Century Korea Research Articles

A Japanese Diplomat’s View of Late‒19th‒century Korea: Focusing on Kondo Maski’s Nulhun Yugo

A Japanese Diplomat’s View of Late‒19th‒century Korea: Focusing on Kondo Maski’s Nulhun Yugo

Stratigraphic Examination of a Korean Lacquered Wooden Coffin Sample by Pyrolysis/GC/MS

A lacquered wooden coffin decorated with gilded Sanskrit letters excavated in the Nongso ancient tomb site was constructed around the fourteenth century in Korea. Pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was employed to identify the materials of the lacquered surface by analyzing the individual layers. The components of lacquer were detected in all four layers of wood substrate, black, brown, and gilded layers, indicating the coating material was Asian lacquer. The wood seems to be a kind of pine tree from the observation that pine resin-related components were detected in much of the wood substrate and decreasing in the upward direction. Markers of drying oil like azelaic acid and palmitic acid existed in large quantities in the black, brown, and gilded layers, indicating that drying oil was intentionally added to give a luster. In addition, compared with dried Asian lacquer from Korea, the lacquer used in the coffin was determined to be of the same type.

14세기(世紀) 간행(刊行)의 한(韓)·일(日) 『불설대보부모은중경(佛說大報父母恩中經)』 판화본(版畵本) 연구

14세기(世紀) 간행(刊行)의 한(韓)·일(日) 『불설대보부모은중경(佛說大報父母恩中經)』 판화본(版畵本) 연구

19세기 조선 천주교의 죄 관념 연구

19세기 조선 천주교의 죄 관념 연구

TV 드라마에 나타난 14세기 고려시대 남자 복식과 헤어스타일 분석

TV 드라마에 나타난 14세기 고려시대 남자 복식과 헤어스타일 분석

Contested memory in early 21st century Korea : The conversion of Camp Hialeah to Busan Citizens Park

The conversion of US-military base Camp Hialeah into Busan Citizens Park created a popular recreational space in Busan City. While initial redevelopment plans suggested a design with little regard for its history as both Japanese and US-military installation, citizen pressure led to design changes. Parts of Busan Citizens Park now serve as an institution of cultural memory of Korean 20th century history. As a site of memory, it commemorates Korean victimhood caused by the occupation of Korean land by Japanese and US-forces. In contrast to other memory sites in Korea, local citizens rather than government agencies provided the impetus for this focus. The paper uses the conversion process to explore the contested nature of memory discourses, building on Assmann’s framework of memory, which adds cultural memory to complement collective memory. Cultural memory is expressed in a physical form such as museums and it connects the past of a state with the present and the future. The paper contributes to the literature on collective memory in Korea and the diversification of such narratives, applying a personal reading of the exhibits in Busan Citizens Park.

Lumbosacral Defects in a 16th-18th-Century Joseon Dynasty Skeletal Series from Korea.

Paleopathological evidence for congenital and degenerative disorders of the lumbosacral vertebrae is informative about ancient individual lifeways and physical conditions. However, very few studies have focused on the paleopathology of the lumbosacral vertebrae in ancient skeletal series from East Asia. One reason for the lack of studies is that skeletal samples from East Asia are typically insufficient in size to represent populations for comparative studies within the continent. Here, we present the first comprehensive analysis of lumbosacral defects in an East Asian human skeletal sample, examining occurrences of spina bifida occulta (SBO), lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV), and spondylolysis in remains from Joseon tombs dating to the 16–18th centuries in Korea. In this study, we present an alternative methodology for understanding activities of daily life among ancient Koreans through paleopathological analysis.

Comparative transcriptome analyses of three medicinal Forsythia species and prediction of candidate genes involved in secondary metabolisms.

