Shin Myung-ho - Joseon Royal Court Culture: Ceremonial and Daily Life
This is more of a textbook than a dry scholarly tome (I say this with great love for dry scholarly tomes), which has its pluses and minuses.
On the plus side, it reads at about middle or high school level to me, though I am not exactly sure what high school would have a class specifically on Joseon royal court culture, unless high schools in Korea have much more specific classes than ones in Taiwan! That said, it would have been awesome if I had a high school class on Tang dynasty royal court culture. The lower level is very good for me, particularly since my brain has been very bad at processing much information for a long time now.
Also, the added bonus of textbook means pictures! And sidebars! And little inserts explaining random bits of Joseon royal court trivia or things like how one prince was put to death by being stuffed in a rice bin! I am all for sidebars and inserts.
On the minus side, the book is a little sloppy with dates. I don't mean precise dates, which I am sure are accurate, but things like how court culture changed over the span of the Joseon Dynasty. I am fairly certain that things must have changed, as Joseon spanned almost five centuries, and I would have loved to know what was more strict in the early dynasty and relaxed later, or when the height of Neo-Confucianism was, or how the dynasty fell.
And yet, I cannot complain too much, because I got to read about Joseon royal court culture, from how the king's dinner was usually laid out (20+ small dishes!) to how fires were put out. I love this kind of detail, and I would have loved even more, especially now that I have started Dae Jang Geum, which is set in Joseon Korean (roughly late 1400s). There's stuff on how people in the royal family were treated and how the king was buried and the incredibly complex decision-making that went into a king's dynastic name (names ending in "-jo" like "Taejo" imply that the king brought order from chaos, whereas names ending in "-jong" like "Sejong" imply the king kept order). There's a lot on the politics behind a dynastic name, as the son/successor named the predecessor, and some bits touched on the kings in Dae Jang Geum!
I wish there had been more on poison-drinking as punishment in the Joseon court, as that is in DJG a lot, but oh well.
I was also very surprised by how much Chinese history came into the book. There are numerous references to Tang Dynasty culture and history, as China regarded Tang as the height of civilization and I suspect that was carried over to Korea as well. There's a ton of references to the prehistoric first three dynasties of China (Xia, Shang, Zhou), a few to early Han Dynasty, many many many to Confucius and the Spring Autumn period, and others scattered around.
I embarrassingly had no idea that Korea considered itself a vassal state to China, which is why kings in Korea were kings, not emperors. There wasn't the posturing that went on between China and Japan, in which the Japanese emperor would send a "tribute" to China while calling it a "state visit" amongst themselves. It also clarified the bit about twelve strings on a hat being a sign of an emperor, whereas nine was for a king -- the emperor is referring to the Chinese emperor.
It's also the extent to which Korea consulted China -- new kings were recognized by whatever Chinese emperor was in power, dynastic names for dead kings were signed off by the emperor, and etc. I don't think Korea was in any way a subject, as most of the details seemed to be fairly ceremonial, but I was mostly surprised by the acknowledgement. I suspect there was less of that later on and rhetoric on being more successfully Chinese than the Chinese, but that is a guess on my part based on the Manchu rule over China starting in 1644 and the strictness of how Korea kept to Neo-Confucianism and just because I've seen that trend happening in history. I started when I looked at an old court document and could read it (which I had expected, given the wide use of Chinese characters across East Asia) and noticed that it was dated: "Qianlong XX Year" (Qianlong is a Qing emperor; Chinese dynasties dated things according to imperial rule, usually according to the dynastic name of what emperor was in power, though some emperors would change dynastic names mid-rule and start the year count over again for luck or something).
A good first look at Joseon court culture, and it only makes me want to read even more. Thanks muchly to yhlee for the loan!
On the plus side, it reads at about middle or high school level to me, though I am not exactly sure what high school would have a class specifically on Joseon royal court culture, unless high schools in Korea have much more specific classes than ones in Taiwan! That said, it would have been awesome if I had a high school class on Tang dynasty royal court culture. The lower level is very good for me, particularly since my brain has been very bad at processing much information for a long time now.
Also, the added bonus of textbook means pictures! And sidebars! And little inserts explaining random bits of Joseon royal court trivia or things like how one prince was put to death by being stuffed in a rice bin! I am all for sidebars and inserts.
On the minus side, the book is a little sloppy with dates. I don't mean precise dates, which I am sure are accurate, but things like how court culture changed over the span of the Joseon Dynasty. I am fairly certain that things must have changed, as Joseon spanned almost five centuries, and I would have loved to know what was more strict in the early dynasty and relaxed later, or when the height of Neo-Confucianism was, or how the dynasty fell.
And yet, I cannot complain too much, because I got to read about Joseon royal court culture, from how the king's dinner was usually laid out (20+ small dishes!) to how fires were put out. I love this kind of detail, and I would have loved even more, especially now that I have started Dae Jang Geum, which is set in Joseon Korean (roughly late 1400s). There's stuff on how people in the royal family were treated and how the king was buried and the incredibly complex decision-making that went into a king's dynastic name (names ending in "-jo" like "Taejo" imply that the king brought order from chaos, whereas names ending in "-jong" like "Sejong" imply the king kept order). There's a lot on the politics behind a dynastic name, as the son/successor named the predecessor, and some bits touched on the kings in Dae Jang Geum!
I wish there had been more on poison-drinking as punishment in the Joseon court, as that is in DJG a lot, but oh well.
I was also very surprised by how much Chinese history came into the book. There are numerous references to Tang Dynasty culture and history, as China regarded Tang as the height of civilization and I suspect that was carried over to Korea as well. There's a ton of references to the prehistoric first three dynasties of China (Xia, Shang, Zhou), a few to early Han Dynasty, many many many to Confucius and the Spring Autumn period, and others scattered around.
I embarrassingly had no idea that Korea considered itself a vassal state to China, which is why kings in Korea were kings, not emperors. There wasn't the posturing that went on between China and Japan, in which the Japanese emperor would send a "tribute" to China while calling it a "state visit" amongst themselves. It also clarified the bit about twelve strings on a hat being a sign of an emperor, whereas nine was for a king -- the emperor is referring to the Chinese emperor.
It's also the extent to which Korea consulted China -- new kings were recognized by whatever Chinese emperor was in power, dynastic names for dead kings were signed off by the emperor, and etc. I don't think Korea was in any way a subject, as most of the details seemed to be fairly ceremonial, but I was mostly surprised by the acknowledgement. I suspect there was less of that later on and rhetoric on being more successfully Chinese than the Chinese, but that is a guess on my part based on the Manchu rule over China starting in 1644 and the strictness of how Korea kept to Neo-Confucianism and just because I've seen that trend happening in history. I started when I looked at an old court document and could read it (which I had expected, given the wide use of Chinese characters across East Asia) and noticed that it was dated: "Qianlong XX Year" (Qianlong is a Qing emperor; Chinese dynasties dated things according to imperial rule, usually according to the dynastic name of what emperor was in power, though some emperors would change dynastic names mid-rule and start the year count over again for luck or something).
A good first look at Joseon court culture, and it only makes me want to read even more. Thanks muchly to yhlee for the loan!