Istoria Coreei

Nitel superficial dar interesant:
http://apebhconferen...eon-kingdom.pdf
Il pun si la alte topicuri care au legatura.

Despre clasele sociale in timpul dinastiei Joseon 1392-1905.
http://www.metmuseum...ang/hd_yang.htm
http://koreanculture...on-society.html

During the Joseon era, marriages and relationships were complicated and often tragic.  Unlike most weddings of today, weddings in the past were often sad affairs – at least on the part of the bride – and rarely were they done out of love.
This piece in Jeju Weekly (with some nice pictures) examines what it was like to get married during the Joseon era:

Silk for the bride’s dress was provided by the groom’s father and was conveyed to her at night by a small procession of the groom’s friends. It was customary for this procession to be set upon by a group of men from the bride’s home and a mock battle would ensue. Although it was suppose to be a sham battle, real blows were often dealt and there were occasional deaths. The reasoning for this battle is unclear because if the groom’s side lost he would suffer bad luck and if the bride’s side lost she would suffer misfortune and unhappiness. Not a great way to begin a marriage.
And, for all you lovers – did you know that in the past “yobo” was only used by the husband to his wife but not as a term of endearment?  In fact it meant – “hey, look here.”

[ https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GVMZcpLfjL0?feature=oembed - Pentru incarcare in pagina (embed) Click aici ]

http://books.google....id=_Ndor_PwcvkC
Markets: Traditional Korean Society
De Sŭng-mo Chŏng

O carte interesanta.
Va sa zica, e cum banuiam: economia in perioada budista a fost mai cosmopolita, mai urbana si mai efervescenta IN CENTRE, si-n special in capitala.
Societatea neo-confucianista de dupa mongoli a fost mult mai rurala si localista.
Dar pe de alta parte, economia budista se pare c-a neglijat lumea rurala, mai mult extragandu-i resursele.
Neo-confucianismul se pare c-a ajutat, totusi, economia locala, rurala.

Edited by searcher-star, 28 April 2014 - 11:55.

https://www.google.r...F285%2F;418;314
Naganeupseong, sat-fortareata din sec.14.
E instructiv din doua motive, unu ca vedem nivelul fortificatiilor coreene provinciale la 1400-1600, si doi, aceasta asezare e sediu de comitat deci una dintre cele 80 capitale locale.
Tara avea o capitala, 8 provincii si 80 comitate.
Seoul era la 150-180.000 locuitori, si alte orase mai importante erau inca vreo 15-16. N-am reusit sa aflu despre populatiile lor dar erau mult mai mici, poate exceptand Kaesong. Apoi urmau asezarile ca asta.
Mai existau vreo 250 sate-fortareata care aveau doar scop defensiv si nu erau sedii de nimic.

Edited by searcher-star, 30 April 2014 - 10:18.

http://cei.ier.hit-u...ised070420).pdf
Un articol interesant despre dezvoltarea premoderna in Koreea vs Japonia.
Autorul ajunge la cateva concluzii interesante:
- dezvoltarea a mers mana-n mana cu comertul, monetarizarea economiei si decentralizarea, salturile spre ceva mai bun facandu-se in perioadele cand statul era slab
- dezvoltarea statului a insemnat cresterea controlului asupra productiei si comertului, si inhibarea dezvoltarii
- monetarizarea economiei s-a facut la chinezi mai ales in perioada Song, la japonezi deja prin secolul 15 iar la koreeni abia dupa 1650
- pe japonezi i-a ajutat mult faramitarea feudala care a dus la competitia intre domeniile in razboi si specializarea regional a productiei, si la interesul samurailor de a-si dezvolta feudele ereditare, in timp de functionarii confucianisti koreeni si chinezi erau mult mai teoreticieni, tipicari si dezinteresati
- societatile japoneza si koreeana au fost la nivele similare inainte de sec.2BC, apoi koreenii i-au imitat primii, si in mai mare masura, pe chinezi, si au luat-o inainte, dar japonezii s-au dezvoltat si ei din sec.5 si prin 8 au ajuns iar similari, pana prin 16, dupa care japonezii au luat-o iar inainte
- intre 900 si 1500 cele doua tari au fost similare cum ziceam mai sus, fiecare avand unele domenii in care statea mai bine ca ailalta, dar per total fiind cam la fel
- dupa 1600 japonezii au fost mai inovatori in timp ce koreenii au fost imitatori mai servili fata de chinezi; imitarea asta a fost un avantaj in primele faze dar apoi a devenit un sablon, o povara paralizanta
- interesant, mica piata rurala koreeana era mai activa decat cea japoneza, dar mai rudimentara, si nemonetizata; la japonezi s-au dezvoltat schimburile intre negustorii urbani si chiar intre negustori si samurai pe cand la koreeni yangbanii erau mai frugali iar negustorii mult mai slab dezvoltati ca si clasa si putere
- japonezii au fost mai izolati geografic si cantitativ decat koreenii (faceau comert mai putin decat infimul comert exterior koreean) dar mult mai activi la nivelul clasei antreprenoriale si administrative locale, si mai receptivi fata de ideile noi, fie ele chinezesti sau non-chinezesti, in timp ce koreenii au adoptat mai greu inclusive ideile chinezesti
- centralizarea Tokugawa n-a putut anula competitia si specializarea concurentiala a domeniilor feudale in timp ce in Koreea, uniformizarea birocratica Joseon a diminuat mult modurile de exprimare a initiativei in orice domeniu

