Opinion - The Korea Times

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

Korea never invaded another country

By Mark PetersonLast week I looked at the number of invasions Korea has suffered, and I explained my point of view, that there were really very few invasions in spite of the popular opinion that Korea has been invaded numerous times. Today's entry (#4) in this series I call, “Peaceful and Stable Korea,” looks at the fact that Korea has never invaded another country.Some years ago, I had lunch with a director-general of one of the divisions at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I mentioned the fact that Korea had never invaded another country; something Korea should be proud of. But to my surprise, he bowed his head, and lowered his shoulders and said, “Yes, we were so weak that we never even invaded another country.”I thought it was a unique feature of Korean history, and a thing that few, if any, other country could claim. But he took it as a source of shame, of embarrassment. I told him, “Oh no, this is a thing to be proud of. Few countries can claim to have such a peaceful tradition.” But he would have none of it. He insisted on being embar

Mar 27, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Misconception about invasions

By Mark PetersonI realize that I am about to contradict the summary of Korean history told by 95 percent of my friends in Korea, but I am of the opinion, based on my studies, that my contrarian view is more accurate. Most of my Korean friends are of the opinion that Korea has been invaded numerous times. I don't buy it. I see relatively few invasions in Korean history, and long periods of peace and stability.Where does the multiple invasion point-of-view come from? Unfortunately, much of the reason for thinking that Korea has been invaded often comes from the Japanese period. And it was to the Japanese administration's advantage to advocate multiple invasions, thus making the Japanese invasion less of an oddity, “why, it's just another invasion!” “You've been invaded so many times, what's one more?”When I was a student, I met a retired high school teacher in Gangneung who was an expert on invasions. He had gone through all kinds of historical sources and had tabulated an exact number. I can't remember his exact number, but it was like 983 or so. He counted eve

Mar 22, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Transitions of dynasties

By Mark PetersonAfter a diversion for two weeks to respond culturally to the “Parasite phenomenon” I want to return to the theme of “Peaceful Korea.” My point is that peace is deeply inherent to Korean culture. After all, the common greeting is “Annyeonghashimnikka (Are you at peace)?”Recent history may not speak of a peaceful tradition, but I want to look at transitions from dynasty to dynasty. One might argue that the 20th century was not marked with peaceful transitions ― and that's true. But my argument is that the long history of Korea describes the deep-seated character of Korean culture. I want to look at historic transitions from dynasty to dynasty, and here we see something unlike that seen in any other country.In my Top 10 of Peaceful Korean History, today's article is #2. Previously, I wrote about #1, the longest dynasties in the world.Let's start with the transition from Gaya (47-562) to Silla (57 B.C. ― 935). Before Silla conquered Baekje and Goguryeo and dominated the peninsula in 668, it absorbed Gaya. I use the word “absorb&rd

Mar 15, 2020By Mark Peterson

Mark Peterson

Read more

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

Korea never invaded another country

Misconception about invasions

Transitions of dynasties

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