Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 1814 g
Pak Chega's Discourse on Northern Learning
Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 1814 g
Reihe: Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials
ISBN: 978-0-8248-7793-4
Verlag: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Inc
Years of humiliation and resentment against the conquering Manchus blinded many Korean elites to the scientific and technological advances made in Qing China (1644–1911). They despised its rulers as barbarians and begrudged Qing China's status as their suzerain state. But Pak saw Korea's northern neighbor as a model of economic and social reform. He and like-minded progressives discussed and corroborated views about the superiority of China's civilization. After traveling to Beijing in 1776, Pak wrote Discourse on Northern Learning, in which he favorably introduced many aspects of China's economy and culture. By comparison, he argued, Korea's economy was depressed, the result of inadequate government policies and the selfishness of a privileged upper class. He called for drastic reforms in agriculture and industry and for opening the country to international trade. In a series of short essays, Pak gives us rare insights into life on the ground in late eighteenth-century Korea, and in the many details he supplies on Chinese farming, trade, and other commercial activities, his work provides a window onto everyday life in Qing China.
Students and specialists of Korean history, particularly social reform movements, and Choson-Qing relations will welcome this new translation.