http://www.mukogawa-...-10_article.pdf
Un material foarte interesant despre geografia si feng-shuiul celor doua capitale koreene, Kaesong din dinastia Goryeo si Seoul din dinastia Joseon.

Deci Kaesong avea vreo 20kmp din care construite vreo 10, si 3 randuri de ziduri.
Seoul avea vreo 6-7kmp din care construite vreo 4, si un rand de ziduri.

De fapt, Koreea in vremea Joseon a fost, cum am mai zis, mai rurala, din cauza neo-confucianismului.

Edited by searcher-star, 22 May 2014 - 10:10.

http://books.google....axation&f=false
Un material despre casele traditionale coreene in timpul dinastiei Joseon, cu insistenta asupra celor de nobili.

Dans e curte din perioada Joseon:
[ https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FdYk8_YPCP8?feature=oembed - Pentru incarcare in pagina (embed) Click aici ]

“Viewing Late Joseon through the Lens of Quantitative History”
by Lee Young-hoon
Published by Seoul National University Press

Korean historians, who advocate a “nationalistic positivism,” are under siege from all directions. Scholars of Western history have declared an all-out war to dismantle “national history,” rallying around the slogan, “Nationalism is a fiction.” Scholars of Chinese literatures and social historians are digging trenches of “micro-history,” violently shaking the foundations of macro-history and its grand statements on politics and ideology. Economic historians are putting on their own pressure with their advocacy of “quantitative history,” a more strenuous version of the positivistic methodology that academic historians had once used to invalidate the claims of non-establishment historians.

“Viewing Late Joseon through the Lens of Quantitative History” is a missile launched at the heart of nationalist historians by the proponents of economic history. Korean nationalist historians have been asserting that the seeds of capitalism had begun to sprout as early as the late Joseon Dynasty, in an attempt to refute Japan’s colonialist theory that Joseon society had long been mired in stasis. In opposition to the nationalist historians’ claims, scholars at the Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research (NIER), founded in 1987 by then-SNU professor Ahn Byeong-jik and Professor Lee Dae-geun of Sungkyunkwan University, argued that Korea’s modernization properly began during the Japanese colonial era.

“Viewing Late Joseon…” is the first concrete result of the new positivistic research undertaken by Professor Lee Young-hoon of SNU and his fellow academics, who make up the second generation of scholars at NIER. Over the past three years since August 2002, these economic historians have been working on a study of “Korea’s long-term economic statistics,” with the sponsorship of the Korea Research Foundation. This book brings together nine papers from their first year of research, which compiles and analyzes statistics regarding Korea’s population, wages, land value, prices, interest rates, and economic growth rates from 1650 to 1910.

The genealogical records of upper-class (“yangban”) families, accounts of rice costs and interest rates, wages as set down in various record books, changes in land value as indicated in clan and local registers, etc. all contribute to the statistics that inform this collection. The papers conclude that the late Joseon economy enjoyed a period of stability or development in the 18th century, then fell into crisis in the succeeding century.

Population levels, formerly on a steady climb, began to fall with the increase in mortality rate. Prices, including the cost of rice, peaked while actual wages dropped. Korea’s intermediate trade between China and Japan, which was the bulwark of our economic growth during the 18th century, declined and the amount of silver retained by the central government fell from one million nyang in 1742 to merely 430,000 nyang in 1782. Cutting lumber from coastal areas was prohibited, resulting in serious deforestation in the inland regions. This, in turn, led to a reduction in rice productivity per land unit and the decrease of agricultural markets, and resulted in the dissolution of the government’s famine relief system (known as “hwan-gok”). All of this indicates that the “fall of the Joseon Dynasty derived from an internal exhaustion, rather than from the influence of powerful external forces.”

