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This article discusses the emergence, transformation, and transmission of an esoteric Buddhist movement that Hoedang (孫珪祥, Kyu-shang Sohn [or Sohn, Gyu-sang], 1902–1963) began in the 1940s and 1950s. Starting in the middle of the eighth century, the history of Korean Esoteric Buddhism indicates that the tradition continued to exist (albeit marginally) until the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897). However, this case study, which focuses on the new religious sect of Jingak, explorers Jingak's reformist characteristics and its efforts toward the renewal of Korean Buddhism in contemporary society. The article argues that the founder was intellectually receptive to other teachings, including the performance of esoteric healing, the prosocial characters of Pragmatic Buddhism, the doctrine of Japanese Shingon, and permitting priests to marry. This article additionally attempts to identify the innovative philosophy (including Simin, 心印, original sinless self) of Korean Esoteric Buddhism, in the combined concepts of Jinho gukga bulsa (鎭護國家佛事, Protecting the nation by the teaching of Buddhism), Iwon Weonri (二元原理, Relative Principle), Simin Bulgyo (心印佛敎, Mind-seal Buddhism), and Silhaengnon (實行論, The Teachings of Hoedang—Practical Theory). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deaths of Confucian scholars in the Chosŏn period (1392–1910) gave rise to elaborate rituals through which the bereaved reframed their relationships to the deceased as well as among themselves, and which took place most explicitly in the process of producing diverse funerary texts. Created in a specific material format and aesthetic, each funerary text addressed a particular group of people enacting its respective performative functions in the ritual proceedings. While exploring the funerary texts produced for T'oegye Yi Hwang (1501−1570), this article grapples with the indistinguishable narrative styles shown in different funerary texts despite their distinctive material conditions and ritual functions. It demonstrates that the privileged status that books enjoyed in Chosŏn Confucian tradition meant that their addressivity nullified the original tone and style of each text, because funerary texts were eventually compiled and included as part of the deceased's collection of writings in book form. This study argues that textual scholarship needs to account for hierarchies among the different textual materialities, particularly when the same texts travel across diverse media forms. It complements existing historiography that almost always uses Chosŏn funerary texts as narrative sources and takes for granted the cultural practice of writing and including them in books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of pre-modern Chinese hegemony is crucial for both theorizing hegemony and envisioning a new global order. I argue the pre-modern Chinese hegemony was a reciprocal rule of virtue, or aretocracy, driven by the transnational sociocultural elites shi. In contrast to the prevailing models of Chinese hegemony, the Early Modern East Asia was not dominated by the unilateral normative influence of the Chinese state. The Chinese and non-Chinese shi as non-statist sociocultural elites co-produced, through their shared civilizational heritage, a hegemonic order in which they had to show excellence in civil virtues to wield legitimate authority. In particular, the Ming and Chosŏn shi developed a tradition of envoy poetry exchanges as a medium for co-constructing Chinese hegemony as aretocracy. The remarkable role of excellent ethos for world order making in Early Modern East Asia compels us to re-imagine how we conduct our global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviewed Korean food recipes and food culture included in English cookbooks issued in the United States from the 1930s to the early 1970s. In the 1930s cookbook, many types of soup were introduced to Korean food under the influence of the Tangban culture in the Joseon dynasty and a brief description of ‘Sinseollo’ culture. The 1940s cookbooks, introduced Korean table settings, food culture, and cooking methods depending on the use of chopsticks. In the 1950s cookbooks, Korean foods were selected to suit a Western table setting, and detailed explanations were included along with ‘cheopsu’ means the number of dishes served in Korean food. More diverse Korean food was introduced within its culture and origins in the 1960s cookbooks. The 1970s cookbooks explained, the characteristics of Korean culinary specialties that differentiated from oriental food. This study of Korean food and culture from Cookbooks issued in the United States from the 1930s to 1970s, where Eastern and Western multiculturalism coexist, can be used as baseline data to understand the identity of modern Korean food culture and the direction of the globalization of Korean food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the domestication and spread of horses in history, genetic information is essential. However, mitogenetic traits of ancient or medieval horses have yet to be comprehensively revealed, especially for East Asia. This study thus set out to reveal the maternal lineage of skeletal horse remains retrieved from a 15th century archaeological site (Gongpyeongdong) at Old Seoul City in South Korea. Methods: We extracted DNA from the femur of Equus caballus (SNU-A001) from Joseon period Gongpyeongdong site. Mitochondrial (mt) DNA (HRS 15128-16116) of E. caballus was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Cloning and sequencing were conducted for the mtDNA amplicons. The sequencing results were analyzed by NCBI/BLAST and phylogenetic tool of MEGA7 software. Results: By means of mtDNA cytochrome b and D-loop analysis, we found that the 15th century Korean horse belonged to haplogroup Q representing those horses that have historically been raised widely in East Asia. Conclusion: The horse is unique among domesticated animals for the remarkable impact it has on human civilization in terms of transportation and trade. Utilizing the Joseonperiod horse remains, we can obtain clues to reveal the genetic traits of Korean horse that existed before the introduction of Western