beijing

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article aims to demonstrate that the participation of inter preters from the Office of Interpreters (Sayeogwon) in missions to Beijing was not an ad hoc assignment, but rather the result of an in stitutional system centered on deungje (等第), a graded system of rota tional posts for missions to Beijing. The Office of Interpreters or ganized interpreters’ titles and hierarchies around these missions, and deungje, which referred to the rotational posts for the Beijing missions, functioned as the primary criterion for determining eligibility and de fining candidate pools for participation. Entry into the deungje system and selection for missions involved rigorous procedures combining regular examinations, performance evaluations, and recommendations.
In this process, interpreters were assessed not only for their linguistic abilities but also for their understanding of Confucian classics and diplomatic documents, as well as their administrative and practical experience. As a result, the interpreters dispatched to Beijing represented the most experienced and thoroughly vetted human resources within the Office of Interpreters