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This paper compares the exchange of Ming porcelain between Ming China and Joseon in comparison with those exchanges between Ming and other countries in East Asia in order to bring out similarities and differences and highlight the complexity and dynamics of East Asian cultural exchanges. First, the similarities are that the times when the Ming court bestowed porcelain on other countries were concentrated in the first half of the fifteenth century in most of the Asian region. Within the framework of tribute trade, porcelain with a three-clawed dragon design was found in large quantities. During similar periods of time, Longquan celadon and Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain as well as private kiln porcelain wares increased and had common features. Second, what makes the exchange with Joseon distinctive is the introduction of porcelain overland by Ming envoys whose country of origin was Joseon and the shipment of table ware sets manufactured by Ming imperial kilns. Also, most of the Ming porcelain discovered in Joseon has been Jingdezhen blue and white porcelain which was common with other East Asian countries, but only a few discoveries of Longquan or Zhangzhou wares, nor was there much Kraak ware from Jingdezhen kilns or Southeast Asian celadons. These differences put Joseon in a unique position. This analysis provides an implication that diplomatic interactions and the changes in distribution brought about by the main trading forces should be considered in order to have a deep understanding of porcelain exchange between Ming China and Joseon and throughout East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qiu Jun of Ming China, with the aim of "rendering the Zhuzi jiali both accessible and practicable for ordinary folks," compiled the Jiali yijie. Among the annotations of Jiali in the Ming dynasty, Jiali yijie gained the widest popularity and greatest influence, and was regarded as a new classic, on par with the Jiali itself. In the 16th century, Jiali yijie was also introduced to Joseon Korea, where it was regarded as "an important supplement to the Zhuzi jiali" by Korean scholars, attaining a high level of popularity. This paper draws on 23 versions of the Jiali yijie from the Ming dynasty and 33 from the Qing. Historically, the Jiali yijie was introduced to the Joseon dynasty from China by Kim Anguk in 1518. Through the comparison of these four Joseon print versions and their Chinese counterparts, we are led to the conclusion that it was the Yingtian prefecture's print, dated the twelfth year of the Zhengde Era, that Kim Anguk brought back to Joseon from Ming China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the transnational literary interactions in the early modern Sinographic sphere by examining the late Chosŏn writer Yi Tŏngmu's reading of an early Qing text, Liuxi Waizhuan, and its resonance in his compilation of Noeroe Nangnak Sŏ. Reconsidering the unmediated communicability of the Sinographic text, it demonstrates the ways in which Noeroe Nangnak Sŏ decoupled Liuxi Waizhuan from its local conditions of production and circulation and relocalized it to fit Chosŏn Korea's agenda of repositioning itself in the changing Sinocentric order after the downfall of the Ming. Between delocalizing and relocalizing the Sinographic text, the compilation of Noeroe Nangnak Sŏ participated in the constantly shifting meanings of loyalty to the fallen Ming, thereby diversifying the repertoire of the shared civilization in early modern East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late 19th century marked a significant period in Korea's history, when it established formal diplomatic relations with the outside world. Goryeo celadon began appearing in the context of diplomatic and other exchanges in the 19th century. These celadon pieces were exquisite and often of the highest quality. There are also cases of foreign diplomats collecting Goryeo celadon. British consul William Carles, French consul Victor Collin de Plancy, and American consul Horace Allen played prominent roles in collecting, selling, and donating Goryeo celadon. In the complex landscape of East Asian diplomacy, ceramics occasionally played a role in exchanges between China, Japan, and Southeast Asian regions. Overall, this phenomenon can be attributed to the changing economic and cultural value of Goryeo celadon, particularly during the late 19th century. However, the inclusion of Goryeo celadon in diplomatic contexts or as prominent diplomatic gifts was also closely related to the changing perception of Goryeo celadon within Korea, as it began to be viewed from a more externalized perspective. Moreover, as foreign interest in Korean (Joseon) culture expanded into a range of ethnographic studies, Goryeo celadon came to be recognized as an artistic product that demonstrated the cultural competence of the nation. Simultaneously, Goryeo celadon took on the role of a diplomatic medium, symbolically representing Korea's heritage on a national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Numerous Ming Chinese took refuge in Choson Korea during the early seventeenth century. Despite the supposed sinocentrism of Choso's elites, refugees from China were treated as belonging to the category of submitting-foreigner (hyanghwain), a protected but distinctly humble social status that had been used primarily as a tool for settling Japanese and Jurchen from Choson's frontiers. Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, however, the Choson court considered it incongruous to include Ming Chinese descendants in that category. Chinese lineages were thus distinguished from other submitting-foreigners and reclassified according to the considerably more prestigious category of imperial subjects. This paper explores this change, seeing it as part of a trend in the Qing Empire and indeed in Eurasia as a whole in which identity and subjecthood became increasingly bureaucratized, and loyalties treated as absolute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gavin Menzies argues that the depiction of Africa in the late fifteenth-century Korean world map, the Ryūkoku Kangnido, provides evidence that Ming China mapped the west coast of Africa and discovered the world in the 1420s. This paper examines his use of the Ryūkoku Kangnido and his use of available writing on this world map. For Asian cartographic history Menzies appears to have read only the homepage of a map lover who summarized historians' research and added his own comments. Menzies' argument about the Ryūkoku Kangnido does not stand in Korean and Chinese histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tale of Korean Sinology is as dramatic as that of Korea itself, which has moved from being a faithful periphery of the Chinese civilization to a newly rising economic power in the modern world. This article begins with a survey of some distinctive features of premodern Korean scholarly works by the end of the Chosŏn dynasty from the perspective of Sinology. Then it moves on to modern scholarship, focusing mostly on the field of Chinese history, which I think is the most