Discovering Korea through ancient maps
This East Asian map dating to 1560 shows the Korean Peninsula almost as large as Africa. / Courtesy of US Library of Congress
By Jon Dunbar
Maps are everywhere these days thanks to various online services offered by
,
, Google and others. But it is still fun to look at old maps and see how geographic perceptions have changed and refined through the centuries.
Koreans have been mapping their territory and region for centuries, but foreign explorers were considerably later to the game.
The first really accurate map came from Kim Jeong-ho (1804-66), who is said to have walked the entire Korean Peninsula. His creation, the premodern “Daedong Yeojido,” came out in 1861, consisting of 22 foldable booklets combining to create a map 6.7 meters by 3.8 meters.
Earlier maps are not so accurate, even approaching abstract art.
Last week the
shared some old Korean maps from its collection. One of the oldest known maps showing Korea dates to 1402. A surviving copy of this map dating to 1560 exaggerates Korea’s size, making it almost equal to Africa.
Korea’s own world maps tended to be highly symbolic, such as the circular Cheonhado developed in the 1600s. It had 144 place names, including mountains, rivers and countries, some real and some imaginary, including “Land of the One-Armed,” “Country of Women” and “Land of Hairy People.”
This circular 18th century map, the Daejoseonjido, shows Korea in the upper-right corner of the continent, surrounded by water and many made-up places. / Courtesy of US Library of Congress
European maps were hardly better. Explorers and traders mainly knew Korea as that place to avoid while traveling between China and Japan. First appearing on European maps in the 16th century, Korea’s coastline remained uncharted. So much so, that early cartographers identified it as an island, unaware it connected with China.
This 16th century European map of Asia misidentifies the Korean Peninsula as an island. Japan is above and China is below. / Courtesy of RASKB
“Old maps are fascinating since they don’t depict the world as we see it nowadays,” said Henny Savenije, a Dutch resident of Korea fascinated by history, maps and Asia, in that order.
“You could see the shape of Korea evolving from a circle island, an upside triangle attached to China, a pendula-shaped peninsula which sometimes was attached to and sometimes separated from the mainland, then for a short time a square, to a peninsula in the shape approaching the real shape.”
Savenije will present 60 old maps, mainly by European explorers from 1568 to 1894, for the Royal Asiatic Society Korea branch next week. His lecture starts at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 in the second-floor lounge of Somerset Palace in downtown Seoul. All are welcome. Non-members pay 10,000 won and students pay 5,000 won. Visit
for more information.