The three Forsythia species, F. suspensa, F. viridissima and F. koreana, have been used as herbal medicines in China, Japan and Korea for centuries and they are known to be rich sources of numerous pharmaceutical metabolites, forsythin, forsythoside A, arctigenin, rutin and other phenolic compounds. In this study, de novo transcriptome sequencing and assembly was performed on these species. Using leaf and flower tissues of F. suspensa, F. viridissima and F. koreana, 1.28-2.45-Gbp sequences of Illumina based pair-end reads were obtained and assembled into 81,913, 88,491 and 69,458 unigenes, respectively. Classification of the annotated unigenes in gene ontology terms and KEGG pathways was used to compare the transcriptome of three Forsythia species. The expression analysis of orthologous genes across all three species showed the expression in leaf tissues being highly correlated. The candidate genes presumably involved in the biosynthetic pathway of lignans and phenylethanoid glycosides were screened as co-expressed genes. They express highly in the leaves of F. viridissima and F. koreana. Furthermore, the three unigenes annotated as acyltransferase were predicted to be associated with the biosynthesis of acteoside and forsythoside A from the expression pattern and phylogenetic analysis. This study is the first report on comparative transcriptome analyses of medicinally important Forsythia genus and will serve as an important resource to facilitate further studies on biosynthesis and regulation of therapeutic compounds in Forsythia species.

Historical inference based on semi-supervised learning

In the past, most historical research has been manually carried out by exploring historical facts reading between the lines of documents. Nowadays, historical big data has become electronically available and advances in machine learning techniques allow us to analyze the vast amount of historical data. From a historical perspective, making inferences about political stances of historical figures is important for grasping historical rivalries and power structures of an era. Thus, in this paper, we propose an approach to the systematic inference of power mechanisms based on a human network constructed from historical data. In this network, humans are linked according to the degree of kinship using genealogy records, and identified by political stances on agendas recorded in the annals of a dynasty as a political force. And then, a machine learning algorithm, semi-supervised learning, classifies humans who cannot identify political stances as political forces that reflect the links of the networks. The data consist of the genealogy of the Andong Gwon clan, a record of family relations of 10,243 people from the 10th to 15th century Korea, and the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, a historical volume that describes historical facts of the Joseon Dynasty for 472 years and is composed of 1894 fascicles and 888 books. From the data, we construct a human network based on a historically meaningful period (1443–1488), and classify people into two political forces using the proposed method. We suggest that this machine learning approach to historical study could be utilized as a potent reference tool devoid of the subjectivism of human experts in the field of history.

The Aspect of Marriage and Confucian Linage Creation of Commons Village Residents at the end of the 19th Century in Korea - Case Analysis of Sasangmyun(沙上面)’s Reports which were Needed to Make Dongraeboo(東萊府) Census Registration in 1891 -

The Aspect of Marriage and Confucian Linage Creation of Commons Village Residents at the end of the 19th Century in Korea - Case Analysis of Sasangmyun(沙上面)’s Reports which were Needed to Make Dongraeboo(東萊府) Census Registration in 1891 -

The "Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence” and its Relation to the “Reordering of the Universe” in Daesoon Thought

This study is an attempt to show the religious implications of the central tenet of the “resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence” in Daesoon thought in relation to its other tenet of the “harmonious union between divine beings and human beings.” This new school of religious thought developed as the main idea of Daesoon Jinrihoe (“The Fellowship of Daesoon Truth”), established at the end of nineteenth century in Korea by Kang Jeungsan, who is known as a “Holy Master” or “Sangje.” Upon receiving a calling to perpetuate religious orthodoxy from Sangje Kang, Doju Jo Jeongsan launched the Mugeuk Do religious body and constructed a Yeongdae—a sacred building at which the 15 Great Deities were enshrined. He then laid down the “four tenets” of Daesoon thought and issued the Declaration of the Propagation of Dao, which was said to show followers the way to seek the soul in the mind.

