Confucianism and disaster: Floods, lightning and cosmology in Eighteenth-Century Chosŏn Korea

This presentation explores Chosŏn-period (1392-1910) Confucian responses to disaster. This was a period in which Confucianism not only was the state ideology, but also guided interaction in local communities socially and economically dominated by local elites sharing the ideas of this ideology.

The Confucian convictions of this elite dictated how they, as leaders of communities, responded to disaster, but this presentation is going to focus on state responses since in the Confucian state of Chosŏn it was increasingly expected that it was the state, rather than the local elites, that stepped in when disaster struck. In particular Late Chosŏn was characterised by large-scale disasters which required more comprehensive relief work.

The main part of the talk will be dedicated to events in 1781 when a typhoon struck the southeastern part of the peninsula leading to devastating large-scale floods. The presentation will discuss the response of King Chŏngjo and his court, focussing in particular on how the disaster was philosophically understood from a Confucian point of view and what the expressed moral expectations on the King and the bureaucracy were.

Header image credit: ‘Gyeongbokgung Palace (경복궁), Seoul, Korea’ by Huy Hung Trinh via Unsplash