Ilwol obongdo is a folding screen depicting the five mountain peaks, the sun, the moon, and pine trees that were placed on the back of the royal palace in the Joseon dynasty. It is called many names, Ilwol Obongbyeong, Ilwol Oakdo, and Ilwol Konryundo. Kim Hongdo, one of the most famous artists in Korea, drew it. It was painted with a portrait of King Sejong on the front of the 10000 won. Ilwol Obongdo is not only a symbol of the kingship, but was created with the intention of wishing for the people’s peace of mind. Ilwol Obongdo, this symbolic meaning is said to be interpreted as an expression of a poem called Cheonbo in Sikyung, the ancient truth of Confucian scriptures. This poem is about praising the virtue of the king and praying for the blessing of heaven and ancestors to the king. There is the moon on the left, and the sun on the right in Ilwol Obongdo. It consists of the mountain of five peaks where two streams of waterfall flow. And a pine tree painted at the front. The feature of this painting is a ‘left-right symmetry’ that gives a very majestic feeling. The fact that the sun and the moon are hung in the sky at the same time does not symbolize the coexistence of day and night, but is said to mean plus and minus, the principles of the sky. In addition, the sun and moon means jagangbulsik, meaning that you do not rest on your own. The meaning of the five peaks has a variety of meanings. It means the five elements inuiyejisin-benevolent, righteous, wise, and trustworthy- or the east, west, south, north, and center, and expresses the five famous mountains in Korea. The two pairs of pine trees means the existence that connects the earth and the sky. The red color is red pine, which was considered the most sacred and precious among pine trees. The part of the land has a shape of continuous clouds, and 70% represents Korea, a mountainous area. It was always behind the king, and when he died, it was also buried. And when there is only Ilwol Obongdo, it is not a completed painting, but only when the king sits to make Ilwol Obongdo.
애국가 (Korean national anthem) means a song that loves the country. Korea doesn’t give 애국가 a special name and use as a national anthem. 애국가 is an official national song that symbolizes Korea and is also a song about loving the country.
애국가 began to be created when our country opened its doors to world powers and encountered new cultures. The period is the Gabo reform(갑오개혁)of 1894. The Gabo reform’s other name is Gao Jingzhang (갑오경장). The Gabo reform was a series of reform movements that were carried out form July 1894 to May 1896.
The lyrics of the national anthem, which is being sung today, were made to encourage our love for our country and our people’s sense of self-reliance as our country was in crisis due to foreign invasion.
After that, it was carried through the hands of various visionaries and contained the current contents. The tune attached to this song was “Auld Lang Syne” of Scottish folk song. 안익태(Ahn lk - tae), a Korean who active overseas at the time, felt sorry for singing a national anthem of another country on the national anthem. So He composed today’s national anthem in 1935.
The song has been sung at official government events since the establishment of the Korean government in 1948. And it was called nationwide as it was published in textbooks.
Some people make a living out of living on the edge. Between the sea and inland; between the estuary and the river; between the desert and the last green grazing land. Living on the edge takes specific skills and attention to detail. But if you have those skills, you can make a living those dwelling well away from the edge can’t.
This can make for interesting lives, and even more interesting stories.
One of the most intriguing edges, of course, is the boundary between two or more cultures. This may or may not be two or more countries. Nomads tend to have mobile nations, and ships from anywhere might show up in a seaport that still belongs solidly to one country….
Maybe.
Some places are a bit edgier than others. Especially seaports, or other major trading centers. Trade happens because people want things they don’t have. When that level of “want” gets to Country A eyeing specific things Country B has, people living on the edge between can get a bit… squeezed.
All kinds of things can happen on a boundary. Crime, espionage, cultural adaptation and adoption. Those last are intriguing, because they can go multiple different directions at once. Cultures may blend into each other, as people from both sides work together, gripe together, and maybe marry and raise families. Or there may be staunch little OurTowns, where people are far more fiercely Culture A than anyone “back home” - in part so they’re not suspected of being a spy for Culture B. Or possibly both in different social settings; acting like A when you’re around A-natives, B with B-natives, and some odd mix when safe at home. Assuming home is safe. Floods, droughts, and other natural disasters can be somewhat prepared for, but you can never be quite sure when another human will start wondering, whose side are you really on?
