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The first modern textbook published by the Chosŏn government, the People’s Elementary Reader (PER), marked a significant departure from traditional learning both in terms of content and form and played a pivotal role in introducing western-style learning. However, an absence of a thorough consideration of the PER’s obvious moral em-phasis provides only a partial picture of the complexity of late nineteenth-century educational reform in Korea. A close examination of the historical context of edu-cational reform and the PER’s publication in comparison with its American and Japanese counterparts demonstrates moral education was a necessary component of modern education and the modernization drive. As the Koreans saw useful parallels with their own Confucian traditions, educational officials replaced western ethics with Confucian moral education. Thus, the preservation of moral cultivation in the textbook along with the introduction of western-style learning was the embodiment of the slogan “Eastern Way, Western Technology” (tongdo sŏgi). This type of accommodationist form of education conformed to modern (at that time) educational trends and facilitated the introduction of western-style learning by appealing to Confucian yangban sensibilities.

During the Protectorate era of 1905–1910 Japanese officials in Korea used education as a tool in their attempt to transform the Korean population into a people both friendly and cooperative towards Japan. As Korea was still formally an independent country, these officials could not openly call for assimilation. Yet they systematically worked to leverage the Koreans’ growing passion for education to achieve their goals, through taking over the largely moribund Korean public school system. The public school system had languished with little public or popular support since its creation in 1895, and the Japanese turned it into a well-funded, planned, and staffed elementary school system, with assurance of job placement upon graduation. Many Korean elites, however, feared the loss of sovereignty and the impact on patriotism a Japanese-run system could cause, and a wave of private “patriotic” and Christian school openings resulted. The annexation of Korea in 1910 made Japanese control over public education complete, and increased the pressure on private schools to conform. This article will examine the internal and public writings of the leading Japanese officials in Korea in this period, such as Itō Hirobumi, Shidehara Taira, Tawara Magoichi, Mitsuchi Chūzō to understand their goals and explicate the system they created, including curriculum requirements, the expansion of elementary education, the hiring of Japanese teachers, as well as the suppression of secondary schooling, and the suppression of modern private schools. In particular it will analyze the content of the language textbooks they published.

One area of research that has garnered meager albeit growing attention in Korean history is the intersection of language, literacy, and education, the examination of which demands a transnational perspective, as well as an interdisciplinary methodology. Within the colonial paradigm, a transnational conceptualization is indeed the only way to fundamentally grasp the linguistic configuration (Yasuda 1997) or landscape as it was actualized in the colonial public school. Focusing on the first decade of Japanese colonial rule in Korea (1910–1919), I examine the interaction between the Korean language and the various other languages and écritures that constituted the colonial linguistic landscape. I argue that a multiplicity of factors influenced the formation of literacies during this period, including the interactive (and necessarily competitive) relationships between languages and writing practices, the development of literature and writing styles, processes of translation, and dictionary compilation. Despite the functioning of these processes, the ultimate vector of literacy establishment and linguistic dominance was the Japanese public school (K. pot’ong hakkyo) and its language policies due to its primary institutional role in normalizing language legitimization. By tracing the shifting contours of the linguistic configuration from the outset of colonial rule, I attempt to reveal how the foundations of subsequent cultural hegemony were laid, while simultaneously contributing to the development of a more nuanced understanding of change and transition in modern Korean history, especially at the underexplored intersection of Korean language, literacy, and education.

Although imposing the Japanese language on the colonies of imperial Japan was the rule in its education and language policies in Taiwan, Korea, and other countries within the hanmun, (i.e. tongmun) cultural sphere, the idea of a “common literary language” (tongmun, 同文) was used as a means of supplementing Japanese colonial rule. While Japan promoted the slogan of “same letters, same race” (tongmun tongjong, 同文同種) to combine its colonies as one nation through sharing a common literary language, more diverse aspects of tongmun could be applied to colonial rule over Korea as both nations shared a method of transcribing hanmun (漢文) into their native languages. This similarity in the relationship of both nations’ native languages with hancha (漢字) was the setting in which Korea the colonized and Japan the colonizer shared a cultural ideal in which they integrated Western learning with classical hanmun in their native languages. This can be seen as a unique cultural mechanism of colonized Korea best represented by the textbooks produced by the Government-General of Korea. In addition, translation was the main mediating device for realizing this ideal. This study presents the composition and translations of the Chosŏnŏ kŭp hanmun (Korean and hanmun) readers published by the Japanese Government-General and discusses the proportion and significance of translation in the compilation of the textbooks. This study proposes that imperial Japan attempted to impose a new “common literary language” order in place of China’s and assigned the Korean language the status of a vehicle for translating Japanese and classical hanmun.