horses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this essay is to analyze and introduce how Korea has developed their method of collecting and cataloging old documents based on their indigenous historical backdrops. This involves defining the characteristics of the old documents to illustrate the counteraction of modernity, followed by a determination of the historic and distinctive influences on unearthing and collecting the old documents, which includes the clans' ancestral collections in the field. The history and trajectory of the clans are also applied to the classification and cataloging of the collected archives as a domestic approach. When it comes to collecting and cataloging Korean old documents, Korea developed their method based on their definition of archiving, which is from an indigenous attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a case study of Bogwangsa, this article examines the active role played by laity in rebuilding the devotional and material culture of Buddhism in the final decades of the Joseon dynasty. While the monastic community of this royal votive monastery reached out to the laity to ensure its institutional survival, lay devotees made changes to the physical structure and cultic practices at the monastery, heralding new developments soon to follow in the greater capital area. This study probes the questions of why the monastery was patronized by lay devotees of varied social standings and motivations as well as what benefits, religious and secular, they gained as a result. The study pursues this inquiry through an analysis of the networks of followers and their patronage of "Buddhist projects" (bulsa)--from the construction of worship halls and the publication of Pure Land texts to the dedication of Buddhist paintings--centering around Bogwangsa. While influential male members of King Gojong's court sponsored the monastery in order to endorse the legitimacy of the monarch, male lay devotees of the "middle" (jungin) class and female court members--who were limited by the status system or gender norms--found in this monastery a place of their own in a society dominated by male Confucian elites. This study restores the role of lay Buddhists, little-explored in previous studies, in the revitalization of Buddhism in 19th-century Joseon society, while enriching our understanding of Buddhist devotionalism. [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]

Research on Buddhism in the Joseon dynasty has seen many achievements during the past 100 years. Under Japanese colonial rule, the introduction of the modern academic research methodology and the collection of historical material allowed the pioneering research on various topics and formed the main theories. However, a negative image was layered onto tradition, reflecting the reality of being colonized, and the formula of suppression and decline was set in place. In the late 20th century, as the base of research broadened and a more autonomous perspective towards the tradition of Korean history was emphasized, the areas and topics of research diversified, leading to the accumulation of research achievements. From 2000 on, research that looks at Buddhism in the Joseon dynasty from a new perspective and attempts to clarify the historical reality in detail have been attempted. While the Joseon dynasty has been known as a period of elevating Confucianism and suppressing Buddhism (sungyu eokbul), this is a neologism created during the modern period, and its contents and characteristics should be understood depending on the time period. It is also necessary to reexamine the Buddhist traditions that have become academically formulized such as the theory that Buddhist monks were equal to the low-born, the theory of the doctrinal study, and the Seon-oriented perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does one reverse engineer a technical artefact, let alone build a system of knowledge, use, and production around it? This article investigates Korean artisans and practitioners in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and their efforts to understand and rebuild the Portuguese espingarda (matchlock musket). What emerges, first, is a hitherto untold story of how a global artefact became reconstituted in Korea – a process that generated new practices, practitioners, and unexpected innovations. In telling this story, a second, methodological contribution is made: the demonstration of a hands-on approach to historical research that investigates material objects and, in this case, does so through the very act of reverse engineering, defined here as mechanical dissection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at traditional Korean practices of the mounting of paintings, discussing a research project on the subject being carried out at Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris, France and the Hirayama Studio of the British Museum, London, England. It focuses on two 18th-century portrait paintings from the Joseon dynasty period, a portrait of scholar Kang Se-hwang and a portrait of Korean Prime Minister Ch'ae Che-gong, both attributed to artist Yi Myong-gi. Topics include the rarity of older Korean paintings with their original mountings, the use of silk backings, rods, and roller knobs in mountings, and differences between Korean, Japanese, and Chinese mountings.