An example I’ve looked at lately is Tsushima Island; usually claimed as part of Japan, but about midway between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula. The island’s mostly mountains without good farmland, making trade critically important. And trade they did, through centuries of wars, pirates, shogunal politics, Ming and Qing upheaval, and invasions from either China or Japan.
Part of how they made it work was forgery.
No, really. For example, after Hideyoshi invaded Korea, things were understandably tense. Everyone wanted trade restarted; silver from Japan, silk from China, and ginseng from Korea being three of the big items. Yet nobody was going to make the diplomatic first move of sending a letter apologizing for the war. Because that would mean losing face.
So Lord Sō Yoshitoshi of Tsushima forged one, from the Tokugawa shogun to the king of Korea.
Aaaand it snowballed from there. Opening letters. Closing letters. Seals. Side notes. Tsushima and Korea’s Japanese interpreters forged them all, going both ways. Nobody officially noticed, trade restarted, Tsushima and Korean traders prospered.
It worked (as it apparently had in the past under the Ashitaga shoguns, huh), but if it’d been made public, all kinds of trouble could have landed on Tsushima’s doorstep. Apparently that did happen at least once in the 1630s, with a Sō lord going on trial and suffering penalties from the Tokugawa. (Though not fatal ones.) But one of the reasons it worked is that forging the shogun’s and Korean king’s own seals and diplomatic messages was such a blatant abuse of What You Don’t Do that most people couldn’t believe someone would actually doit.
Take this into account. People of border areas may be seen as shifty and untrustworthy by more conventional members of their culture. With good reason.
If you have nations in your world, or even city-states, you’re going to have borders and boundaries. Read up on how they work. Truth can be even stranger than fiction!
Note: Some info gleaned from Japanese-Korean Relations during the Tokugawa Period, a paper by Kazui Tashiro.
오늘은 우리나라의 광복절입니다 (그리고 인도의 독립기념일이기도 합니다!). 1945년 8월 15일 - 평소에는 우리나라에게 이런 역사가 있다는것을 모를정도로 반복적이고 안정적인 삶을 살지만 사실 잘 생각해보면 1945년도 직전까지도 제 할머니 할아버지들의 부모님께서 청춘을 바쳐 살아온 세상이며 직시해야하는 현실였고, 제 할머니 할아버지들은 대한민국이 일본제국에서부터 해방되는것을 직접적으로 느끼며 자라왔을겁니다. 지금의 자유와 권리를 자연스럽게 누릴수 있게 된것은 개개인의 시민들과 수많은 독립운동가들의 노고가 있었기에 가능하다고 생각해요.
Today is a special day for not just one but two countries that are close to my heart - 8.15.1945 National Liberation Day of Korea , 8.15.1947 Independence Day of India If you think really hard about it, 1945 isn’t a long time ago - my great grandparents lived through Japanese colonialism and the war and my grandparents lived through the aftermath of the war and the Korean independence. The fast advanced Korea, the comfort of daily life, and the rights I have as a citizen in this country is a direct result of all the individual citizens’ and Independence Activists’ efforts of enduring, withstanding, and fighting for their rights.
“In 1404, King Taejong fell from his horse during a hunting expedition. Embarrassed, looking to his left and right, he commanded, “Do not let the historian find out about this.” To his disappointment, the historian accompanying the hunting party included these words in the annals, in addition to a description of the king’s fall.“
LMFAOOOOOO rip to that guy
i thought maybe this was fake, but there’s even a citation!
Taejong Sillok Book 7. 5th year of King Taejong’s Reign (1404), February 8.
Happy 618th anniversary of the day King Taejong fell from his horse!
