Books on Joseon Kingdom Mushroom
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Recently, many readers may find an apparent trend in bookstores ― an increasing number of epic books about the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) among other past eras.
The texts of the Joseon-based books vary in subjects from the kings to servants and other members of the lower classes.
Undoubtedly, the kingdom is the ``closest'' past to explore from the present. But why is this trend so apparent these days?
The Annals of the Joseon Kingdom, a massive historical archive that details almost every major event that occurred in various sectors of society, has fed not only scholars but also historian authors.
However, since the Annals ― comprising 1,893 books covering 472 years (1392-1863) of history from founder King Taejo to the end of King Cheoljong ― were digitized on the Internet in 2005, many ordinary people have been able to gain easier access to the information and sources.
There are numerous books recently published about Joseon such as ``Joseon's Kingmakers,'' ``Women Ignored in Joseon,'' ``Sejong, Coming Out of Annals,'' ``Worst Treason Cases Shaking Joseon'' and ``What Kinds of Government Offices Were in Joseon Era?'' These books mostly deal with topics untouched by historians in the past, introducing unknown stories to readers.
``The recent trend of epic books is becoming diverse, going beyond the mainstream history of the Confucianism-oriented era and instead adopting the fringe history covering wider spectrums from eunuchs to women. Such stories are gaining huge popularity among readers,'' Kim Sang-young, chief editor of Dasan Books, told The Korea Times.
The trend is also seen in the boom of epic television dramas, which deal with diverse characters and stories. ``The popularity of the dramas is influencing the publishing sectors, requiring more diverse stories. People have liked the fresh ideas and changes so far,'' he said.
Kim explained that the trend is attributed to easier access to the Annals via the Internet. ``This phenomenon started right after the annals became available online, enabling ordinary people to write novels, essays and anything from the Joseon history era by just hooking up to Web sites.''
However, he said the boom has had side effects too. Many books released by different publishers have copied similar contents from one another and are sometimes superficial.
Kim said the quantity of books has grown rapidly but the quality is not so good.
He added that the access to the annals enables many young non-historians to write books. ``Many of our authors are writing books based on the online service of the Annals and other available historical materials on the Internet,'' Kim said.
``The openness to the historical records is very encouraging both to readers and amateur writers. But we should be more careful not to be just using interest-seeking contents,'' he said.
Last year, the National Institute of Korean History completed the three-year project, which began in 2005 to set up the online archive of the Annals.
The service at https://sillok.history.go.kr enables Internet users to see the Korean translation of the original texts written in Chinese.
The institute began partially offering electronic records in Chinese and Korean in 2006. But the current online service has finished digitalizing all of the texts from the temples on Mt. Taebaek.
The Annals were originally preserved in four different locations after a Japanese invasion in the 16th century ― temples on Mt. Taebaek, Mt. Jeoksang, Mt. Odae and Ganghwa Island.
The digital information allows users to easily get information on social status, family origins and official history of historical figures and the royal genealogy.
The online service also links the Annals to the daily records of the royal secretariat of the Joseon Kingdom to help compare similar incidents between the two.
The thick, extensive set is considered to deal with the longest period of a single kingdom of any search record in the world. For their cultural and historic rarity, the Annals of the Joseon Kingdom deserve world cultural preservation as an invaluable documentary heritage.
To broaden public access to the annals, the Korean government has supported the project of translating them into Korean from the original Chinese. The Korean edition of the annals of the Joseon era was completed in 1993. To provide easy public access to the annals themselves and information about them, a CD-ROM version was made in 1995.