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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]

A significant event in 19th-century Joseon Buddhism was the restoration of the bhikṣu precept lineage. The ordination tradition was weakened in the Joseon period, as Buddhism failed to maintain a cultural, philosophical, and political mainstream position. Although monks were produced throughout the Joseon period, it is highly unlikely that they received complete ordination in accord with the traditional way. The revival of bhikṣu ordination in the early 19th century, therefore, reflects Joseon monks' attempts to re-establish their Buddhist identity. An interesting phenomenon of this attempt was that, although Master Daeeun Nango 大隱朗旿 (1780-1841) reinitiated the complete ordination and formed a precept lineage with some renowned monks in the early 19th century, several other monks, including Manha Seungnim 萬下勝林 (fl. late 19th century), formed new precept lineages in the same period following their travel to China for ordination. As indicated in the literature, Daeeun's distinctive method of precept lineage restoration served as rationale for the emergence of later new precept lineages. This paper examines how Joseon saṃgha's attempts to restore a precept lineage evolved throughout the 19th century, focusing on the historical and religious backgrounds of the formation of Daeeun's and others' precept lineages. [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]

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]

With a population of 1.4 billion people, China is undergoing perhaps the largest scale urbanization in human history and experiencing a great transformation toward modernization. Against this background, a multidisciplinary research team from Tsinghua University initiated a social governance experiment in the Qinghe subdistrict of Beijing in 2014. This expert-led social intervention and research project has been known as the New Qinghe Experiment (NQE), to distinguish it from an earlier Qinghe experiment, which focused on rural development, conducted by a group of Yenching sociologists in the period of 1928-1937. The goal of the NQE is to identify and solve social problems existent in urban communities, and to explore a new governance model for urban communities in highly populated mega-cities such as Beijing. In this paper, we lay out the challenges faced by local communities in urban China and introduce the NQE's pilot projects and working mechanisms. We conclude that the NQE is of important theoretical and practical significance as an innovative model of social governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sees the cure problem faced by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea as one of legitimacy and attempts to examine the National Representative conference held in Shanghai in 1923 in consideration of the controversy over the Provisional Government's teguimacy. Activists of the Korean independence movement founded the Provisional Government as a government in exile amidst this vacuum of legitimate authority, in line with the spirit of the March First Movement of 1919. However, the Provisional Goi- ernment proved unable to establish supreme authority. Efforts to build the legirimaev of the Provisional Government culminated in the organization of the National Representative Conference (NRc). which brought together various independence movement activists. During the NRC, the legitimacy of the Pro vi- sional Government's supreme authority was approached from four different perspectives: historical, constitutional, democratic, and value-oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is designed to analyze why Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms in Korea that existed up to the latter part of the seventh century, became the first victim in diplomatic and military struggles among the Three Kingdom, including Goguryeo and Silla. The Samguk sagi (Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms) gives the impression that Baekje, by dint of its geographical location, had pursued the most active and shrewd diplomacy. Located in the southwest of the peninsula, Baekje enjoyed not only easy communication and transactions with China and Japan, but also could put pressure on relatively weak Silla and move to the north when Goguryeo engaged in struggles with Chinese dynasties over the Liao river. However, this paper concludes, from an international relations perspective, that Baekje became the first kingdom to lose its independence due to its clumsy management of alliances, lack of understanding of the foreign policy priority of Chinese dynasties, as well as inconsistent and self-centered diplomacy vis-à-vis China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to examine the spread of Manchurian plague and the response of the Japanese colonial government. Previous studies of this issue stressed the successful, albeit forced, preventative measures taken by the Japanese colonial government. However, this paper argues that Western powers did not agree with the new theory that pneumonic plague was transmitted through respiratory infections, as discovered by Wu Liande and promoted by Kitasato Shibasaburo. They continued to believe the old Japanese theory that the plague was transmitted through fleas from rodents. The Japanese colonial government focused on reducing the rat population to prevent the spread of plague. Moreover, they had no quarantine hospitals or other equipment, and epidemic prevention programs and measures were inadequate. The success of their efforts was due less to the measures taken by the Japanese