HST259: Korean History

This week talked about the differences that exist between North and South Korea after the Korean war. The main topic was nationalism and economics. I chose the text that focused on the differences from the South Korean perspective. There was a rise of nationalism in South Korea that demonstrated anti-foreigners and created a more rigid definition of what it meant to be South Korean. In later years, after the war, it became the belief of South Koreans that they were the only true Koreans. Moreover, it talks about the struggles that the Koreans went to financially and how urbanization was rising throughout South Korea, which helped boost the economy.

This weeks topic was the Korean War, which is something that I was extremely interested in learning about since my grandfather fought in the war. We all watched different documentaries and discussed what we watched as well as discuss what we read. The documentary told the story for the Korean War from the American perspective, and the short stories were from the perspective of two South Koreans reservists. These sources demonstrated that the Korean War was a miserable time, and that Koreans lacked money which only increased the struggles, and starvation that people were enduring.

This week we discussed Hendrick Hamel and his experiences as a prisoner in Korea. Hamel and the Dutch East India Company (DEITC) were sailing to Japan from Taiwan, they were stranded on an island after a storm moved them off course. After being stranded on the island they were taken to court in Korea, however, they were not guests. I thought it was interesting how they went into detail about the treatment of him and his crew while in Korea. He mentioned that some people treated him well, and others not so well.

I think one of the most interesting things about Hamel’s text was the view of Chinese, Koreans, and the Japanese. There was clear disdain for the Japanese, and a lot of confusion/ mistaking the Chinese and Koreans.

• Topic: 
  • The topic of this paper will be the examination of the Three Kingdoms and the change in social structure/classes in each Kingdom.  
• Thesis: 
  • Throughout the history of the Three Kingdoms, the social structure has changed based on the Kingdom which held power. 
• What you hope the reader will learn from the chapter:
  • I would like the reader to learn more about the different Kingdoms (Baekche, Goryeo, and Silla). There will be a background history presented on each of the Three Kingdoms, as well as information on the development of social structure and how it may have been influenced by the changes that occurred throughout the Kingdom. There will be a brief paragraph that discusses the possible reasons that the social dynamic has changed throughout history. For example, in the other two Kingdoms, there was no sacred bone structure which can be seen in Silla. 

This week we discussed the Imjin War, using a text written by a Korean who had been taken to Japan as a Captive. This was interesting as Korea was nearly defeated the Japanese, but the Korean navy defeated them. We discussed some of the eyewitness accounts of the situation, and they were also fascinating. I think the eye witness accounts are super emotional and impactful in terms of finding the history relevant. In the readings that we did, the man was scared, since he didn’t know what was going on, he seemed frightened and angry. I think this is a normal reaction to the events that he was in. Throughout the reading, he continually insults the Japanese, relating their culture to barbarians. However, he also confused the Chinese and the Koreans a lot throughout the text.

Topic:

The focal point of my paper will be the analysis of different social structures throughout the three Kingdoms of Korea (Baekche, Goryeo, and Silla). There will be a heavy emphasis on the Silla Kingdom, as I find it the most interesting of the three kingdoms. I believe that throughout the course we have discussed each of the three Kingdoms in-depth, and have gone over various sources that have given us a great deal of information about society during that time period. It would be interesting to see how society and the social structures have changed as you move from one Kingdom to the next. Moreover, it would look at different aspects of social structure, as an example in Hangul depending on who you are speaking to you have to use a different way of speaking. Through this paper, one would be able to see the impact that social standing has is prevalent throughout Korean history and even in modern-day. The reason that there will be a heavy emphasis on the Silla Kingdom is that I find the sacred bone structure particularly interesting. However, seeing how the social class structure moves from Baekche, Goryeo, to Silla would be interesting. 

Sources: 

1. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-koreas-bone-rank-system-195711
   1. I would use this as a source to my knowledge about the bone rank system that existed through the Silla Dynasty.  The author of this book is a history teacher who specializes in Asian studies, although it is not a journal or a book I still believe that it holds a good deal of credibility in the basic information that it gives. 
2. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23720147.pdf
   1. This is an article that discusses the relationship between the Hwarang and Buddhism. I have only skimmed the first couple of pages and glanced over the references but currently, it seems like a reliable source. 
3. https://www.hierarchystructure.com/korean-royal-hierarchy/
   1. This article briefly goes into detail about the different social structures that existed in each of the Three Kingdoms.  This website doesn’t have a clear author, so I would most likely use it for brief background information. 
4. The Art of Ancient Korea (a book)
   1. I haven’t read over the book, however, it seems to have quite a few chapters on the rise of the Silla Kingdom, so it would be useful to help gather more information on the Kingdom. 
5. A concise history of Korea:
   1. This is our textbook, I plan on using it for foundational knowledge in the essay. I know that it is a good source to use because it is being used as a textbook in our class. The reason I plan on doing this is that it gives me a good amount of information on each of thee different Kingdoms

These past two weeks have been very hectic, first with Spring Break which was nice because it was the first break that I haven’t worked so it felt like an actual break. However, when we came back I believed that I would have more time to hang out and meet up with my friends before we would inevitably be sent home. It may sound ominous but the fact that we would be leaving campus was inevitable because with how small our campus is the coronavirus if it got to campus would spread like wildfire. However, it is definitely a disappointing end to my sophomore year. I wish  I could see more of my friends, and I wish that I didn’t have to wish my friends who are seniors goodbye like this. 
Although it’s hard to look at the positive during this time of trouble, one must think on the bright side. Comedians have a lot more to work with (even though it isn’t always funny), we get to do our laundry for free now, and we get to sleep in our own beds.

This week we spent the majority of the time focusing on what we were going to do once we are all sent back home. I think this class, in particular, made it very that although things will change, we will try to retain some type of normalcy, this was really helpful and I hope that my other classes continue in the same manner. This post isn’t very long because it has been a hectic week, but I wanted to say I enjoyed the class and working with everyone in it.

We talked about Open Education Resources during class this week. This was an interesting topic for many reasons, as we also talked about copyright. I knew that copyright was something that we all had to be aware of when copying music, scanning a book, however, I didn’t know how much Disney cared about copyright until this class. One of my friends paints Disney princess portraits for people and sells them on Etsy, and I am now very concerned that Disney will go after her for copyright. However, focusing on the Open Education Resource if our college is able to develop a full Open Education Resource that all students are able to use, attending classes will become a lot cheaper. Many Professors have us purchase textbooks that can cost up to $200, and it becomes expensive when you are taking 5/6 classes. I was super excited to hear that we do have an open online resource, even though it doesn’t relate to my classes specifically.