Apparently the recorders were really intense about this. We have a record of King Taejong complaining about a recorder who followed him on a hunt in disguise and another who eavesdropped on him behind a screen. No one was allowed to see the records, even the king (one king did and killed five men based on what was written there, after which they took greater care to ensure it would never happen again), and changing the content or disclosing it was a capital punishment. Even when there were rival political factions trying to influence the writers, they wrote down what was a revision and what wasn’t and kept an original version with no revisions in it.
They also made sure to back up their data. They made four copies of it, then when three copies were lost in the Imrim Wars they decided to make five more copies just in case. One copy was destroyed in a rebellion, another was partially damaged in an invasion, and Japan stole one copy during their occupation and moved it to Tokyo University, where it was mostly destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake (47 books remained and were returned to South Korea in 2006). Now the whole thing is digitized, free on the internet, and translated into modern Korean for all to see.
It took centuries of meticulous recorders, justifiably paranoid copiers, absolutely determined historians, and painstaking infrastructure for this joke to be possible. Happy 618th anniversary to the day King Taejong fell from his horse.
People on this post going to be over the MOON when they discover Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung
During the Japanese invasion of Joseon Korea in late 1500’s, the Japanese soldiers killed Korean civilians, including women and children, and took their noses as war trophies. It was a custom in East Asia to take the heads of slain enemies as a war trophy. But because heads were inconvenient to transport back to Japan during wartime, the Japanese took noses and ears of the slain people back to their country. Today, there are various monuments and tombs of those noses and ears. One of the most notable example of those would be Mimizuka in Kyoto.
King Taejong of the Joseon Dynasty was one of the toughest kings from the period. Once, while on a hunting trip, he fell from his horse. The King was embarrassed, and ordered his attendants not to let the royal recorders know that he fell. It was the recorders’ job to record everything that happened around the court, especially things about the king. Since the recorders were so dedicated to doing their job, they wrote that the king fell from his horse and ordered his attendants not to let the recorders know.
Source:
Taejong Sillok Book 7. 5th year of King Taejong’s Reign (1404), February 8.
Queen Seondeok The first reigning queen of Silla who commanded the Hwarang in 7th century Korea! My submission for @dames-zine! This will be printed on bound notebooks! You can check out the Kickstarter project here. 선덕여왕 - 한국인이라면 모를일이 없는 신라의 군주이자 한반도 최초의 여왕! Dames Zine에 실릴 선덕여왕 일러스트에요. (킥스타터에서 후원하시는 분들은 선덕여왕 노트북도 받으실수 있답니당~) 여걸’ 이란 주제로 기획된 콜라보 아트북이에요. 여성영웅 덕후라면 모두 모여랏! 많이 사랑해주세요~
how do you judge a film that centres around a modern historical event & biopic, written for a patriotic domestic audience whose minds are still afresh with emotions of the era?
song kang-ho plays enterprising tax-turned-human rights lawyer sung woo-suk, who is not so discreetly modelled after roh moo hyun, who was also involved in the 1987 uprisings against korea’s then-authoritarian rule and later became the president of korea. the film takes place in 1981, when the spectre of the 1980 gwangju uprising looms large in everyone’s minds. for historical context, the 1980s was a dark period in korea’s history, when korea was ruled by a series of authoritarian and heavy-handed presidents. the images of 1980 gwangju often remind people of tiananmen.
having been treated kindly by an ahjumae who sells gukbapwhen he was a poor construction worker studying to become a lawyer, song sacrifices his lucrative career to defend her son and university students, who have been arrested on the counts of studying contraband literature that promotes socialist unrest. in a plot that closely narrates reality, song sets out to prove the innocence of these university students and expose the inhumane torture methods employed by the police to extract confessions.