The opening event of the Chosŏn Grand Exposition, which took place at East Kyŏngsŏng Station in Seoul on 1 September 1940, was replete with spectacular military images, from warships and tank parades to various tributes to the war dead. This article extends the reading of this exhibition from a display of wartime propaganda more toward wartime battlefield tourism to discuss how colonial youth were mobilized in the war. This article is particularly focused on probing the similarities of two separate sites: battlefield tour sites and war-related pavilions in the exposition of 1940. By relating the two different sites, I argue that war images are associated with redefining belonging and creating boundaries. By juxtaposing the wartime exposition and the tour sites, this article investigates how the visual mechanism of battle site images functioned to create a sense of belonging for colonized people as imperial subjects—by posing to them the questions of who they were meant to grieve and for whom they fought.

The Imjin War (1592–1598), which was one of the largest scale wars in East Asia engaged in by all three major East Asian Countries (Korea, China, and Japan), plunged the Chosŏn dynasty into its worst crisis. Unlike China and Japan, which saw extremely radical changes such as dynastic transition and shifts in political power in the wake of the war, Chosŏn remained unscathed by the political turmoil. It is a historical irony that Chosŏn could remain free from the impact of the war, in spite of the fact that it sustained the heaviest damage from the war. To understand this irony, it is necessary to note that those in the royal court, the ruling class and King Sŏnjo sincerely repented of their pre-war misdeeds, demonstrated their strong will to reform the government and sustained reform measures for a sufficient length of time. The post-war restoration effort the dynasty carried out was the so-called Yŏmin hyusik (Rest with the people) policy and was modeled after the Yumin xiuxi 與民休息 policy that Emperors Wendi 文帝 and Jingdi 景帝 implemented in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty of China. As in the Chinese case, the Yŏmin hyusik policy increased agricultural productivity and the population as well as stabilizing Chosŏn society. Thanks to the reform measures, which were maintained for sixty years, the dynasty could recover without undergoing the political upheavals that took place in China and Japan. It was due to this politico-economic background that the dynasty could survive for 300 more years after the war.

During the seventeenth century, a surge in fictional stories ushered in an era of romance in Korean literature, and lovesickness became a topical motif. The prototype of the lovesick figure is detected in oral stories dealing with the lovesick snake (sangsa paem) in which a lovesick woman undergoes metamorphosis into a snake. This icon of the lovesick snake has endured and persisted in written and oral traditions. This research undertakes a careful investigation of this metaphor and its meanings in various textual and cultural contexts and further explores the complex relationship of the politics of female desire, death, and metamorphosis in diverse discourses. This study reveals how the grotesque, repulsive image of serpentine transformation creates a focus on horror, alienation, and victimhood in the representation of female lovesickness. Finally, con-structs of the lovesick snake are assessed and reconsidered to expose the relationship between popular discourse and written works, uncovering a literary tendency in androcentric writing practices to associate female lovesickness with sexual and erotic illness.

This paper examines the view of learning that is presented in Tasan’s interpretation of the Greater Learning. Tasan presents the Confucian classic, the Greater Learning, as explaining the main themes that can achieve the goals of learning in Confucianism: cultivating the self and bringing good order to others, and the practical methods that can realize them. He asserts that the goals of learning in Confucianism are myŏng-myŏngdŏk (C. mingmingde), ch’inmin (C. qinmin), and chiŏjisŏn (C. zhiyuzhishan), and the realization of these goals is filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion. That is, the learning goals are myŏngmyŏngdŏk (C. mingmingde), ch’inmin (C. qinmin), and chiŏjisŏn (C. zhiyuzhishan), where myŏngmyŏngdŏk is a person’s practice of filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion; ch’inmin means inducing others to carry out filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion by practicing filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion oneself; and chiŏjisŏn is the perfect realization of relationships between people of filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion for oneself and for others. Accordingly, for Tasan, the learning goals consist of first acting in ac-cordance with filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion where appropriate, and then influencing others to practice filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental com-passion through these personal actions, thus leading to a perfect realization of the relationships between people of filial piety, fraternal respect, and parental compassion for oneself and all people.