This paper examines A. G. Frank's views about 15th-19th Korea (Joseon Dynasty) in his Reorient. A. G. Frank recognized that Korea might have played a great role in the international relations of East Asia, but he did not write systematically about it and he did not treat Korea as an independent player in the history of East Asia. I think the greatest limitation to his reinterpretation of East Asia is in that he depends too much on China's and Japan's perspective. In order to overcome Frank's shortcomings regarding the history of Korea, first I examine what Frank recognized about the Joseon dynasty between 1400 and 1800. Next I compare Joseon's development to that of China and Japan between 1400 and 1800. Frank compared Europe and East Asia (mainly China and Japan) from three aspects of quantities (population, production, productivity, and trade), qualities (science and technology), and mechanism (economic and financial institutions). With this research we insist that Joseon should not be dismissed in 15th-19th East Asia. The reasons are as follows. First, Joseon between 1400 and 1800 had developed economically as much as China and Japan. Second, Joseon had played a great role in connecting China and Japan and had a positive influence on the development of Japan. So we need to reappraise Reorient's view about East Asia. Only when role of Joseon can be correctly estimated, the dynamics and diversity of East Asia can be properly understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the reigns of Yŏngjo (r. 1724-76) and Chŏngjo (r. 1776-1800), royal audiences and tests were established as important components of the mangbaerye-day events. For the two rulers, the audience was an occasion to use the significance of the rituals to justify bureaucratic promotions for the attendees. The literary and military tests on mangbaerye days were systematized by Yŏngjo and administered by the ruler as a stage in the state examination. By assuming leading ideological roles through rituals, Yŏngjo was able to present the image of a sage-ruler with supreme political and ideological authority. Chŏngjo refrained from bestowing examination privileges in the mangbaerye tests, making the mangbaerye days special occasions for disseminating Ming loyalism. In the nineteenth century, the frequency of Ming loyalist rituals was significantly reduced, and royal audiences came to a complete halt. Moreover, the rituals incrementally lost ground as events for highlighting the importance of the ritual attendees. The mangbaerye-day tests in the nineteenth century served as a venue to promote participating families' political advancement, rather than as an occasion to bolster the monarchical authority and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early Joseon Dynasty, there were several kinds of example supplements (.) including the calculation methods and results of the solar and lunar eclipses that happened in August of Jeongmyonien (..., 1447). Among them, this paper discusses the Chijongsan-Napion Jeongmyonien Kyosik-Garyong (...) and the Kyosikchubobub-Garyong (...) published in 1444 and 1458, respectively. According to the comparative study of these two versions, the newly revised calculation method of the solar and lunar eclipse was introduced from China after the compilation of the Chiljongsan-Napion (...), and it was studied and revised by King Sejong and the court astronomers of Joseon (...). Later, it was published by the order of King Sejo with the title of the Kyosikchubobub-Garyong. This edition shows that there was a reform of the calender system after the Datonglifa-Tonggui (...) in Ming(...) Dynasty. Therefore, we have examined the solar and lunar eclipsing methods used in the early Joseon Dynasty and the process of their revision. In addition, we analysed the calculation method of the addition and subtraction difference (...) used in the calculation of true positions of the sun and the moon, which is the main difference between the two. As a result, it is revealed that the main factor of prediction errors came from the time of real new moon and full moon obtained from the calculation of the addition and subtraction difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explore the relativeness between the acceptance of Neo- Confucianism and the change of the status of "the people" in Korean history. My critical viewpoint is the question as follows: even though the minbon principle of "people as the basis" espoused by Neo-Confucian could be merely the ideology for rule, what result had the difference of existence or non-existence of that principle brought about? And even though that might be unintended consequences, what change had that principle including Neo-Confucianism brought about the noticeable one of their habitual mind on politics to not only Neo-Confucian scholars but also the people? In order to clarify the change of the relativeness, I chose the historical approach and tried to trace the trajectory of the change in Choson period of Korea. Then, my study yielded the following result: the being-in-place of the principle itself and Confucian intellectuals' efforts to practice the principle could have made a noticeable change into the people's habitual mind on politics and could have affected the people's social and political status over time. Especially, compared with the early period of state-building, a difference could not but appear during the mid-Choson period in which the minbon principle was taking roots among the people and the people experienced large scale wars, disasters, and widespread famines. In the case of the outbreaks of those country-wide calamities, what the political elite did could not meet the people's expectation and the elite seemed unable to live up to their long-cherished principle of minbon, with the result that, despite the Neo- Confucians' original intention, the principle of minbon began to be used against the elite themselves as the philosophical base of the people's opposition against unreasonable rule. As a result, a most important change took place in the people's own concepts, when they began to think of themselves as eligible as participants in the public sphere and their most possibly active participation as an obligation. They began to realize that the political order based on minbon principle should be not for the official but for the people, and for this purpose, the order should be opened and administrated on the principle of public participation. This way they were motivated to study the ways for the people's participation. Despite expected differences in locality and social class, it would be reasonable to think that such an idea was gradually spreading and penetrating through the people's mind over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korean royal court culture was doomed by the fall of the Joseon dynasty at the hands of Japanese imperial forces at the beginning of the twentieth century. After the establishment of Japanese colonial administration in 1910, court traditions mostly disappeared as displaced royal family members and their former attendants grew older and suffered economic