King Chŏngjo, An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea by Christopher Lovins

Abstract

Reviewed by: King Chŏngjo, An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea by Christopher Lovins Kim Paek-chol, Assistant Professor King Chŏngjo, An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea by Christopher Lovins. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019. 246 pp. Christopher Lovins' 2019 publication marks the first book outside of Korea to delve into the reign of King Chŏngjo (r. 1776–1800). Detailed studies of Chŏngjo's reign, however, have a long history dating back to the late nineteenth century. The title by which we know the monarch today, Chŏngjo, is actually different from the original title posthumously bestowed upon him (Chŏngjong). It was created during the reign of Kojong (1863–1907), reflecting the rectification of titles following Kojong's elevation to the level of emperor in 1899. Direct and indirect research on the monarch has continued since 1945, but the image of Chŏngjo that has emerged since the 1990s is one of a reformer and an "impartial monarch" (t'angp'yŏng kunju), referring to his policy of skillfully balancing the demands of various court factions. It is common knowledge that, since that time, there has been an explosion in research on Chŏngjo. Within this outpouring of research, the most active area has been Korean historical studies focusing on the eighteenth century, with the vast majority being conducted in Korean. This is markedly different from the past, which was characterized by competition between foreign and domestic (Korean) research. Processing such an extensive body of research on this period presents special challenges for foreign researchers and consumes a considerable amount of time, meaning that most such research has been limited to a comparatively superficial level. Every year for the past two decades or so over a thousand books and articles have been published on the Chosŏn Era. Considering this outpouring of research on this era, Lovins' volume on Chŏngjo's reign may be viewed as a bold new attempt at forging new research. The book is structured as follows: Introduction Chapter 1: Early Modernity and Absolutism Chapter 2: Politics in Early Modern Korea Chapter 3: Politics of Confucianism Chapter 4: Power and Factions Chapter 5: Building a System Chapter 6: Military Matters Chapter 7: Chŏngjo in an Early Modern World Conclusion In the nine chapters that constitute the book, Lovins demonstrates, aside from some very recent offerings, a strong command of relevant Korean-language and [End Page 344] foreign research, presenting a blueprint for Chŏngjo's reign. The greatest strength of the book is that it presents a thorough overview of not only early foreign-language research on the Chosŏn period, but also current Koreanlanguage research. As such, the book will prove to be a very useful source on eighteenth-century Korea not only for Korean history scholars outside of Korea but also non-specialists interested in traditional Korean culture. The book moreover provides domestic Korean researchers the opportunity to engage with research in adjacent fields abroad. Aside from his broad treatment of foreign and domestic research trends, Lovins also seeks to present a theoretical framework with a unique perspective. Overall, individual research findings presented in the book rely largely on Korean-language research achievements, while these are in turn abstracted to construct a certain theoretical model. This may be seen in the book's subtitle, "An Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea." This approach begs two questions. First, was King Chŏngjo an "enlightened despot" (kyemong chŏnje kunju)? Second, can eighteenth-century Korea be considered "early modern"? Detailed treatments of these two issues are presented in Chapters 1 and 7, which will no doubt be the portions of the book of most interest to domestic Korean researchers. In these chapters, Lovins evaluates Chŏngjo in comparison with various European monarchies. Conversely, Lovins' treatment of Koreanlanguage research presented in Chapters 2 through 6 will prove more useful to an overseas readership with less grounding in Chosŏn history. Domestic researchers will, on the other hand, be more attracted to comparisons with absolute monarchs in European history. In particular, in Chapter 1 Lovins' employment of Victor Lieberman's model to compare Eastern and Western history according...