Category: Korean Studies

ARTICLES

An Introduction to the Samguk Sagi, p. 1
Edward J. Shultz

Korea’s oldest extant historical source is the Samguk sagi, which was compiled by Kim Pusik (1075–1151) and others during Injong’s reign (1122–1146) in the Koryo kingdom. This history and its compilers have been at the center of controversy as critics have challenged the work’s accuracy and its omissions. Despite its failings, this history is a reaffirmation of Koryo’s identity, which had been seriously challenged by events of the early twelfth century and is an excellent expression of that society’s values and historical understanding.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 28 (2004)”

ARTICLES

Prince Misahun: Silla’s Hostage to Wa from the Late Fourth Century, p. 1
Chizuko T. Allen

Three of the oldest extant chronicles of Korea and Japan, the Samguk sagi, the Samguk yusa, and the Nihon shoki, recount the story of the Silla prince Misahun’s escape from extended captivity in Wa. Regarding Wa as the early Yamato confederacy based in western Japan, this article clarifies the chronology and characteristics of the Misahun incident in reference to the series of related events described by the inscription on the Koguryo king Kwanggaet’o’s stele. Between 391 and 399, Silla succumbed to Wa’s military attacks and sent Misahun to Wa as a means of appeasement. Silla, however, soon chose to return to Koguryo’s sphere of influence to ward off further Wa assaults. After Koguryo annihilated the Wa forces, Silla managed to retrieve the prince from Wa with a clever scheme. Unlike Paekche’s reciprocal relationship with Wa, Silla’s relationship with Wa was unilateral, based on the latter’s incessant demands.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 27 (2003)”

ARTICLES

Buddhism and Polity in Early Sixth-Century Paekche
Jonathan W. Best, 165

Using written and material evidence to criticize the Samguk sagi’s relatively static depiction of the Paekche political structure and court culture, this article examines the importance of Buddhism in the early sixth-century political and cultural transformation of the kingdom, which passes virtually unnoticed in the Samguk sagi. Prior to the end of the fifth century, court life in Paekche was similar in notable respects to that of contemporary Koguryo, which, in turn, was partly influenced by earlier Chinese forms. At this early time, Buddhism was acknowledged by Paekche’s kings but neither held a prominent place in the court nor played a significant role in policies of state. This changed after the loss of the Han River valley to Koguryo in 475. Paekche’s early sixth-century kings Muryong and Song evidently recognized that if the dynasty was to survive, a fundamental restructuring of the kingdom had to occur. The court intensified diplomatic and cultural ties to China. The ardently Buddhist Liang emperor Wu Di evidently inspired Paekche to enhance its patronage of Buddhism and to use it to centralize and strengthen royal authority.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 26, no. 2 (2002)”

ARTICLES

Creating New Paradigms of Womanhood in Modern Korean Literature: Na Hye-sok’s ‘‘Kyonghui’’
Yung-Hee Kim, 1

Na Hye-sok (1896–1948) lived a pioneering life as an individual woman, artist, and writer during the turbulent period of Japanese colonial rule in Korea. A beneficiary of progressive education in Korea, Japan, and Europe, rarely available to average Koreans of her time, Na enjoyed high social visibility and reputation. She broke new ground in Western oil painting as the first Korean woman professional painter and also had an indelible impact on modern Korean literature and culture as a reform-minded writer and critic. Her life and creative activities, often iconoclastic and audacious, were rarely free of press attention and controversy because they challenged the conventional thinking and status quo of her own society. Her major work, ‘‘Kyonghui,’’ polemicizes some of the urgent and thorny issues of Korean society in the throes of modernization, focusing on gender and patriarchal relations, Confucian family and marriage institutions, and women’s identity and autonomy. Na’s most accomplished work of fiction, ‘‘Kyonghui’’ qualifies itself as the first full-blown, feminist short story in Korean literature, marked by its heroine’s successful completion of self-discovery and her difficult quest for meaning in life as a ‘‘new woman.’’ As such, the story represents one of the towering points in the intellectual annals of modern Korea as well as in modern Korean women’s writing traditions.