hardships. It was only in the 1970s that royal court cuisine began to receive official attention as part of efforts to reconstruct and preserve national cultural heritage. In 1970, the royal cuisine of the Joseon dynasty was designated by the state as the Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 38. Through a detailed case study of Hwang Hye-seong (1920-2006), the second state-designated holder of the cultural property, this paper examines the process by which "royal court cuisine" was identified and redefined within the framework of the Important Intangible Cultural Property system in Korea, and analyzes how the royal cuisine thus reconstructed has come to be established, recognized, and successfully commoditized as a specific brand of haute cuisine in the dietary culture of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global influence of colonial imperialism has affected the Confucian tradition of Chinese border countries in modern history. France became involved in the establishment of the Vietnamese Nguyen dynasty (1802--1945) under the pretext of protecting Catholic missionaries. Japanese Korea refers to the period when the late Joseon dynasty struggled with colonial rule from 1910-1945. Such historical difficulty caused the transformation of society, culture, and thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The new religious movement (NRM) was another cultural phenomenon in the region; many indigenous NRMs appeared, from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, to shamanism. Among them, Cao Đài and Daesoon Jinrihoe of Jeungsanism have been the most successful and progressive groups. How did they emerge in these transitional societies? What were their backgrounds? What were their unique teachings? How were they so prosperous even under politico-social persecution? This article explores both new movements' geo-religious nature through a comparative perspective that incorporates the subjects of origin, ethnic and political identity, cosmology, key teachings, sacred sites and rituals, and gender-related leadership. The article argues the critical insight that the two monotheistic syncretic religions of Gucheon Sangje and Cao Dài, under the big bang theory, are each unique, but historically they have also been ethnical grassroots organizations that are nationalistic, independent, anti-colonial, and counter-modern in Sino-Asian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to reconsider the significance of the controversy surrounding Queen Munjeong's (1501–65) reinstatement of the two Buddhist orders, Seon (meditation) and Gyo (doctrine), by using it as a window onto the nature of politics in the Joseon Dynasty. Queen Munjeong's restoration of Buddhism has received significant scholarly attention since the early 1990s, and most studies agree that the queen mother was able to bring her pro-Buddhist policy to fruition thanks to her supporters, i.e. officials loyal to her. Nevertheless, these allies were also found to have articulated opposition to her pro-Buddhist policies. Thus it would be logical to query what significance the disputes might have had in the context of early and mid-Joseon political dynamics. In King Myeongjong's reign, the monarch had to share power with the high-ranking officials and bureaucrats; the scholar-officials were acting as arbiters and the king sought their approval prior to taking any action. In case of a dispute, precedents were invoked to substantiate one's claim. By closely reading the contestations, I argue that Queen Munjeong's restoration of the Buddhist orders was an aborted attempt at establishing a precedent that the throne could use to its advantage in its attempts to wrestle back control from the scholar-officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) as a documentation tool for visualizing and recording the treatment of coins. RTI—a computational photograph technique that calculates light positions—allows interactive relighting for vision. Virtual light enhances surface details for examining morphological difference. By applying Dome RTI method, stages of conservation treatment were recorded to enhance the overall characteristic features of the relief upon the coin surface, and then detect and identify weathered characters. Patina removal and consolidation were documented along with the original state; a significant difference in the coin's surface was observed using different filters of the RTI viewer. Specular enhancement and normal visualization results were most effective for detecting the change in morphology and reflectivity. Microscopic RTI was applied to visualized minimal changes of characters between treatment stages. Character "常" of coin 1 showed changes in the cleaning of dirt and removal of alumina powder. The character "元" of coin 3, originally covered by a thick patina, revealed clear strokes using virtual relighting through RTI. These documentation images indicate that RTI is a promising tool to support manual recording of conservation stages and, furthermore, allow detection of areas difficult to visualize through the human eye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mars exhibited retrograde motions from January 4 to March 26 in 1491 CE. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty has more than 40 records of observations with 38 lodge angles and 4 polar angles corresponding to the equatorial coordinates measured with an observing device called a small abridged armilla, as well as 34 angular separations of Mars with respect to neighboring stars estimated by eye. Accurate positions for Mars are calculated for comparison with the records, and we find a number of interesting aspects to those observations. A length unit of chi , used for reporting angular separations, is equivalent to 1  du or a Chinese angular unit. We find that the axis of the observing device might have been misaligned with the north celestial pole (NCP), and that some court astronomers might have rounded down their measurements while other astronomers might have rounded them up. In order to correct the misalignment, we apply a χ2 minimization scheme to the lodge and polar angles simultaneously, and find that the device was misaligned with the NCP by −0.°8 ± 0.°3 in elevation and −1.