개항기 ‘支那’ 명칭의 등장과 문화적 함의

개항기 ‘支那’ 명칭의 등장과 문화적 함의

21세기 국내 두보 연구의 현황과 성과

21세기 국내 두보 연구의 현황과 성과

추측확인법과 확인추측법의 의미와 기원

The grammatical sum does not form a coherent semantic identity. In the arrangement of the prefinal ending, the following elements add the grammatical and semantic meanings to the preceding elements. In conclusion, the arrangement of the prefinal ending of the estimation－confirmation is composed of the functions of estimation and confirmation and adds the semantic qualities of the information to the assumed element, and the confirmation－estimation undermines grammatical structure by less emphasizing the significance of confirmation. The ‘－리어－’ of the estimationconfirmation and the ‘－어리－’ of the confirmation－estimation have different syntactic structures, leading to different semantic qualities in terms of [±Confirmation]. This is accompanied by a change in the semantic elements of the estimation according to the meaning of the confirmation that precedes to or follows after the ‘－리－’, which is realized in the same form. Specifically, the form of estimation－confirmation carries the semantic element of simple assumption, while functioning to deliver the information. Therefore, the meaning unit of confirmation is not clearly distinguished. On the other hand, confirmation－estimation takes a form of rhetorical questionand therefore conveys the opposite meaning. It strengthens the role of confirmation, by placing the semantic element of the confirmation after the prefinal ending. The sentence of the confirmation－estimation often takes a form of “interrogative －려” (or “interrogative －리어－”) in front of the final ending. On the other hand, confirmation－estimation is associated with ‘－아－ + －리 － + －아 (＜ 가)’. The grammatical arrangement and placement determines different semantic roles.BR If ‘－리－’ is realized in the form of estimation, it can be used to express the semantic differences determined byaccording to the order of arrangement. However, as a result, this research shows that ‘－리₁－’, which is settled in the form of estimation－confirmation, and ‘－리₂－’, is realized in a form of the confirmation－estimation, and the both are originally different grammatical elements. In a historical sense, there is no precedent to ‘－리₁－’ coming before the prefinal endings of ‘－거/어－아－’, except for ‘－리₂－’. ‘★’ and ‘★’ in Sǒktok kugyǒl during the Koryǒ period, which reveals the historical trajectory of the grammar functions corresponding to ‘ － 리₁－’ and ‘－ 리₂－’ of the 15th century Korea, respectively. For example, ‘★’ functions as the prefinal ending and ‘★’ functions as the interrogative ending in combination with interrogative auxiliary element.BR In the 15th century, ‘－리₁－’ and ‘－리₂－’ show different grammatical categorization, as the ‘－리－’ element was originally a combination of two or more morphemes, not a single morpheme, deriving from other grammatical elements. The element was drawn from a combination of a gerund ending and a copula, but ‘리₁－’ and ‘－리₂－’ were differentiated by which prefinal ending the element is being combined with. The two forms derived from the grammaticalization process of the interrogative endings and formed new grammar categories. Although they contain different semantic compositions, their properties indicates that they share the semantic function of the estimation.

최남선의 창작 시조와 아포리즘철학적 오판

This research article explores the contextual background of Ch’oe Namsŏn who is well-known for his composition of sijo. Choe Nam－sŏn was drawn to the philosophical concept of aphorism and demonstrated its significance in his literary work, while the renaissance of sijo had arrived in early twentieth century Korea. The revival of sijo as a literary movement was not only Choe Nam-sŏn’s primary concern, but also a site in which we can understand the associations of aphorism with his national consciousness. The following characteristics are found in Ch’oe’s works and activities: First, his literary movement places emphasis on innovation rather than securing tradition. Secondly, his sijo poems show a shift from a lyrical form to the poetic form, by employing meter system into his poems. Thirdly, the transition fails to convey diverse emotion embedded in old sijo. Fourth, Ch’oe’s poems pursue the innovation, but the expressions and titles are somewhat banal and old, frequently employing Chinese characters. Fifth, the sijo poems are focused to represent the contemporaneous trendy thoughts and religious ideas rather than national concerns and ideas.

The unexpected effect of social status on reproduction: a case study in Joseon Korea from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries

We examine how parents have made decisions about the number of children they have, given their social status in accordance with residential location (either urban or rural areas) and time (either the pre-modern or modern periods). We use two sets of microdata – Jokbo and Jejeokbu – spanning the early nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries in Korea. Combining the two data-sets, we use multiple imputation to fill the missing entries of some observations and apply a Poisson regression model on the augmented data. Our empirical results reveal statistically significant evidence that higher socioeconomic status is related to having more children. Additionally, our findings indicate that: (1) all else being constant, among high-status people, rural residents had more children than urban families; (2) for people born between 1800 and 1945, those born closer to the 1940s tended to have fewer children; and (3) during modernization, there was still a significant trend for high-status families to have more children.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONCEPT OF MIBAL 未發 IN THE HORAK DEBATE