Kyonghui
Na Hye-Sok, 61

Full text of Kyonghui’s story, translated by Yung-Hee Kim

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 26, no. 1 (2002)”

ARTICLES

The Parliament of Histories: New Religions, Collective Historiography, and the Nation
Boudewijn Walraven, 157

Historiography is a social process, and professional historians are not the only ones to create images of the past. Therefore an understanding of what history means within a particular society requires an examination of the views of nonprofessional contributors to the historical debate. In this article, the problem of collective historical representation and identity construction at different levels of social organization is mainly illustrated with the recent historiography of religious groups that base themselves on the teachings of Chûngsan Kang Il-sun (1871–1909). In the conclusions, it is argued that a focus on national history, shared by such groups, is not necessarily repressive but offers them an opportunity to carve out a collective identity.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 25, no. 2 (2001)”

ARTICLES

Military Examinations in Late Chosôn, 1700–1863: Elite Substratification and Non-Elite Accommodation
Eugene Y. Park, 1

In late Chosôn, increasing domination of the civil branch of the central government by capital civil official families led to the political marginalization of other yangban families. Turning to military examinations, some in Seoul reproduced themselves as semihereditary military lines that enjoyed the powerful civil officials’ patronage and government support. Many among the provincial elite also chose military careers in the course of their exclusion from central politics. Possible weakening of their local political hegemony, however, may have made the elite status more purely ascriptive in nature, and the military examination degree seems to have lost its appeal. Despite the differentiation, the central civil official, central military official, and local elite families continued to constitute one yangban status group. This elite substratification process enabled the capital military men to retain their membership in yangban society, take pride in their profession, and loyally defend the existing order. Meanwhile, commoners began to participate en masse in the military examinations, but the degree merely helped to satisfy their aspirations for higher social status without actually allowing their political participation. By facilitating elite substratification and non-elite accommodation, the military examinations in late Chosôn appear to have promoted social stability and dynastic longevity.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 25, no. 1 (2001)”

ARTICLES

Country or State? Reconceptualizing Kukka in the Korean Enlightenment Period, 1896-1910
Kyung Moon Hwang, 1

The Korean enlightenment period, 1896-1910, was characterized by intellectual experimentation and adaptation, as the leading intellectuals attempted to reconcile the new ideas and models originating from the West, as well as from contemporary Japan and China, with the very powerful equivalents from the Korean-Confucian tradition, and in constant consideration of the real circumstances of the day. This study examines a key example of the reformulation of a traditional concept, that of kukka (commonly translated as “state”). The new meanings involved a wider array of concerns, including political legitimacy, sovereignty, and even rights. Furthermore, the notion of kukka provided the enlightenment activists an opportunity to get to the heart of their urgent concerns: What kind of Korean nation and polity should prevail in the brave new world of competing civilizations, and what should the enlightenment intellectuals’ role be in this process?

Two competing revisions of this ancient term emerged—one insisting that the kukka constituted a collective entity of people, land, and government and the other adopting a perspective that equated kukka with the ruling authority, or the “state.” This study argues that the former, collectivist notion of the kukka was the first and foremost reconceptualization of this term in the Korean enlightenment period. Furthermore, the two contrasting concepts of kukka corresponded to differing views about the appropriate political form for Korea at the time. Ironically, while those who adopted the Western-oriented, statist notion of kukka called for an authoritarian ruling order dominated by a powerful state, the intellectuals who advocated the more liberal, people-centered concept of the collective kukka attempted to reconcile their political theory with, of all things, Confucian teachings. The Confucian intellectual tradition supported these activists’ collectivist definition of kukka by establishing the concept of kukka-as-family, by providing a holistic connection between individual self-cultivation and the condition of the larger kukka, and by validating the efforts of sagely activists, such as the enlightenment thinkers, in working to save the kukka. In an important sense, the enlightenment project can be viewed as the latest in a long history of Confucian reform movements in Korea.

Continue reading “Korean Studies, vol. 24 (2000)”

Article Index

Arranged alphabetically by author name(s) and article title.
Continue reading “Korean Studies, vols. 1-24 (1977-2000): Article Index”

Review Index

Arranged alphabetically book author name(s), review author name(s), and book title.
Continue reading “Korean Studies, vols. 1-24 (1977-2000): Review Index”