Opinion - The Korea Times

12 pillars of peaceful Korean history

By Mark PetersonAs I look back at my 10 plus articles arguing that we should look at the peaceful and stable tradition of Korea, it occurs to me that there are two more items I should cover. I'll call these the “twelve pillars” of the peaceful and stable strain within the narrative of Korean history, to which “no religious wars” and “a remarkable ability to recover from wars” should be added.At the outset I proposed that the 20th century was an aberration compared to the long haul of Korean history. It appears to me that from the time of the unification of the peninsula (or most of it) by the Silla royalty, after 668, until the Donghak Peasant Movement, launching the beginning of the tumultuous 20th century, that during that great middle period there was remarkable peace and stability.I know this runs full counter to the common narrative in Korea, but I believe that the narrative has been distorted by the event of the aforementioned 20th century, specifically, the turmoil, and also willful distortions by the Japanese. Let's begin with “no rel

May 31, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Singular Korean surnames

By Mark PetersonWhen I came to understand that surnames in Korea were unlike those in other countries ― a high concentration of the population having one of only a few names ― it occurred to me that this was indeed a measure of what I had been looking at in other perspectives. In fact, of my top 10 list I've been treating in the last few weeks, perhaps the surnames is one of the most interesting, if not the most convincing. Here at the end of this series, let me list the “top 10” evidences of Korea's peaceful and stable history:1. The longest dynasties in the world2. Smooth transitions between dynasties3. Relatively few invasions4. Has never invaded another country5. The longest-unchanged border in the world6. Royal tombs not plundered7. Seonbi culture, not samurai culture8. Civilian control of the court9. Slavery, the longest, unbroken chain in the world10. Few surnames, a symbol of long-running aristocracySince beginning this discussion I've found two exceptions to the surname situation. I had begun by comparing Korean surname distribution to that in Japan, China and th

May 24, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Gwangju after 40 years

By Mark Peterson On Saturday I was asked to serve as a judge for the May 18th commemoration student speech contest in English, for middle and high school students of Gwangju. As a judge I was not prepared for the power of the speeches that I heard.The students of Gwangju spoke of how the event, 40 years ago, has impact on their lives today. Many of them thanked their ancestors who fought and died so that they can enjoy freedom and democracy today. I was struck over and over with the memory that I have of honoring my ancestors and older generation that fought in World War II so that “we can have freedom and democracy today” ― parallel ideas from a younger generation in a different land.The sentiments the students expressed were powerful without being emotional. To them, 40 years ago is more than 20 years before they were born. They have no reason to remember the Gwangju Democratization Movement except that they have been taught by their parents and teachers.One student said she knew nothing about it until a few years ago when her father took her to the Memorial Park and Ce

May 21, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Korean names as measure of peace (part 1)

By Mark PetersonThis is No. 10 or the last in my series of articles advocating that Korea was a remarkably peaceful and stable place historically. And perhaps this is the most compelling one. The issue is the high population of a few number of surnames ― in other words, 21 percent of the population are Kim, 15 percent are Yi (Lee, Rhee), 9 percent are Pak (Park, Bak). A total of 45 percent of the population had one of three surnames. Add Choe (Choi) at 5 percent, and Jeong (Chung) at 5 percent, and you have 55 percent of the population with one of five surnames. This is really unusual compared to other countries.I've written about this previously, but I have two angles of approach here. One is to re-emphasize and re-situate what I wrote before, and the other is new comparative material (that will appear in “part 2,” next week).The first point is to emphasize that the concentration of so few surnames evidences the peaceful history of Korea. In making this point I need to emphasize that this is a matter of comparison with other countries. Korea has suffered great invasions!

May 17, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Korean slavery

By Mark PetersonI can't write everything I would like to write about Korean slavery in one article, but here my purpose is to refer to Korean slavery as the ninth item on my list of top ten arguments showing Korea's history as a peaceful and stable country. When I read studies of slavery from an international perspective, and discovered that Korea has the longest, unbroken chain of slave-holding in the world, it was a real eye-opener. Because if there was never a break in the chain of slave-holding in Korea, it meant that there was never sufficient chaos to disrupt the ruling class who were the slave owners.At the outset, we must deal with the definition of slavery. There are some Korean scholars who are quick to argue that Korean slavery is different from every other slavery in the world. It shows up in the language. Korean slaves are called “nobi” whereas slaves in every other culture ― EVERY other culture ― are called “noye.” The translation into English comes up as slavery for both, although some try to gerrymander the definition and call it “servitu

May 10, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Royal control of court

