Abstract:This paper argues that shamanic instruments known as mengdu are revered as sacred on Jeju-do and that the smiths who make the mengdu, as creators of divine mengdu and as transmitters of these instruments to the simbang (Jeju shamans), are regarded as sacred beings. The relationship between shamans and smiths could be seen in many places in Korea, including Jeju-do, until quite recently, though it has become difficult to identify in the course of time. On Jeju, where the sacred power and role of smiths were in evidence until twenty years ago, smiths were considered sacred because they make the material god mengdu. This job is extremely challenging because the mengdu are themselves a kind of sillyeong, which can be offended during the process of being made into metal instruments. Although sillyeong are defined as “spirits or natural objects that are served as gods,” this definition should be expanded, for the mengdu are metal “artifacts” also served as gods. The smith making the mengdu also performs the mengdu gosa, in which he unites the new mengdu with its soul and divines the future of the simbang. It is not the shaman but the smith who is the first user of the new set of mengdu for divination. Since full-time smiths making the mengdu do not exist any longer on Jeju, a renowned young simbang is currently doing the work of creating gods out of metal, showing again that “smiths and shamans are from the same nest.”
{"title":"The Divine Mengdu and Their Creators: A Study of the Divinity of the Mengdu and Their Relationship with Smiths in Jeju Indigenous Shamanic Religion","authors":"Yo-han Yoo","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper argues that shamanic instruments known as mengdu are revered as sacred on Jeju-do and that the smiths who make the mengdu, as creators of divine mengdu and as transmitters of these instruments to the simbang (Jeju shamans), are regarded as sacred beings. The relationship between shamans and smiths could be seen in many places in Korea, including Jeju-do, until quite recently, though it has become difficult to identify in the course of time. On Jeju, where the sacred power and role of smiths were in evidence until twenty years ago, smiths were considered sacred because they make the material god mengdu. This job is extremely challenging because the mengdu are themselves a kind of sillyeong, which can be offended during the process of being made into metal instruments. Although sillyeong are defined as “spirits or natural objects that are served as gods,” this definition should be expanded, for the mengdu are metal “artifacts” also served as gods. The smith making the mengdu also performs the mengdu gosa, in which he unites the new mengdu with its soul and divines the future of the simbang. It is not the shaman but the smith who is the first user of the new set of mengdu for divination. Since full-time smiths making the mengdu do not exist any longer on Jeju, a renowned young simbang is currently doing the work of creating gods out of metal, showing again that “smiths and shamans are from the same nest.”","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46805500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Power of the Brush: Epistolary Practices in Chosŏn Korea by Hwisang Cho (review)","authors":"Suyoung Son","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47801885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
society, such as the effect of the invention of the Korean alphabet on textual communication, the Korean appropriation of NeoConfucianism, the political agency of nonofficial local elites, and the interrelationship between the state and the sarim. Its careful examination of the materiality of letters, based on extensive archival research sprinkled through the chapters, calls attention to their physical form and effect on the semantic and functional values of the text. I recommend this book for scholars who are interested in textual culture, the history of communication and technology, and Korean studies.
{"title":"Seeds of Control: Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea by David Fedman (review)","authors":"Wybe Kuitert","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0010","url":null,"abstract":"society, such as the effect of the invention of the Korean alphabet on textual communication, the Korean appropriation of NeoConfucianism, the political agency of nonofficial local elites, and the interrelationship between the state and the sarim. Its careful examination of the materiality of letters, based on extensive archival research sprinkled through the chapters, calls attention to their physical form and effect on the semantic and functional values of the text. I recommend this book for scholars who are interested in textual culture, the history of communication and technology, and Korean studies.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44979583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The first land reform in South Korea after liberation from Japanese colonial rule took place in 1948, three years after US forces established a military government in the south. While the 1948 land reform is often evaluated as a success, less attention is given as to why it took so long to be carried out, especially when demand was high among people in a postcolonial agricultural society still suffering from long-term exploitation. The focus of this research is to take a closer look at the earlier years of US occupation on the Korean Peninsula, and examine the events leading up to the first plan for land reform in 1946, the so-called “Bunce plan.” Addressing the question as to why it failed, based on an analysis of the early postcolonial situation in the South, this research argues that the inconsistency of policy decisions and structural weakness of the occupation regime led to an overall delay of many social and economic reforms, including the redistribution of farmland.
