The Idea of Qi/Gi
The Idea of Qi/Gi

Author: Suk Gabriel Choi

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2018-12-03

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1498557988

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The notion of qi/gi (氣) is one of the most pervasive notions found within the various areas of the East Asian intellectual and cultural traditions. While the pervasiveness of the notion provides us with an opportunity to observe the commonalities amongst the East Asian intellectual and cultural traditions, it also allows us to observe the differences. This book focuses more on understanding the different meanings and logics that the notion of qi/gi has acquired within the East Asian traditions for the purpose of understanding the diversity of these traditions. This volume begins to fulfill this task by inquiring into how the notion was understood by traditional Korean philosophers, in addition to investigating how the notion was understood by traditional Chinese philosophers.

Politics of Public Opinion
Politics of Public Opinion

Author: Ingeol Kim

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-10-31

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 9004709983

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Eugene Y. Park’s annotated translation of a long-awaited book by Kim Ingeol introduces Anglophone readers to a path-breaking scholarship on the widening social base of political actors who shaped “public opinion” (kongnon) in early modern Korea. Initially limited to high officials, the articulators of public opinion as the state and elites recognized grew in number to include mid-level civil officials, State Confucian College students, all Confucian literati (yurim), influential commoners who took over local councils (hyanghoe), and the general population. Marshaling evidence from a wealth of documents, Kim presents a compelling case for the indigenous origins of Korean democracy.

The Scriptures of Won Buddhism
The Scriptures of Won Buddhism

Author: Bongkil Chung

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2003-01-31

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 0824865014

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Won Buddhism, one of the major religions of modern Korea, was established in 1916 by Pak Chung-bin (1891–1943), later known as Sot’aesan. In 1943 Sot’aesan published a collection of Buddhist writings, the Correct Canon of Buddhism (Pulgyo chongjon), which included the doctrine of his new order. Four years later, the second patriarch, Chongsan (1900–1962), had the order compile a new canon, which was published in 1962. This work, translated here as The Scriptures of Won Buddhism (Wonbulgyo kyojon), consists of the Canon (a redaction of the first part of the Pulgyo chongjon) and the analects and chronicle of the founder known as the Scripture of Sot’aesan. The present translation incorporates critical tenets from the 1943 Canon that were altered in the redaction process and offers persuasive arguments for their re-inclusion.

North Korean Cinema
North Korean Cinema

Author: Johannes Schönherr

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-08-10

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0786490527

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Like many ideological dictatorships of the twentieth century, North Korea has always considered cinema an indispensible propaganda tool. No other medium penetrated the whole of the population so thoroughly, and no other medium remained so strictly and exclusively under state control. Through movies, the two successive leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il propagandized their policies and sought to rally the masses behind them, with great success. This volume chronicles the history of North Korean cinema from its beginnings to today, examining the obstacles the film industry faced as well as the many social problems the films themselves reveal. It provides detailed analyses of major and minor films and explores important developments in the industry within the context of the concurrent social and political atmosphere. Through the lens of cinema emerges a fresh perspective on the history of North Korean politics, culture, and ideology.

A Concise History of Modern Korea
A Concise History of Modern Korea

Author: Michael J. Seth

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780742567139

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This comprehensive and balanced history of modern Korea explores the social, economic, and political issues it has faced since being catapulted into the wider world at the end of the nineteenth century. Placing this formerly insular society in a global context, Michael J. Seth describes how this ancient, culturally and ethnically homogeneous society first fell victim to Japanese imperialist expansionism, and then was arbitrarily divided in half after World War II. Seth traces the postwar paths of the two Koreas with different political and social systems and different geopolitical orientations as they evolved into sharply contrasting societies. South Korea, after an unpromising start, became one of the few postcolonial developing states to enter the ranks of the first world, with a globally competitive economy, a democratic political system, and a cosmopolitan and dynamic culture. By contrast, North Korea became one of the world's most totalitarian and isolated societies, a nuclear power with an impoverished and famine-stricken population. Considering the radically different and historically unprecedented trajectories of the two Koreas, Seth assesses the insights they offer for understanding not only modern Korea but the broader perspective of world history."

Harmonizing the Hundred Teachings
Harmonizing the Hundred Teachings

Author: Yi Neunghwa

Publisher: Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism

Published:

Total Pages: 638

ISBN-13:

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The Baekgyo hoetong 百敎會通, originally authored by Yi Neunghwa in 1912, is a book of comparative religion written from a Buddhist point of view. As the first book authored by Yi, a prominent Buddhist scholar and one of the top three researchers of Korean folk culture during modern times, the Baekgyo hoetong is a significant work in the history of academic endeavors on Korean culture and Korean Buddhism. While the title of the book can be translated as “harmonizing the hundred teachings,” the content of the book reveals that the author considers Buddhism an important key in this harmonizing. Initially, Yi compares Buddhism with eleven teachings — traditional, foreign and indigenous — showing that Buddhism has points of similarity with all of them. After proceeding to produce an outline of basic Buddhist doctrine, he concludes by arguing against the common criticisms of Buddhism at the time, often using comparative examples from other religions. Although the Baekgyo hoetong is written in the traditional styles of arraying quotes in the structure of a series of questions and answers, it reflects well the complexity of Korea’s newly-modernizing society that was teeming with intellectual diversity for the first time in centuries. Yi, an avid scholar of Chinese classics, Buddhist scriptures, western science and Korean folk culture, makes the book possible by his broad erudition. Yi uses his newly acquired knowledge to “harmonize the hundred teachings” from a Buddhist point of view, warning readers that dogmatic belief in one’s own truth is in fact what is farthest from the truth.