°3 ± 0.°3 in azimuth if the measurements had been rounded down, while it was misaligned with the NCP by −0.°4 ± 0.°3 in elevation and −2.°2 ± 0.°3 in azimuth if the measurements had been rounded up. The axis of the device was off from the NCP and aligned with a point below and to the west of the NCP. Since a magnetic compass was used for the alignment, the misalignment angle of the polar axis in azimuth is equal to the geomagnetic declination at Seoul in 1491 CE. The misalignment angles in azimuth we have obtained are in agreement with recent geomagnetic models within the 1–2 σ uncertainties of the models. Moreover, the single measurement error characterizing the observing device is estimated to be 0.°3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at building a part-of-speech tagged corpus for all the drifting conversation records from Pibyŏnsa Tŭngnok , which is the official record of the daily affairs of the Border Defense Council of the Chosŏn dynasty, and conducting a quantitative analysis of the statistically salient place names and common nouns therein. The author also establishes a methodological framework and demonstrates how to conduct quantitative analysis when extrapolating patterned information in a vast corpus by using techniques like a word frequency table and co-occurrence analysis to uncover hidden patterns and correlations in a large dataset. Our results show that Fujian was the major source of the crew members and passengers of these sailboats, while some crew members were hired in Thailand. Beijing is the most frequently observed non-native place in the conversation records, since the officials were deeply interested in the distance between Beijing and other places in China. The Chosŏn officials appeared to grasp every opportunity to inquire about the physical geography, political institutions, military power, current maritime situation, newsworthy events, and the recent development of Qing China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the dreams recorded by O Huimun (1539-1613) during the period of the Japanese invasion of Joseon in the lunar year 1592 to gain an insight into the interior life of a member of the yangban class in sixteenthcentury Joseon. The largest category of these dreams concern people who were absent through death or separation due to the war, particularly members of his own family, such as his elderly mother, wife, children, and his deceased father. O Huimun's dreams of people almost invariably invoke heartfelt sadness in the diary's author and frequently result in the reported shedding of tears. Other dreams were interpreted by the author as being more symbolic in nature, and in these cases, O Huimun would often attempt his own interpretation or even record the opinions of other members of his refugee household and acquaintances. This article will examine a broad selection of the dreams recorded in "Imjin namhaeng illok" and "Imjin illok," which comprise the first volume of Swaemirok (Record of a Refugee) covering the lunar year 1592, and categorize them in accordance with the traditional dream categories outlined in the Zhou li (Rites of Zhou 周禮) in order to demonstrate how dreams and dream interpretation functioned as a form of psychological support for a Joseon yangban steeped in Neo-Confucian rationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Sejong the Great (May 7, 1397‐March 30, 1450), a king during Korea's Choson Dynasty, is the most respected historical figure in South Korean society, and consequently, many studies have been conducted on his achievements and the disease he suffered. The dominant trend of scholarship claims that Sejong suffered from diabetic retinopathy. However, this interpretation has not been medically verified. The present analysis aimed to demonstrate that Sejong's is the oldest documented case of ankylosing spondylitis. Methods: The Annals of the Choson Dynasty (hereafter, The Annals) are daily records of the king. The Annals were recorded for 472 years (1392‐1865) and contain 49 646 667 Chinese characters. Records in The Annals on Sejong span 1418‐1450; the present study author reviewed these records. Results: Sejong's medical records are mentioned 40 times in the source text. The king first experienced musculoskeletal pain in his knee at the age of 22 years. Sejong's knee pain is mentioned 3 times, and his back pain, which he described as "stiff and immobile", is mentioned 6 times. He complained most frequently of ocular symptoms described as "prickly or tingling," which are mentioned 12 times. Conclusions: Based on the analysis of official documentation, the author argues that there is a high probability that Sejong suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, making this the oldest officially documented case of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before we can fully appreciate how Catholicism came to be established in Korea, we need to describe the socio-religious context of the late Joseon period. It was in the later Joseon period that Joseon society became increasingly Confucianized, yet despite this transformation Buddhism maintained its authority over issues of the afterlife. Among indicators of this, the popularity of the Buddhist Pure Land tradition can be particularly noted, among others. It was within this socio-religious context that was widely grounded in Pure Land practices and its thinking that Catholicism arrived on the Korean Peninsula offering new notions of religious practices and religiosity. In the initial stages, Catholicism was noted to be uncannily similar to Buddhism. The newly arrived Catholicism followed a similar pattern of thought regarding the afterlife that had long been sketched by Buddhism. However, unique differences were perhaps the reason for the final success of Catholicism, characteristics such as monotheism and personal devotion have come to be accepted as characteristics of what it means to be a religious tradition, facets that other religions in Korea have come to adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical documents refer to records or books that provide textual information about the thoughts and consciousness of past civilisations, and therefore, they have historical significance. These