The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea

The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea presents an interdisciplinary survey of Korea's politics, society, economy, and culture from the founding of the Chos n state (1392-1897) to 1873.

Korea is a historical region of prominence in the global political economy. Still, a comprehensive overview of its early modern era has yet to receive a book-length treatment in English. Comprising topical chapters written by 22 experts from 11 countries, The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea presents an interdisciplinary survey of Korea's politics, society, economy, and culture from the founding of the Chos n state (1392-1897) to 1873 when its political leadership began preparing for treaty relations with Imperial Japan, the United States, and other Western nations.

Chos n mirrors shared historical patterns among literate sedentary societies of early modern Afro-Eurasia. Various long-term developments that shaped early modern Korea include the completion of centralized bureaucratic governance as codified in the State Administrative Code (Ky ngguk taej n); the appearance of regular rural marketplaces facilitating transactions in an increasingly liberalized economy; continuity of an aristocracy (yangban) from the medieval period (Kory : 918-1392); a decreasing correspondence between ascriptive status and socioeconomic class; and the state and the elite's growing interest in encyclopedic knowledge and its dissemination while their monopoly on knowledge production weakened.

This handbook provides historical context for readers wishing to know more than just the "Korea" that evokes K-pop or North Korea's nuclear weapons, while Hyundai, Samsung, and other South Korean brands have gained visibility in everyday life. Interested English-speaking scholars, educators, students, and the general public without access to the large body of Korean-language works on Chos n will find this book a valuable critical introduction to early modern Korea.

Autorentext

Eugene Y. Park is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Reno. Author of seven books, including Korea: A History (2022), his scholarship focuses on East Asia, especially Korean politics and society from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Maintaining a comparative perspective and interested in periodizing global history, Park also enjoys readings and conversations in evolutionary biology, deep history, and population genetics. His current research topics include ancient animal symbolism and historical human-feline interactions. In 2016, Park co-chaired the organizing committee of the Eighth Biennial World Congress of Korean Studies.

Klappentext

The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Korea presents an interdisciplinary survey of Korea's politics, society, economy, and culture from the founding of the Chos n state (1392-1897) to 1873.

Inhalt

Part I: Chos n in Time and Space

Chapter 1

Korea and Early Modernity

Sixiang Wang

Chapter 2

Foreign Relations

Kirk W. Larsen

Chapter 3

Korea as "Little China" (Sojunghwa)

Nataliya A. Chesnokova

Chapter 4

Korea in Japan

Rebekah Clements

Part II / The State, Power, and Resource

Chapter 5

Politics

Christopher Lovins

Chapter 6

The Military

Felix Siegmund

Chapter 7

Discontent

Andrew David Jackson

Chapter 8

Economy

Young-jun Cho

Part III: Society and Identity

Chapter 9

Status and Class

Eugene Y. Park

Chapter 10

Foreigners and the Descendants

Adam Bohnet

Chapter 11

Gender

Marion Eggert

Part IV: Philosophy and Religion

Chapter 12

Confucianism

Isabelle Sancho

Chapter 13

Buddhism

Juhn Y. Ahn

Chapter 14

Popular Religion

Boudewijn Walraven

Chapter 15

Catholicism

Franklin D. Rausch

Part V: Language, Learning, and Knowledge

Chapter 16

Language

Ross King

Chapter 17

Education

Diana Yuksel

Chapter 18

Science and Technology

Don Baker

Part VI: Creative Genres

Chapter 19

Literature

Gregory N. Evon

Chapter 20

Visual Arts

Yoonjung Seo

Chapter 21

Performing Arts

CedarBough T. Saeji

Epilogue: Korea since 1873

Mark E. Caprio