The collection also brings attention to the anti-capitalistic character of Joseon’s economy. Until the end of the 19th century, commodities like horses, rice, and cloth were used as currency, and interest rates per year were as high as 30~40 percent, which would have posed a serious challenge to the accumulation of capital. In addition, wages for poor, unskilled workers (called “mogun”) were higher than those earned by skilled workers (or “jangin”), and the government’s “hwan-gok” system operated on a scale of 50 million bushels a year until the mid-18th century. Such evidence suggests that a non-market-based moral economy persisted strongly throughout most of the Joseon era.

But, of course, numbers don’t tell the entire story. The depletion of 19th century Joseon economy is already evidenced by the numerous riots and uprisings that plagued society at the time. Moreover, economic crisis does not always signify the depletion of the internal potential to overcome it. Even Britain experienced extreme wage drops and the devastation of its agricultural economy during the first stages of industrialization. Japan also faced the challenges of falling agricultural productivity and severe inflation around the time it opened its doors to Western trade. In this context, we may well expect a counter-response from other quarters of Korean historical scholarship.

http://books.google....orality&f=false
Despre raspandirea confucianismului in Koreea.
Cica un print chinez Confucian a fost mazilit de un imparat corrupt pe la 600BC si ar fi plecat la coreeni unde ar fi fondat dinastia Gojoseon, din care a iesit mai tarziu Jumong, fondatorul Goguryeo si... mare luptator anti-chinez - cand au incercat chinezii dinastiei Han sa ii cucereasca.
interesant ca cica si Confucius era deceptionat ce imoralitate e la chinezi si se gandea sa plece la coreeni ca-s oameni mai cinstiti chiar daca barbari.
Adeptii confucianismului din Koreea erau foarte mandri de istoriile astea. Ziceau ca asta e semn ca Koreea e adevarata patrie a confucianismului.

Impresiile primului capitan englez care a intrat in relatie cu un notabil koreean pe la 1816. Totul e bine pana cand isi da seama ca englezii mai vor sa zaboveasca. Atunci il apuca depresia:
After returning to the ship and leaving, Hall wrote
We quitted this bay without much regret. The old Chief, indeed, with his flowing beard, and pompous array, and engaging manners, had made a strong impression upon us all; but his pitiable and childish distress, whatever might have been the cause, took away from the respect with which we were otherwise disposed to regard him.
Speaking of how the ‘treatment of strangers is regulated’, he wrote
The promptitude with which we were met at this place, where, perhaps, no ship ever was before, seem to imply an extraordinary degree of vigilance and jealousy on the part of the government.
Mac’leod reflects on the encounter with the chief:
It was pretty evident, however, that he was acting from orders which he dared not trifle with, rather than from any inhospitable feeling in his own nature; for in this respect there was a manly frankness in the behaviour of all the Coreans we saw, and not what could be considered an inclination to be rude.
We saw enough however, to convince us that the sovereign of this country governs with most absolute sway; and that, occasionally, he makes very free with the heads of his subjects. The allusion to this danger could not have been so constant and uniform, in places so remote from each other, without some strong reason.

Edited by searcher-star, 11 July 2014 - 15:05.

http://www.google.ro...yh9yBD8C9gyDoOw
Un articol interesant despre demografia istorica a Koreei.
Deci majoritatea se casatoreau intre 16 si 19 ani, indiferent de clasa.
Ce e interesant e ca in sanul nobilimii fetele tindeau sa fie ceva mai in VARSTA decat baietii.
Ideea era ca fetele erau de regula maritate cam la un an dupa ce aveau prima data ciclu. Cam ca peste tot in Asia.
Conform filozofiei confucianiste, vaduvele nu aveau voie sa se recasatoreasca, dar restrictia asta nu era implementata autoritar decat in sanul nobilimii, in populatia obisnuita era un procentaj semnificativ care se recasatoreau. Restrictia insa crea o criza de femei nobile, vaduvele fiind ''scoase de pe piata". Asta ducea la o crestere a numarului de concubine de neam jos... si eventual a numarului de baieti fragezi utilizati pe post de gagici. Asta insa era rar, Koreea fiind una din rarele culturi asiatice care dispretuia homosexualitatea de tip pedo.
Interdictia recasatoriei vaduvelor scadea, desigur, natalitatea nobilimii ceea ce ducea la cresterea adoptiilor. Familiile sus-plasate adoptau de la cele ceva mai joase.
Mortalitatea a crescut in secolele 17-18 ceea ce a dus la o scadere a varstei medii de casatorie.
De pe la 1850 varsta a inceput sa creasca din nou.