documents are used as key sources for historical studies as they provide information over several historical periods. Many studies have analysed various historical documents using deep learning; however, studies that employ changes in information over time are lacking. In this study, we propose a deep-learning approach using improved dynamic word embedding to determine the characteristics of 27 kings mentioned in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, which contains a record of 500 years. The characteristics of words for each king were quantitated based on dynamic word embedding; further, this information was applied to named entity recognition and neural machine translation.In experiments, we confirmed that the method we proposed showed better performance than other methods. In the named entity recognition task, the F1-score was 0.68; in the neural machine translation task, the BLEU4 score was 0.34. We demonstrated that this approach can be used to extract information about diplomatic relationships with neighbouring countries and the economic conditions of the Joseon Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Golf was developed in Korea between the late nineteenth century and the early 20th century. This was a dark period for the country, during which its name was changed from the Joseon Dynasty to the Korean Empire, and the nation subsequently entered the Japanese colonial era after losing its national sovereignty. The game of golf, which was first introduced by the foreign maritime customs staff at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, spread across upper class society during the Japanese colonial era, as golf courses were being built in major cities and vacation spots around the country. The construction of the courses was undertaken by foreign missionaries, Japanese, and Koreans. The introduction and development of golf in Korea was initially led by the Japanese, as well as by foreign commissioners and missionaries; thereafter, Koreans began to participate in golf. However, golf courses completely disappeared from the Korean Peninsula over the course of the Pacific War and the Korean War after the liberation of Korea from Japan. Korean golfers who survived the Japanese colonial era began to rebuild the golf courses, thereby creating the cornerstone of what has today become a global golf powerhouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study were to examine the role of the addition of kaolin on the firing of white clay for Korean porcelain by characterizing the fired composites at 1000–1300°C, and finally to estimate the production conditions of ancient Korean white porcelain in the Joseon Dynasty. Yanggu white clay disks composed of 57.1 wt% quartz and 38.8 wt% muscovite showed bloating phenomenon at temperatures over 1175°C due to the evolution of gas incorporated in the disk. Potassiumfrom muscovite (KAl2(AlSi3O10)(F,OH)2) in Yanggu white clay played a significant role as melting agent to form a liquid phase. To produce Korean white porcelain at temperatures over 1175 oC without bloating, the addition of 20–40 wt% of Korean kaolin to Yanggu white clay was necessary. Increasing the amount of kaolin added and firing temperature enhanced the formation of mullite. We estimated the manufacture of a portion of the old Korean white porcelains in the Joseon Dynasty from mixtures of Yanggu white clay and kaolin to improve the refractoriness and whiteness of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is the first known to introduce and analyze food-related content among the records left by George Clayton Foulk (1856-1893), a naval attaché dispatched as part of a U.S. delegation to Korea during the Joseon dynasty in the 19th century. Sketches and memos by Foulk provide important clues in understanding the food culture during the late Joseon dynasty. By analyzing the types of foods, table composition, and intervals between serving the nine rounds of food from the rural government office, which Foulk ate during his local trip, he was able to confirm that there was a starter (‘preliminary table’ or ‘hors d’oeuvre’) before the main table and that it was served before the main dish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chosŏn court kept meticulous records of its interactions with their Ming, and later, their Qing neighbors. These materials, especially those that predate the nineteenth century, survive not in the form of original materials but rather as entries in court-sponsored compilations. For instance, the monumental Tongmun hwigo , published in 1788, categorizes diplomatic activity according to areas of policy concern. Its organizational scheme, handy for a Chosŏn official searching for relevant precedents, has also provided ready material for historical case studies. What has been less appreciated, however, are how such records came into being in the first place. By interrogating the status of these compilations as "archives," this article follows how diplomatic documents were produced, used, and compiled as both products and instruments of diplomatic practice. In reading these materials as instruments of knowledge, rather than mere sources of historical documentation, this essay also makes the case for going beyond diplomatic history as interstate relations and towards a cultural and epistemic history of Korean diplomatic practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archives typically consist of documents created for this-worldly purposes, such as government census records. In contrast, the Korean Catholic archives consist of documents created primarily for the purposes of salvation (documents such as prayer books and lives of the saints) or for sainthood (documents showing that a particular person died a martyr). Moreover, many of these documents were international collaborations produced by Korean Catholics and foreign missionaries, who at times even utilized sources created by the government that persecuted them. Many documents were sent to Europe, enabling them to survive anti-Catholic persecution and making Europe the center of Korean Catholic archives. However, beginning in the 1960s, institutions based on the peninsula, such as the Research Foundation of Korean Church History, worked to