there is little room to comment on the plot itself, given that the film is so tightly tethered to historical events (in the same way that i am frustrated by the plot in juror 8). often i find that historical films get more creative leniency when remaking events that happen generations ago (say the age of shadows), or are based on unique strands (a taxi driver). but this film is so wholeheartedly patriotic and historical, that it loses nuance and self-awareness. in an impassioned exchange, the villainous cop instructs song that this is a case of national security, and the law does not apply to national security cases. the camera then closes up on song - “who decides what cases are of national security? you said the country? who constitutes the country? according to the constitution, the country is its people & their freedoms!” tell me this is not a clear appeal to the audience’s patriotism (don’t get me wrong, i actually liked this scene the most.. song’s acting brought tears to my eyes! it’s just in your face)
at 2h 17m, the film lags and drags on at certain moments too. a lot of background-setting around roh/sung, and plenty of police brutality scenes. when you know that there are no surprises round the corner, the scenes become slightly self indulgent.
and when historical films like these are made, characterisation is often sacrificed. song tried to imbibe his character with as much depth as possible (the everyman rockstar overcoming inner turmoil with a strong moral compass), and im si-wan did a deft job at portraying the emaciated soulless student. but those familiar with korean history will also know that roh, although very much celebrated as a folk hero through sung, committed suicide in 2009 after intense bribery allegations. given a somewhat divided national memory of roh, this film is uncomfortably generous in its praise and commemoration of his activist legacy. it is fine to celebrate his deeds independently of what he did before or after, but to do so without nuance is slightly irresponsible film-making.
ironically, what i got most out of the film was a critical appreciation of historiography and historical memory in film-making. being a trained historian, seeing e.h. carr’s what is history? accused of instigating fascism provoked a lot of thinking. on one hand, the above is criticism of the film, but on the other, it is a demonstration of how engaged i am with the film’s material. i think there are better films about 1980s korea, but here is a decent one if you need a nationalistic jolt. – 6/10
“Born in 1913, Lee Quede (1913-1965) is a Korean painter who spent most of his life witnessing the struggle of his country, first against colonial rule, then against itself. […]”
1948.05.10 : 제헌국회 (제헌 = establishment of a constitution, 국회 (national assembly)
07.17 제헌절 (Constitution day)
08.15 : 대한민국 정부 수립
1960.03.15 : 자유당(liberal party) 장기 집권(long-term seizure of power)을 위해 대통령 선거에서 개표(vote)를 조작(manipulation)한 것에 반발(opposition)한 시민들의 시위
04.19 : 혁명(revolution)으로 인해 결국 이승만 대통령(1948-1960)은 대통령직에서 물러났다(withdraw). 이다음은 박정희 대통령(1963-1979).
1980.05.18 : 민주화운동은 광주시민이 중심이 되어 전개(develop, spread)한 것으로 군인들이 정치에서 물러날 것과 민주정부를 수립할 것 등을 요구했다. (전두환 대통령 1980-1988)
1987.06 : 항쟁(resistance)은 시민들의 시위가 점국으로 확산(spread)되었고 결국 직선제(direct election system) 개헌(constitutional amendment)이 이루어졌다. 행정부의 권력과 국회의 권력이 이전보다 균형을 이루게 됐다.
As soon as the 600 year old Joseon Dynasty is established and the capital city founded at Hanyang (now Seoul), the new dynasty set upon building their royal palaces, the largest of them is Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was the official Royal Office of the Kings of the Korean Joseon Dynasty until the occupation of Japan in 1910. Government offices are also built inside the palace complex.
Japan attempted to demolish the palace to erase Korean History and Culture during the occupation of Korea, demolished some existing buildings and even built building for the Japanese Governor General inside the premises, further defacing the imperial throne hall.
The Republic of Korea is currently restoring the building to former glory which included the demolition of the Japanese built house for the governor general.
So our DMZ/JSA tour with Koridoor today was fantastic. Intimidating at times but truly informative. I really think you’re missing out on learning a little more about what makes contemporary Koreans tick if you don’t go on a DMZ tour.
They took us into the JSA (Joint Security Area), with some help from some US Army soldiers. We got to see into North Korea right across the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) and even saw a North Korean guard darting behind pillars, watching us from a distance. We even (technically) stood in the DPRK for a few minutes.
