Sancheong, Gyeongsangnam-do, Thursday 29 March 2012. Today is the day we start the ascent of Jirisan, but first there’s a couple of local sites of interest that I need to visit. First, the two Unified Silla dynasty stone pagodas, which are now the only remnants of Dansoksa, a temple built in the middle of the eighth … [Read More]
People in History: Nammyeong Jo Sik (조식 1501-1572)
Nammyeong Cho Shik: teacher, philosopher and inspiration for the anti-Japanese resistance armies
Sancheong-gun, Thursday 5 May 2011. Students of Korean history in the Koryo and particularly the Joseon period cannot avoid grappling at some stage with the concepts of Confucianism. Distilled down to its most digestible elements, it is portrayed in the West as a deeply conservative doctrine designed to keep people in their places: wives had … [Read More]
2011 Travel Diary day 6: 16th century scholarship and a 21st century obsession
Sancheong-gun, Thursday 5 May 2011. We have a light breakfast of coffee, fruit and muffin at the pension. We are sitting outside in the sun: it is the start of a beautiful day. Mr Min arrives, and the pension owner greets him. Through the faint haze, they point out the distant peak to me: Cheonwangbong. … [Read More]