make Korea itself a center of archives and knowledge production. In so doing, Korean Catholics sought to make these materials available to non-Catholic audiences and follow secular standards of the historical profession while trying to develop an authentically Catholic way of understanding their history. This article will trace this history and also act as introduction to these archives for scholars interested in utilizing them. [End Page 315] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vernacular Korean letters were exchanged routinely in the royal and elite families of Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910), and women were at least on one side of a letter's itinerary. While male-centered literary Chinese learning held highest prestige, the patriarchal families of the time cherished their private archives, in which vernacular letters were sentimental mementos, testaments of women's learning, and status symbols. This familial epistolary archive received varying elaborations as it transitioned into museums and departments of national literature in South Korea. While elite vernacular epistolary style (naeganch'e) embodies the core of tradition and national literature for such colonial-era intellectuals as Yi Pyŏnggi (1891–1968) and Yi T'aejun (1904–?), the anticolonial and antifeudal current of the post-1945 South Korean scholarship overlooks the elite tradition. This explains the persistent invisibility of women-centered elite vernacular culture in the contemporary scholarship of Chosŏn Korea. Developing the notion of itinerary—the transition, appropriation, and recoding of elite vernacular letters—this article ponders the implication of archival practices upon the study of the past, and highlights the knowledge systems that determined the visibility and meaning of elite vernacular culture in Korea's modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the inheritance and culling of government archival collections in the first few decades of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910). After describing some features of Chosŏn archival practice, it provides an overview of Koryŏ (918–1392) archival institutions that the Chosŏn inherited before analyzing the various acts of culling focusing on a variety of different archival collections. By updating poorly maintained and damaged household, military, and slave registers, compiling old records for both practical (legal, military, or geomantic) and historical purposes, as well as by eliminating problematic materials, the early Chosŏn court symbolically proclaimed its rule, created new monuments of memory through the emphasis of certain records over others, and broke with the past through the destruction of documents that supported the old system. A related change in archival practice took place, as new a precedent in compiling the Veritable Records soon after the death of a king allowed for greater control over archival procedures and memory-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paintings convey the composition and characteristics of artists; therefore, it is possible to feel the intended style of painting and emotion of each artist through their paintings. In general, basic elements that constitute traditional paintings are color, texture, and composition (formative elements constituting the paintings are color and shape); however, color is the most crucial element expressing the emotion of a painting. In particular, traditional colors manifest the color containing historicity of the era, so the color shown in painting images is considered a representative color of the culture to which the painting belongs. This study constructed a color emotional system by analyzing colors and rearranged color emotion adjectives based on color combination techniques and clustering algorithm proposed by Kobayashi as well as I.R.I HUE & TONE 120 System. Based on the embodied color emotion system, this study confirmed classified emotions of images by extracting and classifying emotions from traditional Korean painted images, focusing on traditional painted images of the late Joseon Dynasty. Moreover, it was possible to verify the cultural traits of the era through the classified emotion images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We collect meteorite records from Korean chronicles. The accounts began with a bright streak of light described as a falling star, followed by a thunderous noise. During the Three Kingdoms period (first century B.C. to 10th century A.D.), there are reports of fireballs but not of meteorite recovery. During the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392), we have six cases of meteorite recovery. There are ten records from the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). We provide the geographical distribution of historical meteorite falls. In particular, the bulk density of the meteorite of 1672 is estimated to be ~4 g cm-3, corresponding to EH/EL enstatites, and that of A.D. 1689 has a bulk density of ~5 g cm-3, corresponding to stony-iron meteorites. The whereabouts of three of six meteorites from modern times are known. Only two meteorites of 1938 and 1999 among 17 meteorites are finds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest extant playscript in Korea stands as an enigma. It is an anonymous work written to celebrate a wedding arranged by King Chŏngjo. Called Story of the Eastern Chamber , the play evokes not only the Chinese Story of the Western Chamber through titular reference but also the Chinese vernacular tradition as a whole. Written entirely in Chinese characters, the text weaves vernacular Korean words into the syntax of Chinese baihua vernacular, an unusual form which upsets the conventional diglossic binary of literary Chinese (hanmun) and vernacular Korean (hangŭl). This essay situates the text in a late Chosŏn discourse of linguistic difference marked by pronounced anxieties about the temporal and spatial contingency of language. Some late Chosŏn writers, including the text's putative author, Yi Ok, embraced difference to carve out a localized literary space in Chosŏn Korea. For King Chŏngjo, it threatened the textual foundation of royal authority. Eastern Chamber spoke to these dilemmas by imagining a