The eighteenth-century Neo-Confucian scholars in Korea were deeply concerned with two questions, namely, whether human nature and non-human nature are the same or not and whether all human nature is the same or not. In answering the second question, they focused on the moral nature of mibalsimche 未發心體 by asking whether the state of the mind or mind-substance before the arousal of feelings (or thoughts) is morally good or not. As noted, in Neo-Confucianism the unaroused state of feelings chŏng情 is generally identified with a state of nature sŏng性 which is pure and clear, and which is therefore characterized as morally good. However, Korean Neo-Confucian scholars noticed that this characterization could be controversial since the account of the unaroused state given by the Chinese Neo-Confucian, Zhu Xi, was not clear enough, but ambiguous. The problem of mibal was a matter of interest since the Four-Seven Debate in the sixteenth century in Korea, and it once again became the subject of intense contention in the eighteenth-century debate between Yi Kan and Han Wŏn-jin, who endeavored to reveal the exact moral characteristics of human nature in terms of the qualities of human constituents, i.e. li and ki. In what follows, I shall begin by examining Zhu Xi’s diverse accounts of mibal, show the emergence of the problem of mibal in the Four-Seven Debate between Yi Hwang and Yi I, and, finally, discuss the moral nature in the state of mibal presented by Yi Kan and Han Wŏn-jin.

Reading for Discords and Fissures: A Comparative Reading of Dangerous Liaisons and Untold Scandal

This essay reads two different filmic versions of the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The Hollywood version Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988) and the Korean version Untold Scandal (J-yong E, 2003) both closely follow the original story, even though the latter is set in 18th century Korea instead of France. Despite the difference in spatial setting, the two films share many similarities, encouraging a superimposition of interpretations. But this transcendence of spatial boundaries have also produced several significant differences - some intentional, others not. These disparities prompt the viewer to reflect on the production of unforeseen changes in the process of adaptation and the implications of these transformations. This essay sets out to examine the similarities and differences of the two films while focusing on the three main protagonists in the context of the social, historical background of the period; this focus, in particular, enables us to compare the depiction of the restricted female position in patriarchal society in the two films.

Protective effect of Rhus verniciflua Stokes extract in an experimental model of post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Post-menopausal osteoporosis (PMO) is a major global human health concern. Owing to the need for therapeutic drugs without side effects, natural extracts containing various polyphenolic compounds that may exert estrogenic effects have been studied in depth. Rhus verniciflua Stokes (RVS), which has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for centuries in Korea, was recently revealed to exert estrogenic effects attributable to its bioactive ingredients sulfuretin and butein, which have strong estrogen receptor–binding affinities. In this study, the protective potential of RVS in PMO was evaluated by using an experimental animal model of PMO, which was established by ovariectomy (OVX) of female Sprague Dawley rats. The oral administration of RVS at 20 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg for 8 weeks markedly protected against OVX-induced atrophy of the uterine tube and reversed the elevation in the ratio of serum receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand to osteoprotegerin, which is a marker of disease severity. In addition, RVS inhibited OVX-induced tibia bone loss, activated osteogenic activity, and suppressed osteoclastic activity in the tibial epiphyseal plate, a region of bone remodeling. Collectively, these factors indicated that the oral intake of RVS might be beneficial for the prevention of PMO.

Safety of 8-weeks oral administration of Arctium lappa L.

Recently, worldwide dietary reference intakes have been considered an important guideline for public health. Some governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) provide guidelines concerning dietary intake. Although an ingredient may have a history of use as a culinary material, changes in the environment over time suggest that the acceptable maximum intake each of food/culinary material should be regularly evaluated. Arctium lappa L. has been used as a culinary material for many centuries in Korea and Japan and some recent studies have reported related therapeutic effects. However, there are no reports on the safety of repeated oral administration. In this study, we evaluated the safety of a 8-weeks repeated oral intake of A. lappa. We concluded that treatment with <250 mg/kg A. lappa, which was within the safety range, resulted in body weight decrease and blood glucose suppression.