We saw North Korea’s “Propaganda Village” from a distance, drove past the famous “Bridge of No Return”, visited Dorasan Station (the “last train station in South Korea and the first station toward North Korea”), visited Dora Observatory and went into the Third Infiltration Tunnel.
It was a very surreal experience. I don’t know about anyone else but it certainly helped me appreciated and understand Koreans, Korean attitude/identity and Korean history since the Korean War just that little bit more.
And it put all of those episodes of M*A*S*H into perspective.
Because this is such an important day in Korean history, it’s one of the holidays Korean language learners should be aware of! If you want to practice some reading skills (and learn some specific vocab), here’s what the 사회통합프로그램 한국사회 아해 (KIIP level 5) textbook says about it:
And a longer more general paragraph about the independence movement:
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You can watch this year’s 삼일절 기념식/March 1st Commemoration on youtube (fair warning: it’s long & full of formal Korean), which took place at the brand new National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government.
On the SS Meredith Victory during the Hungnam Evacuation, 5 children were born and they were named kimchi 1, kimchi 2, kimchi 3, kimchi 4 and kimchi 5!
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, or as it is known in Korea, 6.25 전쟁. I hope you enjoy this brief fairly long post on the Korean War!
The Korean War officially began at 4am on the 25th of June, 1950. To this very day, the war is not officially over, making it the longest ceasefire without a peace treaty. It was fought between the democratic UN Allies, and communist North Korea, USSR, and China. 67 countries participated.
But before I get into the details of the war, here are some facts you need to know. Until the end of WWII (15 August 1945), Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and almost immediately after WWII, the Cold War begins.
Prior to liberation (15 August 1945) when the Japanese were losing WWII, the Soviet (Russian) army advance through northern Korea. Their reason: to un-arm the Japanese soldiers and to maintain safety and peace. With the Soviet Union occupying northern Korea, the US occupy southern Korea the following month as they saw communist advancement as a threat. 3 years later, the South Korean government is formed and the North Korean government is also formed. With small fighting along the 38th parallel, a military alert is declared. However, the day before the outbreak of the Korean War, this military alert is lifted.
The war began with a surprise advancement by North Korea as they crossed the 38th parallel without warning. Within 3 days, the North Korean army captured Seoul. Within 1 month, they captured Daejeon (140km south of Seoul), and a few days later, they reached near the Nakdong River (122km south-east of Daejeon). This left only the Daegu and Busan area. On the 18th of August, only 3 weeks after the start of the war, the South Korean government was forced to move from Seoul to Busan.
North Korea had planned this attack with help from the Soviet Union (Russia) providing them with tanks and weapons, and China providing them with men. Prior to the outbreak of war (24th June 1950), North Korea had over 201,050 men, 242 tanks, 110 warships, and 226 planes. On the other hand, South Korea had 103,817 men, 0 tanks, 36 warships, and 22 planes. Although the South Korean military had informed authorities that military advancement was suspected, this was shut down. This allowed the North Korean army to swiftly and successfully capture Seoul within 3 days.
With General Douglas MacArthur as chief, military from 16 countries arrive in Busan to counter North Korea. The Battle of Inchon (Operation Chromite) succeeds on the 19th of September 1950 and Seoul is restored on the 28th of September. The South Korean army advances past the 38th parallel on the 1st of October (Armed Forces Day). 2 weeks later, Pyongyang is captured and North Korea is almost completely captured. However, with the addition of the Chinese soldiers, the war continues.
4th of January 1951, Seoul is recaptured, but an area of North Korea, Hungnam is left stranded. The South Korean army prepares to evacuate, but 100,000 refugees gather, in fear of getting killed by the North Korean army, as they had helped South Korea and its allies. As a result, all military weapons are thrown overboard and 14,000 refugees are taken onboard instead.
On the 27th of July 1953, the war is paused.
A total of 2-3 million civilians were killed, 1,252,934 were wounded, 1.6 million soldiers died, 100,000 orphans and over 1 million families were separated.
