Why are Koreans called Bangzi?

One of the origins

The first source is that the term "Korea Bangzi" comes from the servants of the Korean Tribute Mission during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In ancient times, Korea was a vassal state of China and must be regularly An envoy was sent to pay tribute to the Chinese emperor. The tribute envoy team consisted of three envoys (chief envoy, deputy envoy, and petitioner), military officers, translators, medical officers, and miscellaneous servants. Historian Luo Jizu pointed out that "bangzi" was originally the Korean name for illegitimate children. Due to their low status, these people could only serve as handymen in the missions, and this was introduced to China. He made the following discussion in his book "Feng Chuang Yu Yu":

"Before liberation, Koreans were called 'Korean sticks', and they didn't understand what they meant. After liberation, it was banned, and they knew it was not a good name. However, The meaning of this is still unclear. When I read Wang Yiyuan's "Liaozuo Seeing and Wedding Records", there is a saying: "In addition to the Korean tribute envoys and servants, those who serve in the country are called "sticks". That is to say, she was turned into an official prostitute, and her son was called "Bang Zi", who was despised by the people. His hair was unkempt, and he was not allowed to wear a net towel. As for Lao Zhi, it turned out that he was an illegitimate child and was inherited from generation to generation, so he classified himself into a class, just like the fallen people in Zhejiang. "Picture" of the North Korean tribute mission entering Zhengyangmen

The nationality and customs are still the same. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of Commerce asked for it to be eliminated. See Yang Shouhao's "Sichong Zhaiwen Biechao". According to the petition of Lu Hongchang, a gentleman from Zhejiang and candidate fellow magistrate of Jiangsu, it was stated that there were no less than 20,000 degenerates scattered in various counties in Zhejiang, and my wife’s family had heard that both men and women were engaged in self-marriage, and they all worked as lowly servants. This was the early Republic of China. The "Bangzi" in Korea will be completely eradicated soon after the liberation."

According to the research of Huang Puji from the Department of History of Nanjing University, the word "Bangzi" was originally written as "Bangzi". Originally, it refers to the low-status service members of the Korean tribute mission during the Ming and Qing Dynasties; due to their low status and low quality, these people stole and violated laws and disciplines in China, causing great trouble to the Chinese government and people, thus causing In addition, the Chinese people's bad impression of the Koreans, coupled with the "soft and distant" attitude of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in treating the missions favorably at the expense of some of the interests of the officials and people along the way, caused the Chinese people to blame the Korean missions for the inconveniences caused. . During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese people used to call North Korea "Korea", so the disparaging name "Korea Bangzi" came into being. The historical process of its evolution from a specific title to the derogatory general name "Korea Bangzi" reflects the contradiction between the Korean mission and the Chinese people along the way during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The record in "Liaozuo Seeing and Wedding Records" written by Wang Yiyuan during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty is the earliest record of the word "bangzi". According to the page after the picture of "Korean national women" in the first volume of the "Emperor Qing Dynasty Tribute Picture" published in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1751): "The Korean nationals are commonly known as Goryeo Bangzi." And in the 30th year of Qianlong's reign, Hong Darong, the Korean envoy who came to China in 1766, also recorded his experience of being scolded as "Korean stick" by Chinese children in the capital (today's Beijing, China): "There was a young woman riding in a car who lifted the curtain to peek, she was quite gorgeous. Pingzhong looked straight at him and pointed at the car, and was surprised. He squatted in front of the curtain and murmured curses. Pingzhong didn't realize it. There were dozens of children shouting "Korean gang (bang) son". , yelled and chased them. I urged Pingzhong to gallop, just to avoid Yan." The above facts show that as early as the Kangxi and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese people generally used the title "Korean Bangzi" for Koreans.

/p>

The "Korea Bangzi" recorded in Qing Dynasty documents

Peak. The most important thing for colonization was immigration. Especially in the early days, most of the Japanese personnel in China were soldiers, and there were not many people who carried out daily rule and management of the occupied areas. However, due to the natural conditions of Japan, as well as the long distance and financial problems, it is impossible to transfer enough immigrants from Japan. Therefore, Japan recruited a large number of people from the Korean Peninsula, where Japan and South Korea had merged, to come to China. After receiving the education of the so-called "Japanese and Korean ancestors", these Koreans behaved very badly after coming to China, and were called "Er Er" by the local Chinese. Devil". But the Japanese did not trust the Koreans, so these Korean policemen did not receive any weapons from the Japanese side, and they were not even as good as the Chinese policemen (the policemen had a baton). These policemen used the laundry sticks used by Korean women to wash their clothes as a beating. Human weapons. Because these people are more vicious than the Japanese, the local people secretly call them Goryeo Bangzi.