That time the Korean ambassador threw the Vietnamese ambassador into the sea

[ljwrites]

While reading Ancient Korea: Sea-ways of Cotton and Spice I came across an unexpected and intriguing passage from a Japanese record dated February of A.D. 642:(1)

The ambassador from Baekje threw the ambassador from Kunlun into the sea.

Baekje was one of the ancient kingdoms of Korea in the southwest of the Peninsula, while Kunlun ranged from South Vietnam to parts of Indonesia. This seemed so removed from diplomatic decorum I couldn't help but wonder what had happened.

I was far from the first to wonder, obviously. There has been a lot of speculation about this passage, one of which was that this passage was about the Baekje ambassador outright murdering the diplomat from Kunlun to strong-arm the Southeast Asian countries from trading directly with Japan. There are people who even use this episode as further "proof" that Baekje was a seafaring empire that had the clout to use such extreme tactics.(2)

There is no indication that the incident was anything so momentous, however. There is no mention of the Kunlun ambassador dying, for one thing, and even assuming he did there is no record of conflicts between Baekje and Kunlun that would have arisen from an act as serious as the murder of an ambassador.

It seems far likelier from the context that this was a bit of gossip rather than the start of full-blown conflict between nations. The information was given by Baekje servants in response to the Japanese agents' inquiry about the latest news. It's true it was sandwiched between serious news, including the death of a high-ranking official and a death and exiles in the Baekje royal family, but it's unclear that these pieces of news fit into any overall narrative or that the different bits of information match each other in weight.

The incident, in other words, could have meant anything from a drunken brawl or friends roughhousing to a scandal or international incident. Were the two ambassadors fighting over a lover? Were they lovers themselves? Was it an argument over diplomatic or trade matters that turned physical? Was it supposed to send a message? Was there a death involved? Was the offending ambassador punished?

One of the few things I can glean from this fragmentary mention is that the two men were most likely in a third country when this happened, since they would not have been meeting in either of their home countries to be called "ambassadors." It was most likely in China since both countries gave tribute to China and it was a major hub of diplomacy and trade. The Baekje ambassador, in other words, likely committed this serious breach of diplomatic decorum right in the heart of the empire of the day.

We'll never have the definitive facts of what sounds like a colorful incident from the ancient world. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with these moments because I would love to know more about them but never will. These are the places where historical fiction can step in to fill the gap.

Notes
1. Nihon Shoki, Gogyoku Denno Year 1
2. These jingoistic pseudo-historians make claims based more on their wish to be descendants of empire than on any evidence or fact, and I have discussed before how they are the bane of my existence.

Comments

[loopy777]

Throwing your friends into the sea was probably a local sport. The bit of news is like passing on the word, "The Tortoises came back in the fourth quarter to dunk the Hares by six points."

[ljwrites]

I mean when you ask bored dudes for gossip do you really expect them not to talk about sports at some point?