linguistic space where vernacular Korean usage could be represented as a literary language in the Chinese script, reconciling kingly authority with local specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heo Jun was a Korean physician during the Joseon Dynasty in the early seventeenth century. Among his many works is the Dongui Bogam which was a compendium of Eastern medicine up until that time. The encyclopedia was also one of the first attempts to improve accessibility to medicine and emphasize preventative care in Korean Medicine. Although he is not well-known outside of Asia, Heo can potentially serve as a role model to Western medical students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously unexamined written, visual, and performative channels of communication between central government officials and local Buddhist monks call for a nuanced understanding of sociopolitical connections between the capital and the provinces of late Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910). Via a multidisciplinary approach, this article addresses the patronage of three shrines dedicated to meritorious Buddhist monk-generals and martyrs who fought during the Japanese invasions (1592–98). Male and female members of the central elite supported the construction of the shrines in order to advance their respective political ambitions. Discontented with court factionalism, the central elite wielded their support of the shrines as a shaming device against their opponents and/or corrupt officials, while Buddhist monks sought to gain social recognition and enhance their respective monastery's political caché by maintaining the shrines, and by performing Confucian commemoration rituals with royal support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Men's references to women's writing in vernacular Korean script never term this practice “calligraphy,” and yet articles of women's intricate brushwork reveal that in late Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910) this was a highly aestheticized practice with recognized social importance and a meticulous training process. This article captures the moment when vernacular Korean scriptural practices ascended the elite canon, which resulted in the emergence of high vernacular culture. It historicizes the gendered logic of representation in a male-authored historical archive to uncover the contours of a women-centered vernacular aesthetic canon that assumed a status of prestige alongside male culture in literary Chinese. The article unravels the meaning of the term “calligraphy” when it is applied to women's vernacular handwriting and ponders the connection between women's bodily discipline, productive work, and exquisite vernacular brushwork. This opens an alternative perspective not only on the gender politics of the Chosŏn society but also on the culture of the time, which is hitherto seen as dominated by a male-centered literary Chinese canon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aaron Molnar of the University of British-Columbia looks at ecological policy in Mongol-era Goryeo, adding to another new and growing field given avid interest in this topic among Qing and Joseon scholars. For this latest edition of SJKS, 36.1 (June 2023), we bring you both our regularly featured content, along with a special issue, with the latter's content spread across two issues: the current issue (June 2023) and the following one (December 2023). In the SJKS issue, we offer four articles, one review article, and four book reviews. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the history and legends surrounding mount Paektusan (or White Head Mountain), reportedly the site of the founding of Korea by legendary king Tan'gun, according to Chosŏn legend, by using late Chosŏn maps and writings. Topics include Chosŏn historiography, sacred places, historical geography, and the borders between China and Korea.

An increasing number of recent scholars have challenged the narrative of Korean Buddhism as persecuted, isolated, and debased under the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392--1910). These scholars have revealed the continued support from both the state and Confucian aristocrats afforded to Buddhism; the friendship between yangbans and monastics; and the recognition of monastics' role in Chosŏn society. While these insights provide a welcome nuance to a consideration of the period, it should be also recognized that the anti-Buddhist paradigm was a pervasive norm at the state and local levels throughout the Chosŏn era. The perception that Buddhism was heretical and that monastics were socially inferior was so deeply ingrained in the minds of aristocrats and the populace for so long that monastics developed a sense of collective trauma. This article revisits the vicissitudes of Chosŏn Buddhism by considering an incident that took place in the 1930s in colonial Korea. This case will help scholars of Korean history and Buddhism understand how colonial-period monastics acted from the trauma of the anti-Buddhist paradigm of the Chosŏn dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using media texts from a Korean newspaper archive, this article describes the process through which the state took up the ideology of linguistic nationalism during the period of Japanese colonisation of Korea (1910-1945). This was particularly aimed at a modernisation project in order for the legacy of the Joseon dynasty, which had ruled Korea for five centuries to the end of the nineteenth century, to transform itself into a 'modernized' nation state. The ways in which Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was socially produced as the legitimate national writing system from one vernacular variety under the colonial regime are examined. The article contends that while the production of the national writing system functioned as a means for anti-colonial movements, it also naturalized differential socioeconomic resource distribution among Joseon people according to literacy skills in Joseon's transformation into the modern Korean nation state. The article discusses the limitations of mobilizing linguistic nationalism as a means of political emancipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]