The Intimate Past: An Introduction to the Joseon Period

Abstract

This introduction gives a very short overview of the politics, economy, and society of the Joseon era in order to give readers the basic information necessary to understand the content of this book. Within East Asia, the Korean peninsula was unique in that the end of Mongol dominance coincided with a major ideological shift through the introduction of Neo-Confucianism. The chapter also discusses some of the major historiographical debates about the Joseon period. One of the longest running debates on the Joseon period is about the social origins of the kingdom. It is well established that a new class of scholar-officials emerged in the late Goryeo period. Critical of the ruling ideology of Buddhism, they were proponents of Neo-Confucianism that had been introduced to the country in the late thirteenth century. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of the meanings of the Joseon era during the modern period. Keywords: economic foundation; factionalism; Joseon period; Neo-Confucianism; political history; social status system