{"title":"The “Bunce Plan” and the Aborted Land Reform of 1946","authors":"Il-Young Jung","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The first land reform in South Korea after liberation from Japanese colonial rule took place in 1948, three years after US forces established a military government in the south. While the 1948 land reform is often evaluated as a success, less attention is given as to why it took so long to be carried out, especially when demand was high among people in a postcolonial agricultural society still suffering from long-term exploitation. The focus of this research is to take a closer look at the earlier years of US occupation on the Korean Peninsula, and examine the events leading up to the first plan for land reform in 1946, the so-called “Bunce plan.” Addressing the question as to why it failed, based on an analysis of the early postcolonial situation in the South, this research argues that the inconsistency of policy decisions and structural weakness of the occupation regime led to an overall delay of many social and economic reforms, including the redistribution of farmland.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49584870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This paper aims to determine why Chilean fans of K-pop enjoy the incompatible aesthetics of K-pop idols. It will analyze the variation of the ideal of beauty according to socioeconomic level in Chile and fans’ perception of the beauty canons of K-pop. Hypothesizing that the relationship between race (rather skin color) and class in Chile affects K-pop consumption, this study will delve into why the canon of beauty attracts Chilean fans, despite the contrast that exists with the Chilean canon of male beauty. Latin American culture is constituted by sexual roles marked and determined by gender (Cristián Valenzuela 2015); these roles perpetuate male superiority based on the figure of the male. Specifically, the hegemonic masculinity present in the region stands out for having such characteristics as strength, rationality, seriousness, domination, heterosexuality, and sexual activity. Asians are often called Chino, and K-pop fans are considered strange. Though Chileans tend to conflate all Asian pop cultures, they are particularly suspicious of the sexual identity of K-pop fans. Based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with sixteen upper-class and twenty middle-lower-class Chileans, this paper investigates how Chilean K-pop fans consume and negotiate with the aesthetics of K-pop in a conservative, European-oriented, oligarchic society.
{"title":"The Perfect Man: The Ideal Imaginary Beauty of K-pop Idols for Chilean Fans","authors":"Wonjung Min","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper aims to determine why Chilean fans of K-pop enjoy the incompatible aesthetics of K-pop idols. It will analyze the variation of the ideal of beauty according to socioeconomic level in Chile and fans’ perception of the beauty canons of K-pop. Hypothesizing that the relationship between race (rather skin color) and class in Chile affects K-pop consumption, this study will delve into why the canon of beauty attracts Chilean fans, despite the contrast that exists with the Chilean canon of male beauty. Latin American culture is constituted by sexual roles marked and determined by gender (Cristián Valenzuela 2015); these roles perpetuate male superiority based on the figure of the male. Specifically, the hegemonic masculinity present in the region stands out for having such characteristics as strength, rationality, seriousness, domination, heterosexuality, and sexual activity. Asians are often called Chino, and K-pop fans are considered strange. Though Chileans tend to conflate all Asian pop cultures, they are particularly suspicious of the sexual identity of K-pop fans. Based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with sixteen upper-class and twenty middle-lower-class Chileans, this paper investigates how Chilean K-pop fans consume and negotiate with the aesthetics of K-pop in a conservative, European-oriented, oligarchic society.