Cum calatoresc povestile prin lume:
The Man Who Lost His Legs

There was a merchant in Chong-ju who used to go to Quelpart to buy seaweed. One time when he drew up on the shore he saw a man shuffling along on the ground toward the boat. He crept nearer, and at last took hold of the side with both his hands and jumped in.
"When I looked at him," said the merchant, "I found he was an old man without any legs. Astonished, I asked, saying, 'How is it, old man, that you have lost your legs?'
"He said in reply, 'I lost my legs on a trip once when I was shipwrecked, and a great fish bit them off.' "
"However did that happen?" inquired the merchant. And the old man said, "We were caught in a gale and driven till we touched on some island or other. Before us on the shore stood a high castle with a great gateway. The twenty or so of us who were together in the storm-tossed boat were all exhausted from cold and hunger, and lying exposed. We landed and managed to go together to the house. There was in it one man only, whose height was terrible to behold, and whose chest was many spans round. His face was black and his eyes large and rolling. His voice was like the braying of a monster donkey. Our people made motions showing that they wanted something to eat. The man made no reply, but securely fastened the front gate. After this he brought an armful of wood, put it in the middle of the courtyard, and there made a fire. When the fire blazed up he rushed after us and caught a young lad, one of our company, cooked him before our eyes, pulled him to pieces and ate him. We were all reduced to a state of horror, not knowing what to do. We gazed at each other in dismay and stupefaction.
"When he had eaten his fill, he went up into a verandah and opened a jar, from which he drank some kind of spirit. After drinking it he uttered the most gruesome and awful noises; his face grew very red and he lay down and slept. His snorings were like the roarings of the thunder. We planned then to make our escape, and so tried to open the large gate, but one leaf was about twenty-four feet across, and so thick and heavy that with all our strength we could not move it. The walls, too, were a hundred and fifty feet high, and so we could do nothing with them. We were like fish in a pot beyond all possible way of escape. We held each other's hands, and cried.
"Among us, one man thought of this plan: We had a knife and he took it, and while the monster was drunk and asleep, decided to stab his eyes out, and cut his throat. We said in reply, 'We are all doomed to death, anyway; let's try,' and we made our way up on to the verandah and stabbed his eyes. He gave an awful roar, and struck out on all sides to catch us. We rushed here and there, making our escape out of the court back into the rear garden. There were in this enclosure pigs and sheep, about sixty of them in all. There we rushed, in among the pigs and sheep. He floundered about, waving his two arms after us, but not one of us did he get hold of; we were all mixed up - sheep, pigs and people. When he did catch anything it was a sheep; and when it was not a sheep it was a pig. So he opened the front gate to send all the animals out.
"We then each of us took a pig or sheep on the back and made straight for the gate. The monster felt each, and finding it a pig or a sheep let it go. Thus we all got out and rushed for the boat. A little later he came and sat on the bank and roared his threatenings at us. A lot of other giants came at his call. They took steps of thirty feet or so, came racing after us, caught the boat, and made it fast; but we took axes and struck at the hands that held it, and so got free at last and out to the open sea.
"Again a great wind arose, and we ran on to the rocks and were all destroyed. Every one was engulfed in the sea and drowned; I alone got hold of a piece of boat-timber and lived. Then there was a horrible fish from the sea that came swimming after me and bit off my legs. At last I drifted back home and here I am.
"When I think of it still, my teeth are cold and my bones shiver. My Eight Lucky Stars are very bad, that's why it happened to me.''

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 147:433–442 (2012)
Ancient-to-Modern Secular Changes in Korean Stature
Dong Hoon Shin,1 Chang Seok Oh,1 Yi-Suk Kim,2 and Young-il Hwang1*
1Department of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 103 Daehak-Ro, Jongno-Gu, Seoul 110-799, Korea
2Department of Anatomy, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, 911-1, Mok-5-Dong, Yangcheon-Gu, Seoul 158-710, Korea
Studiul acopera grosso modo anii 1000-2000.
Deci in perioada 1300-1900, asiaticii aveau cam 1,50 inaltime femeile si 1,55 barbatii in Japonia si 1,62 in Koreea.
Barbatii europeni cei mai mici erau portughezii, si englezii in perioada 1750-1880, erau la 1,65. Restul erau intre 1,66 si 1,72.
Interesant, la asiatici nu prea erau diferente intre clasele sociale in timp ce la europeni clasele superioare aveau cativa cm in plus.
De asemenea, europenii erau ceva mai inalti inainte de 1300 pe cand la asiatici nu se inregistreaza variatii de inaltime intre 1000 si 1900.
Toata lumea a crescut semnificativ dupa 1900.

Mi s-a parut interesant sa postez linkul asta la fiecare topic, sa vedem care limba din ce an are cea mai veche atestare scrisa:
http://en.wikipedia....#Before_1000_BC

[ https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/sC_O8fLduXo?feature=oembed - Pentru incarcare in pagina (embed) Click aici ] mi-a adus aminte de niste doine de-ale noastre prin unele armonii, cantecul asta coreean.