colonial government than from the low influx of Chinese laborers into Korea. [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 study explores the relationship between Korean-Chinese ethnicity and China's post-socialist local development. To do this, it focuses on the experiences of the Korean-Chinese population of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture during the mid-1970s and 1980s. It describes how political rehabilitation after the Cultural Revolution, economic liberalization, and improvement in Sino-North Korea relations restored the local and transnational Koreanness of the Yanbian Koreans. Local and transnational Koreanness served as important determinants for Yanbian's development. The study concludes that the restoration of minority ethnicity was directly connected to the early stages of China's post-socialist local development. [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 this paper, I analyze the memories of the Manchu wars and the manner in which literary descriptions of the Qing dynasty were made in several seventeenth-century-era stories. The descriptions of the battle of Simha (1619) used as subject matter for novels and the portrayals of the historical figures of Nurhachi and Huangtaiji are analyzed in order to identify the perceptions of the Qing dynasty implied in the novel texts contemporary to the change of regime from Ming to Qing. The battle of Simha was depicted concretely in such tales as Choe Cheok jeon, Kang Ro jeon, and Kim Yeong-cheol jeon. In these stories, the writers described the orderly and powerful Qing army in a positive manner. Even writing in an era in which the perceptions of the Qing dynasty were negative, the authors of these three stories realistically accepted the reorganized power structure centered around the newly emerging Qing, and its emperors Nurhachi and Huangtaiji were described respectfully as positive characters with magnanimity who could gain the trust of the people and unify all of China. This description of Qing dynasty China is the result of the conscious efforts of the writers to objectively understand the entity of Qing and critically reflect on Joseon dynasty politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of the Lelang commandery in the process of introducing Chinese characters into Korea. In the Lelang commandery, native populations of non-Han origin would have been put into the "documentary administration," under situations similar to such frontier regions as Juyan and Dunhuang, in the process of which Chinese characters were most likely accepted on an extensive scale. The use of Chinese characters in the Lelang commandery was not limited to a group of Han people, as has been traditionally understood. Those Chinese characters introduced at that time would not necessarily have to be so-called genuine Chinese characters. Particular examples of Chinese characters that developed later into Korean idu are confirmed in official Qin and Han documents. The population native to the Lelang commandery maintained contact with various usages in the document-based administrative system for over 400 years and the usages suited to the linguistic behavior of the population on the Korean peninsula was naturally selected. It is to be noted that the process of introducing Chinese characters into Korea is best explained by the long-lasting linguistic contact and the resultant transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Northeast Project (NEP), also known as the "Research Project of Northeastern China," has unleashed national sentiment among many Korean people. Even if it originated in purely academic research, the NEP poses a grave political challenge to contemporary Korea. The Korean response to the NEP can be broadly categorized in two ways: The first is that while negative perceptions of these moves by the Chinese have prevailed in Korean society, the Korean government has been very cautious in expressing criticism of the NEP due to national interests with the Chinese government. The other point is that as time has progressed, a series of Korean self-reflections on the complex nature of nationalism in response to the NEP has emerged. With the analysis of these self-reflections, this paper attempts to address an inter-subjective nationalist perspective of history as a solution that recognizes "mutual recognition of national identity" in considering the prevailing reality of Northeastern Asian nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author reviews commonalities and differences in the distortions of history by Japan and China and also analyzes the political implications and structure, ultimately to show how the process can be linked with bringing peace to Northeast Asia. Based on this analysis, solutions are sought to address the disputes over history between Korea, China, and Japan. In the long term, the historical debates can be addressed by establishing common historical perception based on academic research. This is possible when causes for debates such as the Sino-Japanese struggle for hegemony and the Gando issue raised by Korea are eliminated. Another premise is Japanese reflection on its modem history of aggression. What matters is to put words into action by calling on Japan to reflect upon the history of aggression in an effort to broaden common historical understanding among the three countries' civil societies and jointly defending the Japanese pacifist constitution as a universal value. When those issues are resolved, the sharing of East Asian history can realize its true significance of peaceful coexistence. [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]