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44454959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thanks to the efforts of many art historians and conservators, over 160 paint ings have now been ascribed to artists from the Koryŏ period (918–1392). Since the 1990s, numerous exhibitions and catalogues—mainly in Korean and Japanese—have helped to introduce them to a wider audience. In English, the pickings are still slim, but at least a number of exhibition catalogues and introductions to Korean art have helped to spread awareness of the artistic brilliance and technical refinement of Koryŏ paintings. In particular, paintings of the Watermoon Avalokiteśvara or Amitabha’s welcoming descent are now fairly well known. Yet so far, almost no one has paid close attention to the set of paintings of the Ten Kings of Hell from the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum in Japan. The set is unique for various reasons. Although individual paintings of Ks.itigarbha flanked by the Ten Kings of Hell exist, this is the only set of individual paintings of each of the ten kings, together with two messengers, from Koryŏ. In fact, this book is the first to firmly establish their Korean provenance. Second, if the author’s assessment of the date is correct, they would be the oldest known paintings produced in Korea. And third, the paintings are not only the culmin ation of a long tradition of the Ten Kings of Hell representations in East Asia, but also a veritable repository of various painting styles of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). As the first monograph in English devoted exclusively to the study of Koryŏ Book Notes
{"title":"Efficacious Underworld: The Evolution of Ten Kings Paintings in Medieval China and Korea by Cheeyun Lilian Kwon (review)","authors":"S. Vermeersch","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Thanks to the efforts of many art historians and conservators, over 160 paint ings have now been ascribed to artists from the Koryŏ period (918–1392). Since the 1990s, numerous exhibitions and catalogues—mainly in Korean and Japanese—have helped to introduce them to a wider audience. In English, the pickings are still slim, but at least a number of exhibition catalogues and introductions to Korean art have helped to spread awareness of the artistic brilliance and technical refinement of Koryŏ paintings. In particular, paintings of the Watermoon Avalokiteśvara or Amitabha’s welcoming descent are now fairly well known. Yet so far, almost no one has paid close attention to the set of paintings of the Ten Kings of Hell from the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum in Japan. The set is unique for various reasons. Although individual paintings of Ks.itigarbha flanked by the Ten Kings of Hell exist, this is the only set of individual paintings of each of the ten kings, together with two messengers, from Koryŏ. In fact, this book is the first to firmly establish their Korean provenance. Second, if the author’s assessment of the date is correct, they would be the oldest known paintings produced in Korea. And third, the paintings are not only the culmin ation of a long tradition of the Ten Kings of Hell representations in East Asia, but also a veritable repository of various painting styles of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). As the first monograph in English devoted exclusively to the study of Koryŏ Book Notes","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44177066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongols incorporated Koryŏ through a myriad of interstate relations. Either approaching from the Tributary-Investiture practice or from the thesis of Koryŏ as a part of the Mongol empire, scholars have previously focused on only one of the many aspects of Koryŏ-Yuan relations to provide a clear picture. By examining the institution of the Branch Secretariat for the Eastern Campaign and Koryŏ graduates of the Yuan civil service examination and their concepts of sovereignty, this paper suggests a new direction to consider Koryŏ-Yuan relations, in which sovereignty and allegiance were not so clear-cut. The Mongols originally established the Branch Secretariat in Koryŏ to facilitate their invasions of Japan. But the Branch Secretariat continued to evolve and became a political institution that symbolized the Mongols’ sovereignty over Koryŏ and conferred on Koryŏ literati political and legal statuses to partake in the Yuan civil service examination and to attain offices in the empire after graduation. This, by no means, suggests that these Koryŏ literati shifted their allegiance. Rather, one example, Yi Kok (1298–1351), defended Koryŏ’s autonomy by appealing to the Mongols’ Confucian rhetoric and emphasizing the difference between Koryŏ and Yuan. The Mongols’ use of a Confucian legitimation strategy—the concept of All-under-Heaven—ironically became a means for Koryŏ literati to subvert certain elements of the Mongols’ sovereignty. At the same time, their appeals also acknowledged the Mongols’ right to rule All-under-Heaven. This paper thus reveals the ambiguity of Koryŏ-Yuan relations and concepts of sovereignty.
