Modeled after the classic Sources of Chinese Tradition, Sources of Japanese Tradition, and Sources of Indian Tradition, this collection of seminal primary readings in the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of Korea from the sixteenth century to the present day lays the groundwork for understanding Korean civilization and demonstrates how leading intellectuals and public figures … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 67)
Sources of Korean Tradition: Volume One: From Early Times Through the Sixteenth Century
From the back cover: Drawn from Peter H. Lee’s Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Volume One, this abridged introductory collection offers students and general readers primary readings in the social, intellectual, and religious traditions of Korean from ancient times through the sixteenth century. Sources of Korean Tradition is arranged according to the major epochs of Korean … [Read More]
North Korea and the Geopolitics of Development
From the publisher’s website: Kevin Gray and Jong-Woon Lee focus on three geopolitical ‘moments’ that have been crucial to the shaping of the North Korean system: colonialism, the Cold War, and the rise of China, to demonstrate how broader processes of geopolitical contestation have fundamentally shaped the emergence and subsequent development of the North Korean … [Read More]
Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea
From the publisher’s website: With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Japan embarked on a policy of territorial expansion that would claim Taiwan and Korea, among others. Assimilation policies led to a significant body of literature written in Japanese by colonial writers by the 1930s. After its unconditional surrender in 1945, Japan abruptly … [Read More]
For Nirvana: 108 Zen Sijo Poems
From the publisher’s website: For Nirvana features exceptional examples of the poet Cho Oh-Hyun’s award-winning work. Cho Oh-Hyun was born in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, and has lived in retreat in the mountains since becoming a novice monk at the age of seven. Writing under the Buddhist name Musan, he has composed hundreds of poems … [Read More]
Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions
From the publisher’s website: Preeminent scholar and translator David R. McCann presents an anthology of his own translations of works ranging across the major genres and authors of Korean writing—stories, legends, poems, historical vignettes, and other works—and a set of critical essays on major themes. A brief history of traditional Korean literature orients the reader … [Read More]
Three Streams: Confucian Reflections on Learning and the Moral Heart-Mind in China, Korea, and Japan
From the publisher’s website: Recent interest in Confucianism has a tendency to suffer from essentialism and idealism, manifested in a variety of ways. One example is to think of Confucianism in terms of the views attributed to one representative of the tradition, such as Kongzi (Confucius) (551-479 BCE) or Mengzi (Mencius) (372 – 289 BCE) … [Read More]
Contentious Activism and Inter-Korean Relations
From the publisher’s website: In South Korea, the contentious debate over relations with the North transcends traditional considerations of physical and economic security, and political activists play a critical role in shaping the discussion of these issues as they pursue the separate yet connected agendas of democracy, human rights, and unification. Providing international observers with … [Read More]
Confucius in East Asia
From the publisher’s website: Richey has written an engaging and well-crafted book that clearly delineates the oftentimes fitful development of Confucianism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. At the same time, he masterfully demonstrates how Confucianism slowly came to dominate politics, thought, and society in each of these places and still continues to inform their … [Read More]
Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor
Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor campa singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea, little information is available about their organization and conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the country alive. Long Road Home shares the … [Read More]
DMZ Crossing: Performing Emotional Citizenship Along the Korean Border
From the publisher’s website: The Korean demilitarized zone might be among the most heavily guarded places on earth, but it also provides passage for thousands of defectors, spies, political emissaries, war prisoners, activists, tourists, and others testing the limits of Korean division. This book focuses on a diverse selection of inter-Korean border crossers and the … [Read More]
A Korean War Captive in Japan, 1597–1600: The Writings of Kang Hang
Kang Hang was a Korean scholar-official taken prisoner in 1597 by an invading Japanese army during the Imjin War of 1592–1598. While in captivity in Japan, Kang recorded his thoughts on human civilization, war, and the enemy’s culture and society, acting in effect as a spy for his king. Arranged and printed in the seventeenth … [Read More]
South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers
From the publisher’s website: Against the backdrop of China’s mounting influence and North Korea’s growing nuclear capability and expanding missile arsenal, South Korea faces a set of strategic choices that will shape its economic prospects and national security. In South Korea at the Crossroads, Scott A. Snyder examines the trajectory of fifty years of South Korean … [Read More]
To Become a Sage: The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning
From the publisher’s website: Yi Hwang (1501-1570), better known by his pen name T’oegye, is generally considered Korea’s preeminent Neo-Confucian scholar. The Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning is his final masterpiece, a distillation of the learning and practice of a lifetime, and one of the most important works of Korean Neo-Confucianism. In it he crystallized the essence … [Read More]
Heroes and Toilers: Work as Life in Postwar North Korea, 1953–1961
In search of national unity and state control in the decade following the Korean War, North Korea turned to labor. Mandating rapid industrial growth, the government stressed order and consistency in everyday life at both work and home. In Heroes and Toilers, Cheehyung Harrison Kim offers an unprecedented account of life and labor in postwar North … [Read More]
The Korean Diaspora in the World Economy
From the publisher’s website: Koreans living in the United States have generated an increase of about 15 to 20 percent in trade between the United States and Korea. This is one of the surprising conclusions reached in this special report, which, upon the 100th anniversary of the migration of Koreans from their homeland, looks at … [Read More]