By Mark PetersonToday, I want to go into more detail on point number 8 in my series of ten evidences for Korea having a peaceful and stable history. Actually, I have revised my list and included at number 9 Korean slavery. Yes, slavery. Korea has the longest held, unbroken chain of slavery of any country in the world. But we will look at that next time. This time, I want to emphasize number eight, which was civilian control of the military and add to that concept of civilian control, the idea that the king relied on the civilian government and did not yield control to the military or to the eunuchs. At the outset, I must add that Korea did have one weakness in its civilian control of the court, and that was the influence of the royal in-laws.Last week's article listed the “Top Ten” evidences of Korean history as remarkably and uniquely peaceful and stable. If differs from the list I posted several weeks ago when I began this series. We will look at the new item, number 9, slavery, next week. And therefore in this article, I will write more about the stable governments of

May 1, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Civilian control of government

By Mark PetersonThis is No. 8 in my series on the “Top Ten” evidences that Korea has a peaceful and stable history. For most of Korean history the civilians have been in control of the government. This point follows my “No. 7” that I wrote about last week, that Korea has a tradition of the “seonbi,” the scholar-official. I illustrated the contrast to Japan's “samurai” culture, that of the warrior. Today's article will build on last week's where I argued that the tradition of the seonbi contributed to the peaceful and stable history of Korea.Today's issue is the balance of political control between civilian and military officials, and by balance, I really mean the primacy of civilian over military power. I have to admit that I am breaking one of my own rules: I have said one should not impose a modern standard on a pre-modern situation, specifically one should not judge a dynasty, like the Joseon Kingdom, by the standards of a democratic republic. But in this case, the modern virtue of civilian control of the military, when used as an ev

Apr 24, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Seonbi, not samurai

By Mark PetersonThis is No. 7 in my top 10 list of what I call “Peaceful and Stable Korean History.” Here I want to feature what in Korean can be called “seonbi culture.” A “seonbi” was a scholar, or a scholar-official. At its core, seonbi culture is focused on study, not study in the abstract, but study of the Confucian classics with the aim of passing the state exams to qualify a person to be appointed to a government office. Seonbi who did not pass the exam were scholars; seonbi who passed the exam took the roles of coveted scholar-officials. The seonbi are in contrast to the warrior, the soldier, or specifically, in contrast with Japan, the samurai.Seonbi culture has two foci ― study of the classics, and service in the government. And both of these cultural factors are still very strong in Korea today. Korea has one of the highest educational standards in the world, maybe it is No. 1. Some objective studies place it as No. 1 or No. 2, or elsewhere in the top 10 internationally. And as for service in the government, I don't know how to find an o

Apr 19, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Royal tombs untouched by grave robbers

By Mark PetersonThe sixth item on my top 10 list of evidence for advocating that Korea has had a peaceful and stable history is the fact that the royal tombs have not been robbed. Royal tombs? There are the tombs of Silla kings surrounding Gyeongju and there are the tombs of the Joseon kings on the outskirts of Seoul. None have been robbed.I did not realize how unique this situation was until one day a few years ago, when I was leading a group of textbook writers on a fact-finding tour and seminar on Korean history and culture. The seminar lasted about 10 days and began with our host, the Academy of Korean Studies, on the south side of Seoul, before we traveled through Korea looking at major historical sites.Standing in front of the Oreung complex, the Five Tombs complex in Gyeongju, an archaeologist from the University of Utah named Bradley Parker innocently asked, “When were these tombs robbed?” The question surprised me because I knew the tombs had not been robbed. I knew this because each tomb that they have excavated, about six of them, has contained a Silla crown an

Apr 10, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Oldest border in the world

By Mark PetersonThe fifth point on my top 10 list of evidence for calling Korean history peaceful and stable is the nature of the border with China. The Amnok River (perhaps better known by the Chinese term, Yalu River) has been the border with China for over 1,000 years.I am indebted to Prof. David Kang at USC for this insight. He, as I, have been advocating for an interpretation of Korean culture that emphasizes the peaceful aspects of Korean history. In one of Kang's YouTube videos he presented the idea that the Amnok River is one of the oldest, unchanged borders in world history.Now, this statement requires a little qualification. The lower reaches of the Amnok became the border between the Korean state of Goryeo (918-1392) and the states of Song (960―1279) and Yuan (1271―1368) of China. We can't really claim that the border was recognized from the beginning of the Goryeo period, because things were somewhat unsettled. The Silla northern border was not as far north as the Amnok River, rather, it was in the Pyongyang area. But Goryeo was built of a combination of Silla, with eleme

Apr 5, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Read more

12 pillars of peaceful Korean history

Singular Korean surnames

Gwangju after 40 years

Korean names as measure of peace (part 1)

Korean slavery

Royal control of court

Civilian control of government

Seonbi, not samurai

Royal tombs untouched by grave robbers

Oldest border in the world

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