{"title":"All Are the Ruler’s Domain, but All Are Different: Mongol-Yuan Rule and Koryŏ Sovereignty in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries","authors":"King Kwong Wong","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongols incorporated Koryŏ through a myriad of interstate relations. Either approaching from the Tributary-Investiture practice or from the thesis of Koryŏ as a part of the Mongol empire, scholars have previously focused on only one of the many aspects of Koryŏ-Yuan relations to provide a clear picture. By examining the institution of the Branch Secretariat for the Eastern Campaign and Koryŏ graduates of the Yuan civil service examination and their concepts of sovereignty, this paper suggests a new direction to consider Koryŏ-Yuan relations, in which sovereignty and allegiance were not so clear-cut. The Mongols originally established the Branch Secretariat in Koryŏ to facilitate their invasions of Japan. But the Branch Secretariat continued to evolve and became a political institution that symbolized the Mongols’ sovereignty over Koryŏ and conferred on Koryŏ literati political and legal statuses to partake in the Yuan civil service examination and to attain offices in the empire after graduation. This, by no means, suggests that these Koryŏ literati shifted their allegiance. Rather, one example, Yi Kok (1298–1351), defended Koryŏ’s autonomy by appealing to the Mongols’ Confucian rhetoric and emphasizing the difference between Koryŏ and Yuan. The Mongols’ use of a Confucian legitimation strategy—the concept of All-under-Heaven—ironically became a means for Koryŏ literati to subvert certain elements of the Mongols’ sovereignty. At the same time, their appeals also acknowledged the Mongols’ right to rule All-under-Heaven. This paper thus reveals the ambiguity of Koryŏ-Yuan relations and concepts of sovereignty.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47663494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This study examines the bridge memorial stones of Chosŏn, considering the intersection between public literature and exile literature. Bridge memorial stones are erected to commemorate stone bridge construction in a community. The entire community—from the local administration to the people—contributed to the bridge construction and the compositon of the epigraphs on bridge memorial stones. The genre developed into a type of public literature, forming a practical style without personal narratives. This paper categorizes the contents of bridge memorial stones into three parts: prose, verse, and name lists, and analyzes the general characteristics and literary style of each part. Furthermore, this paper introduces “The Epigraph of Kwangnigyo” by the exile Sim Yŏlchi (1707–1759?) and compares it with conventional epigraphs of bridge memorial stones in Chosŏn. Although written by an outsider to the Kijang (Gijang) community, it captured the local identity by adopting folklore of the dragon king Kwangniwang and affirmed the leading power of the local people. In addition, the author included an image of himself as marginalized from the community in a fictional story. This unique manuscript presents a new perspective on exile literature as a result of active participation in a community.
{"title":"Community, Outsider, and Literature: Memorial Stones for Stone Bridges of the Chosŏn Dynasty and “The Epigraph of Kwangnigyo”","authors":"K. Sim","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This study examines the bridge memorial stones of Chosŏn, considering the intersection between public literature and exile literature. Bridge memorial stones are erected to commemorate stone bridge construction in a community. The entire community—from the local administration to the people—contributed to the bridge construction and the compositon of the epigraphs on bridge memorial stones. The genre developed into a type of public literature, forming a practical style without personal narratives. This paper categorizes the contents of bridge memorial stones into three parts: prose, verse, and name lists, and analyzes the general characteristics and literary style of each part. Furthermore, this paper introduces “The Epigraph of Kwangnigyo” by the exile Sim Yŏlchi (1707–1759?) and compares it with conventional epigraphs of bridge memorial stones in Chosŏn. Although written by an outsider to the Kijang (Gijang) community, it captured the local identity by adopting folklore of the dragon king Kwangniwang and affirmed the leading power of the local people. In addition, the author included an image of himself as marginalized from the community in a fictional story. This unique manuscript presents a new perspective on exile literature as a result of active participation in a community.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42973440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This paper presents an annotated translation and hermeneutic interpretation of a garden record in Seo Yugu’s nineteenth-century Korean encyclopedia Treatises on Rural Living (Imwon gyeongje ji 林園經濟志). This particular garden record is about a fantasy garden called To-Become Garden (Jangchwiwon 將就園). The translation, historical annotations, and hermeneutic interpretation presented in this paper help define the concept of a fantasy garden in East Asian architecture and uncover the Taoist hermitage in the humanistic, social, and environmental context of premodern Korea, at a time when Korea was experiencing a philosophical shift from traditional Neo-Confucianism to the emerging social movement of “practical learning” (Sirhak). This paper demonstrates that Seo’s encyclopedic composition of garden theories mixes his cultural perception of Korean mountain landscapes, his life experience of a practical hermitage, and his fantasy of a Taoist paradise. A comparison is drawn between Seo’s philosophy of life and Western critical philosophy at the dawn of modernity.