It is not easy to explain the distinct relationships and roles of concepts like li (理, principle), ki (氣, matter or energy), heart-mind (sim 心), and nature (sŏng 性) because the terms simultaneously explain both the physical quality and the ethical nature of being. In order to solve this difficulty, Confucians of the Chosŏn dynasty tried to search for effective ways of explanation by analyzing them, and today’s scholars also make persistent efforts to resolve this difficulty. One direction of such arguments in the Sŏngho school, which includied Chŏng Yag-yong, was to divide the usages of the concepts into “the special” (chŏn 專) and “the universal” (ch’ong 總). In addition, there was “the theory of mutual opposition” (taesŏl 對說) versus “the theory of mutual causation” (insŏl 因說), which was suggested by Ki Tae-sŭng in his disputes over the Four Beginnings and the Seven Emotions with Yi Hwang, and the “horizontal viewing” (hoeng’gan 橫看) versus “vertical viewing” (sugan 竪看), which was used by Yi I, Yi Chin-sang, Chŏng Chae-gyu, and others. Contemporary scholars have also used these frameworks in order to explain the theories of li, ki, “heart-mind,” and “nature” in Chosŏn Confucianism. And these methods focus mainly on the li and ki structure of moral emotions. However, most Chosŏn Neo-Confucianists discussed these topics in order to actualize moral life in the real world by searching for ways of controlling emotions, rather than discovering the ontological structure of li, ki, “heart-mind,” and “nature”. If we consider what we can learn from Neo-Confucianism’s li, ki, “heart-mind,” and “nature” theory or the theory of the Four Beginnings and the Seven Emotions today, we should take note of the experiences and the results of discussions that attempt to make a normative justifiability of moral life equal to the inevitability of the natural law, by considering that human beings and society share their material and principles with nature. And we should evaluate dispassionately the theories and the results of these theories that were made in order to accomplish a Confucian moral society, and make the evaluation helpful for generating a discussion to lead today’s society in a desirable direction.

Early Koryŏ was the period in which Confucianism began to be perceived as a political ideology and Confucian politics were introduced. Many scholars have argued that this was made possible by the Confucian scholars who promoted it. Meanwhile, the powerful local families (hojok) are considered to have played a limited role in the spread of Confucianism. The introduction of Confucian politics during early Koryŏ, however, was not solely the result of the activities of Confucian scholars. Although they were not Confucian scholars, Wang Kŏn as well as the generals and meritorious retainers who contributed to the foundation of the Koryŏ dynasty and many other officials possessed Confucian knowledge. The enthronement of Wang Kŏn and the founding of the Koryŏ dynasty were rationalized based on the notions of the mandate of Heaven and revolution. In addition, several elites who belonged to powerful local clans who participated in central politics at the beginning of the Koryŏ dynasty and who ruled local areas were well-versed in the Confucian classics, histories and works on military stratagem. Therefore, the powerful local families cannot be perceived as a class unrelated to Confucianism. Members of the ruling class during early Koryŏ used their local bases as a springboard for entrance to the central and provincial levels of government. They learned Confucian teachings and various Confucian classics during their youth, im-plemented documentary administration in their capacity as the ruling class in local areas, and perceived Confucianism as their political ideology. The implementation of the civil service examination during the reign of King Kwangjong and the full realization of Confucian politics during the reign of King Sŏngjong were made possible by the nationwide presence of these social groups.

Using the micro-analytic framework of conversation analysis, this study demonstrates Korean language learners’ varying repair strategies when facing vocabulary production problems. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to explore the ways in which Korean L2 learners co-construct repair sequences for vocabulary negotiation and (2) to advance our understanding of how learning opportunities are created in Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) classroom interaction. The data analyzed for this study are drawn from approximately nineteen hours of Korean as a second language classroom conversations, involving seven students and a teacher. It specifically investigates the various organ-izations of repair by two different language proficiency levels: advanced and intermediate. Analysis of moment-by-moment classroom interaction reveals that advanced and intermediate learners show different preferences and utilize repair sequences in differing ways in order to negotiate target vocabulary with interactants. Participants in the interaction move back and forth between the ongoing talk and the repair sequence and collaboratively resolve their problems in ways that create opportunities for learning. The analysis of these practices of “vocabulary negotiation” adds to a body of work that shows how students participate in building their own learning opportunities.