Session 4 - Pre-1800 Korea, 3/11

[Anonymous]

*Reading Session 4
Korea has a creation myth that involves animals, in the story of Tangun the founder of Choson. This reminds me of the creation myth of Rome- with Romulus and Remus, who were raised by wolves. I think students will enjoy reading about these creation myths, and a fun lesson would be to compare and contrast creation myths, from different countries- especially ones involving animals.

[Anonymous]

I agree, I would like the time to sit and discuss these topics with my peers and with the professor in small groups. I believe it would help correct any misconceptions we might have circling the readings and lectures.

[Anonymous]

A higher official is called a yangban. This literature explains he was an official in debt and the rich man bought the title from him. When the term yangban is given, it signifies great honor. At first, it came with a great deal of terms and expectations. The deed the rich man bought came many rules. He had no idea of or lacked understanding of the many implications, which caused great disturbance. By getting himself into a position without understanding it brought shame upon him because he didn’t realize the other side of being a yangban required superiority and forms of selfishness even with the moral rules.
edited by jmartinez on 6/23/2017

[Anonymous]

The Article by G. Cameron Hurst III gave great historiographical insight into Ancient Chinese/Korean interpretations of political, economic, and moral history. His note that Confucian ideology around the Mandate of Heaven meant that Chinese, and thus Korean emperors must fit into the stereotypical "bad last king" and "good dynastic founder" was an eye-opening revelation for me, despite having taught about both the Mandate of Heaven and various dynastic changes over the last few years. Ultimately, I just never questioned the scheme in historiographic terms, but I will certainly will do so in my future classes.

To be honest, I may even have my AP World History students read this article, not only to help them understand the events found in their textbook, but to develop their understanding of point of view. While students often focus on education, gender, or race to help understand bias, in this case it is an ancient ideology/religious belief that helps shape the authors point of view. The lens of the Mandate of Heaven may even be a form of non-malicious bias. As an accepted fact, an ancient Korean or Chinese historian is simply doing his duty if he finds evidence that fits the Mandate of Heaven's pattern. Yet for the modern historian, it is clear from reading the article that that it obscures the true motivations of personages, puts a moral lens on events that may not reflect actual events, and makes doing objective history difficult.

[Anonymous]

Another thought is to compare Confucian/Korean Historiography with Roman Historiography, which often assumes that anything of ancient august authority MUST be without error. This often meant that competing or conflicting ideas were synthesized and combined in complimentary ways. This continued in the Middle Ages through the Christian Church in the works of Augustine and in many Medieval Islamic texts that attempted to combine Greco-Roman Philosophy with Islamic religious ideas. A lesson on Historiography, covering Confucian, Greco-Roman, Medieval Christian, and Medieval Islamic texts would be interesting. The next trick would be to get students to see, what are the historiographical assumptions of the Modern World that we live in.

[Anonymous]

I loved the poetry writing and I loved that we shared them easily and they were read aloud. I could see students writing these and sharing them with the teacher on Google Classroom. It would be easy to show their poems on the board and read them in real time.

[Anonymous]

Agreed! I would have liked to do more collaborating with other teachers. I think making sure we had time each class to share ideas would have been much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

By reading the Story of Yangban, I realized that Yangban was the higher social classes in Korea. Yangban as the scholar-officials in this story could be sold as a deed, however there are many restrictions to be as a Yangban which in this story a rich man cannot buy along with the title of deed.

[Anonymous]

Today's class really had me think about myself. something I don't do often. I wanted to share my poem.

My strength comes from within but is shown outwardly,
My sweat and my tears, have been shown through every struggle,
I break apart so easily for just a moment, but nothing can make me subside because I am strong

[Anonymous]

From today's seminar, Dr. Jung Kim has stated that the social status in Joseon back in 16th century are:

• · Scholar-officials ( yangban)
• · Secondary status group: technical officials, local functionaries, descendants of illegitimate sons by concubines.
• · Peasants/commoners : Farmers valued for their hard work
• · Lowborn
• · slaves
• I personally noticed that the scholars gained their officials and social status ( Yangban) through intelligence. Scholars in Korean history has very high social classes might influence the present Korean culture which values education the most.

[cgao]

Please download and read the attachments below.

Required Readings:
Hurst, Good, Bad, Ugly
Kim, Ho Nansorhon

Suggested Readings:
Ho, Hong Kiltong
McCann, Tangun
The Story of a Yangban
Yi, Sin Saimdang
edited by cgao on 3/7/2017

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