{"title":"The Fantasy Garden in East Asian Tradition: A Case Study of a Garden Record in Seo Yugu’s Treatises on Rural Living","authors":"H. Zou, Myengsoo Seo","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This paper presents an annotated translation and hermeneutic interpretation of a garden record in Seo Yugu’s nineteenth-century Korean encyclopedia Treatises on Rural Living (Imwon gyeongje ji 林園經濟志). This particular garden record is about a fantasy garden called To-Become Garden (Jangchwiwon 將就園). The translation, historical annotations, and hermeneutic interpretation presented in this paper help define the concept of a fantasy garden in East Asian architecture and uncover the Taoist hermitage in the humanistic, social, and environmental context of premodern Korea, at a time when Korea was experiencing a philosophical shift from traditional Neo-Confucianism to the emerging social movement of “practical learning” (Sirhak). This paper demonstrates that Seo’s encyclopedic composition of garden theories mixes his cultural perception of Korean mountain landscapes, his life experience of a practical hermitage, and his fantasy of a Taoist paradise. A comparison is drawn between Seo’s philosophy of life and Western critical philosophy at the dawn of modernity.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49482009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The implementation of a regularly scheduled civil service examination every three years was a common feature of the civil service examination systems in Chosŏn Korea, Ming and Qing China, and Lê and Nguyễn Vietnam. In Chosŏn, however, the custom of implementing the civil service examination as an element of the rites marking the observance of “joyous occasions” (kyŏngsa 慶事) emerged in the fifteenth century. This particular type of examination was known as the “state celebration examination” (kyŏngkwa 慶科). As justifications for its implementation proliferated in the late Chosŏn period, the state celebration became the linchpin of the civil service examination system. While there emerged in China and Vietnam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the “grace examination” (Ch. enke 恩科), a conceivable counterpart to the Korean state celebration examination, the justifications for and frequency of this examination were comparatively restricted. The centrality of the state celebration examination could thus be described as an important and unique characteristic of the civil service examination system in Korea. This article investigates the question of why state celebration examinations were held in Chosŏn. It focuses on the process by which the state celebration examination became so frequent in the late Chosŏn period in terms of the increasingly diverse justifications for its implementation.
{"title":"The State Celebration Examination and the Civil Service Examination System in the Late Chosŏn Period","authors":"Hyun Soon Park, K. Macrae","doi":"10.1353/seo.2021.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/seo.2021.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The implementation of a regularly scheduled civil service examination every three years was a common feature of the civil service examination systems in Chosŏn Korea, Ming and Qing China, and Lê and Nguyễn Vietnam. In Chosŏn, however, the custom of implementing the civil service examination as an element of the rites marking the observance of “joyous occasions” (kyŏngsa 慶事) emerged in the fifteenth century. This particular type of examination was known as the “state celebration examination” (kyŏngkwa 慶科). As justifications for its implementation proliferated in the late Chosŏn period, the state celebration became the linchpin of the civil service examination system. While there emerged in China and Vietnam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the “grace examination” (Ch. enke 恩科), a conceivable counterpart to the Korean state celebration examination, the justifications for and frequency of this examination were comparatively restricted. The centrality of the state celebration examination could thus be described as an important and unique characteristic of the civil service examination system in Korea. This article investigates the question of why state celebration examinations were held in Chosŏn. It focuses on the process by which the state celebration examination became so frequent in the late Chosŏn period in terms of the increasingly diverse justifications for its implementation.","PeriodicalId":41678,"journal":{"name":"Seoul Journal of Korean Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/seo.2021.0003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46276448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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