A History of Korea (4 page)

 
5
Wooden blocks of the
Tripitika Koreana
, in Haeinsa Temple, near Taegu, South Korea. (Author’s photo.)

 
8
Lady Sin Saimdang (front) and one of her bamboo paintings (back) featured on the Bank of Korea’s 50,000
won
note, issued June 2009. (Courtesy of Bank of Korea.)

12
“Wrestling”, by Kim Hongdo, eighteenth century. (Courtesy of the National Museum of Korea.)

13
“The Martyrdom of Reverend Thomas,” depicting the attack on the General Sherman in 1866. Painting by Kim Haksu. (Courtesy of the Council for the 100th Anniversary of the Korean Church.)

18
Son Kij
ng’s photo,
Tonga ilbo
newspaper, Tuesday, August 25,
1936

19
Ch’oe Nams
n, Yi Kwangsu, and children’s author Ma Haesong at the roundtable discussion in Tokyo, November 1943. (Courtesy of
S
j
ng sihak
.)

21
The shelled-out headquarters of the South Korean Communist Party from the Korean War, left intact in Ch’
rw
n, South Korea, near the border with North Korea. (Author’s photo.)

22
The captured ship
USS Pueblo
on display on the banks of the Taedong River, Pyongyang, 2003. (Courtesy of Tae Gyun Park.)

25
Ryugy
ng Hotel in Pyongyang, 2003. (Courtesy of Tae Gyun Park.)

26
Clash between protestors and police in the city of Kwangju, June 26, 1987. (Courtesy of Noonbit Publishers.)

BOXES

Chapter 1: The wall paintings of the Kogury
tombs

Chapter 2: Paekche, the Third
Kingdom

Chapter 5: The Buddhist printing advances of the Kory˘
o

Chapter 7: King Sejong the
Great

Chapter 10: The secondary status
groups

Chapter 13: The “Uphold Orthodoxy and Reject     Heterodoxy”
movement

Chapter 14: The end of slavery in
Korea

Chapter 15: The rise of Korean port
cities

Chapter 19: Manchuria as a cauldron of modern
Korea

Chapter 22: The Pueblo
Incident

Chapter 24: The start of South Korea’s television
age

Acknowledgments

Since the beginning of this project, I have benefited from the feedback of many colleagues and anonymous reviewers. I wish to start with heartfelt appreciation for Young-Hoon Rhee, John Duncan, Jennifer Jung-Kim, and Virginia Moon, who read the entire manuscript and offered much-needed criticisms and corrections. I would also like to thank Sunyoung Park, Gari Ledyard, Jihang Park, Christine Kim, Yumi Moon, and my Korean history students for offering helpful insights along the way. Colleagues at USC, in particular my friends at Parkside, East Asian Studies, and the History Department, were steadfast sources of comfort and encouragement. A special thanks goes to Jack Wills, whose work served as an inspiration for this book. The most endearing inspiration, of course, came from my wife and our son, as well as from family members both here in the US and in South Korea.

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the Palgrave Macmillan team, whose support, professionalism, and kindness made this book a reality: Kate Haines, Jenni Burnell, Felicity Noble and the team at Macmillan Publishing Solutions.

Kyung Moon Hwang

Note on Romanization

Korean terms will be Romanized with the McCune-Reischauer system, with the exception of the names of certain well-known individuals. The Romanization of Pyongyang and Seoul will use these more familiar forms instead of the McCune-Reischauer renderings.

Brief Chronology of Korean History

4th–7th centuries:	Three Kingdoms Period (Kogury , Paekche, Silla)
668–918:	Unified Silla Kingdom
918–1392:	Kory Dynasty
1170–1270:	Military Rule
1270–1356:	Mongol Overlord Period
1392–1910:	Chos n Dynasty
1446:	Promulgation of the Korean Alphabet
1592–98:	Japanese Invasions
1627–36:	Manchu Invasions
1894:	Tonghak Rebellion, Sino-Japanese War, Kabo Reforms
1897–1910:	Great Korean Empire ( Taehan cheguk )
1905–10:	Japanese Protectorate
1910–45:	Japanese Colonial Rule
1910–19:	“Military Rule”
1919:	March First Uprisings
1920s:	“Cultural Rule”
1938–45:	Wartime Mobilization
1945:	Liberation and Occupation by Allied Forces
1948:	Establishment of the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North)
1950–3:	Korean War
1987:	Democratization in South Korea