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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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 Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:18 pm Post subject: Any good book on Korean/Confuscian culture? |
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Anyone read any good books on Korean culture? Or a culture very much founded on Confuscian philosophy?
Or am I wrong about the Confuscian foundation? |
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pest2
Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:37 am Post subject: |
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There was a good one I read my first year here: "Korea unmasked". Its quite an easy yet interesting read. It comes with pictures for added fun...
Keep in mind its written by some Korean lawyers who studied in the USA... so it's still biased... but if you're totally clueless about Korea and North East Asia, its great. |
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Mashimaro
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| the koreans by michael breen. |
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Damulgun
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:41 am Post subject: |
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Korea's Place in the Sun by Cummings.
Breen's book is more bias than anything else. |
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Mashimaro
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: location, location
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Damulgun wrote: |
Korea's Place in the Sun by Cummings.
Breen's book is more bias than anything else. |
What exactly is Breen's bias? |
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cwemory
Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Location: Gunpo, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Damulgun wrote: |
Korea's Place in the Sun by Cummings.
Breen's book is more bias than anything else. |
as opposed to Cumings? |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Mashimaro wrote: |
| Damulgun wrote: |
Korea's Place in the Sun by Cummings.
Breen's book is more bias than anything else. |
What exactly is Breen's bias? |
That he doesn't make Koreans out to be superior and utterly amazing. Breens book is great, but slowly getting outdated. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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These have been my thoughts on the matter:
Korean society is fundamentally neither Confucian nor Buddhist but shamanistic. Mudang plays a continual role and the spiritual world, and even animism, is still operative. Just look at medicinal cures, Chuseok and Solnal. Ancestor worship, spirits and the role of women traditionally are very contrary to the Joseon Dynasty (Chinese Confucian loving) period of Korean history, which is not the foundational era of Korean society despite revisionistic histories. Even the cheabol conglomerates in the business world harken back to the Three Kingdom era of Korea, of people of parochial personal relationships, clanlike.
Only a few layers of Korean society are Confucian, notably, generational hierarchies and to a much lesser extent, gender roles.
Confucian rituals of politeness, Confucian ethics of humaneness and Confucian respect for virtuous conduct are all alien to the Korean way of life.
Let's look at some of the teachings of Confucius:
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When you know a thing, maintain you know it; when you do not, acknowledge it. This is the characteristic of knowledge.
Let the leader of men promote those who have ability, and instruct those who have it not, and they will be willing to be led.
The superior man is not contentious.
The superior man thinks of his character; the inferior man thinks of his position; the former thinks of the penalties for error, and the latter, of favors.
The superior man seeks what is right, the inferior one what is profitable.
These are the four essential qualities of the superior man: he is humble, he is deferential to superiors, he is generously kind, and he is always just.
Those who are willing to forget old grievances will gradually do away with resentment.
Better than the one who knows what is right is he who loves what is right.
To prize the effort above the prize, that is virtue.
Fix your mind on truth; hold firm to virtue; rely upon loving-kindness; and find your recreation in the arts.
With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and a bent arm for a pillow, happiness may still be found.
Let there be three men walking together, and in them I will be sure to find my instructors. For what is good in them I will follow; and what is not good I will try to modify.
Sift out the good from the many things you hear, and follow them; sift out the good from the many things you see and remember them.
When you have erred, be not afraid to correct yourself.
If a man can subdue his selfishness for one full day, everyone will call him good.
Do not wish for speedy results nor trivial advantages; speedy results will not be far-reaching; trivial advantages will matter only in trivial affairs |
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How Korean is that? |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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| cwemory wrote: |
| Damulgun wrote: |
Korea's Place in the Sun by Cummings.
Breen's book is more bias than anything else. |
as opposed to Cumings? |
exactly. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Also check out The Confucian Mind by Charles Wang. If you can read Korean, check out the bestseller Confucianism Has to Die for Korea to Live. |
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cwemory
Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Location: Gunpo, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:04 am Post subject: |
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| I heartily second Wang's The Confucian Mind. It's probably the best book on Korea that's not specifically about Korea. |
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Guri Guy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Location: Bamboo Island
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:05 am Post subject: |
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I am reading Cuming's book now and it seems pretty good so far. Well balanced and a good read. I hope that it deals objectively with the Colonial period and gives a balanced account.
Excellent point Vanislander. I think you may be onto something there. I have always wondered the same thing too. |
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insam
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| first of all, read the primary text; analects of confucius. but yes, the cumings book is great because he is a foreign scholar AND married to a korean. forget your background/nationality when you come to korea if you want to do well. ignore these patriotic idiots who think of life and the world as divided by invisible lines. learn korean, read about korean history, and take these ass holes' jobs. no background will be as valuable as facility in the language. love korea. study about korea night and day until you leave and reap the benefits. |
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swetepete
Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Location: a limp little burg
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:56 am Post subject: |
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If you ever come across a copy of Elias Canetti's 'the Conscience of Words,' it has a good essay regarding Confucius' "Analects."
I've been trying to find it online but with no success.
I may try to summarize some of his main points later, but I have to go to work. |
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Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:15 am Post subject: |
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| insam wrote: |
| first of all, read the primary text; analects of confucius. but yes, the cumings book is great because he is a foreign scholar AND married to a korean. forget your background/nationality when you come to korea if you want to do well. ignore these patriotic idiots who think of life and the world as divided by invisible lines. learn korean, read about korean history, and take these ass holes' jobs. no background will be as valuable as facility in the language. love korea. study about korea night and day until you leave and reap the benefits. |
Cumings is also a borderline pinko in light of the praise he gives to certain sectors of North Korea. |
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