active and innovative among the several different fields in today's Korean Sinology. The history of Korean Sinology is a telling case study that illustrates how humanistic learning is deeply connected to fundamental aspects of a society's politics, economics, and culture at a given moment in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widow's heir adoption in Joseon was largely secured by the adoption law in the Great Code of Administration. Widows, especially eldest daughters-in-law, in late Joseon were involved in legal disputes with their husbands' younger brothers or the entire descent group over adoption. On the one hand, widows relied on adoption to protect their positions in their husband's lineage against the encroachment of their brothers-in-law claiming the status of lineage heir. On the other hand, widows actively pursued their choice of an adoptee with strong social background, albeit from a distant relative, against the collective opinion of the husband's descent group. In most cases, the state ruled for the widow's adoption not only by law but also by acknowledging the widow's position as the eldest son's wife. The state believed that the widowed eldest daughters-in-law could secure the lineal succession of a descent group against the collateral line. Widows themselves went on to appropriate such a descent- line principle to their favor, actively claiming their status as a representative of the direct line of descent. Such a close relationship between widows and the lineage principle in late Joseon was something rarely seen in contemporaneous China. Widow's heir adoption may be a useful lens for observing differences in kinship practices between pre-modern Korea and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a writing format, the 'template table' ( suanshi, ) that was designed to guide the process of calendrical astronomical calculations in early modern China. In conjunction with another kind of text, known as 'detailed procedures' ( xicao, ), users could perform calculations easily by operating the 'template table' and extracting data from given numerical tables. This method, that not only normalized the use of numerical tables but also linked instructions with the corresponding tables in computational practices, became widespread from the Ming period (1368-1644) onwards. Wanting to acquire this computational regimen, the Joseon court of Korea (1392-1897) even sent skilled officers to China to learn it secretly. The circulation of the template method beyond China suggests its significance. The article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manchus conquered Beijing and re-structured the social and political order of China in the 1640s. Meanwhile, Joseon Korea necessitated following the Qing's new tributary rituals to appoint envoys visiting China regularly, although Joseon intellectuals refused to accept the Qing's new order. Joseon's mission route to Beijing was the primary battlefield for the Ming-Qing conflict. It provided opportunities for them to encounter different battlefield sites, such as Ningyuan and Shanhai Pass. In looking for the glory of the Ming Dynasty, some Joseon intellectuals were curious about the places of the Ming-Qing transition. As a result, members frequently asked the appointed interpreters for interpretation of the information. Interpreters acquired extensive experiences in China and widespread network with Chinese to collect information of the past. Joseon intellectuals relied on interpreters' elaboration to understand the history of the Ming-Qing transition and even recorded the intelligence in their Yeonhaengrok. The record was circulated as the intellectuals' shared memory of the Ming-Qing transition in Joseon intellectuals' circle. This article attempts to address how the Joseon interpreters worked as the "cultural broker" to utilize their social network and knowledge to construct the discourse of the conflict during the Ming-Qing transition for re-shaping the memory of Joseon intellectuals on Ming Empire. The article's argument demonstrated the Joseon interpreters as an intermediary, who operated the cultural contact zone in East Asia to produce and circulate the knowledge in China for the Joseon community to create their own memory of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to rapid economic growth in the twentieth century, Korea suffered a long economic decline in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the failure accelerating from 1850 to 1890. According to 36 different harvest records, rice productivity continuously declined from the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries due to deforestation and increase in natural disasters. Contraction of rural markets after the interruption of trade with Japan also contributed to the decrease in rice production. The third reason for the nineteenth-century crisis was the dissolution of the government-led grain storage and redistribution system. Finally, the ultimate culprit for the crisis could be found in Confucianism with which the Joseon Dynasty was unable to properly understand and respond to the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Joseon dynasty is recognized as being the most exemplary tributary state to the Ming dynasty of China. In particular, it is considered an ideal member of the tribute system, which is believed to have been established in its most orthodox form during the era of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). However, the historical facts demonstrate that Joseon Korea, though it fully observed the tributary rites, was an exceptional case. The evidence points to the fact that Ming China and most of its tributary states simply intended to maintain the status quo through the formation of superficial tributary relationships, while concealing any conflicts or opposing interests that may have existed. Thus, tributary relations were easily changeable and were based on the economic, cultural, and political benefits they represented. As the logic of the "tribute system" has emerged as a prominent topic of discussion, it has become neces- sary to take a cautious approach when it comes to regarding Joseon as a typi- cal example of this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their significance for historical demographic research, a major limitation of Chinese genealogies is the relative lack of information on daughters, their husbands, and their descendants, which prevents an examination of how the boundary of family was extended through the marriage network. To fill this "hole" in Chinese genealogies, we use the genealogy of the Andong Kwôn clan, published in 1476, the oldest existing genealogy in Korea. Interestingly, more than 90 percent of those recorded in this Korean genealogy belong to the son-in-law line, revealing the importance of marriage networks for family formation until the late fifteenth century. By looking at the specific families that Andong Kwôn's daughters married into and the occupational titles of their husbands, we explore specific ways in which the family boundary was expanded to include the son-in-law lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]