A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China: Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning PDF
Preview A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China: Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning
A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China KOREAN CLASSICS LIBRARY: HISTORICAL MATERIALS A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning translated and annotated by Byonghyon Choi, Seung B. Kye, and Timothy V. Atkinson University of Hawai‘i Press/Honolulu Korean Classics Library © 2019 The Regents of the University of California All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 24 23 22 21 20 19 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Pak, Che-ga, 1750–1815, author. | Choi, Byonghyon, translator, writer of added commentary. | Kye, Seung B., translator, writer of added commentary. | Atkinson, Timothy V., translator, writer of added commentary. Title: A Korean scholar’s rude awakening in Qing China : Pak Chega’s discourse on northern learning / translated and annotated by Byonghyon Choi, Seung B. Kye, and Timothy V. Atkinson. Other titles: Pukhagæui. English | Korean classics library. Historical materials. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2019] | Series: Korean classics library: historical materials | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018058223 | ISBN 9780824877934 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: China—Description and travel—Early works to 1800. | China—Social life and customs—18th century—Early works to 1800. | China—Social conditions—18th century—Early works to 1800. | Korea—Social conditions—1392-1910—Early works to 1800. Classification: LCC DS708 .P28213 2019 | DDC 951/.032—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018058223 Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials Series Editors: John B. Duncan, University of California, Los Angeles Namhee Lee, University of California, Los Angeles Robert E. Buswell, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles Series Editorial Board: Donald Baker, University of British Columbia Sun Joo Kim, Harvard University James B. Lewis, University of Oxford A. Charles Muller, Tokyo University Young-chan Ro, George Mason University Kenneth R. Robinson, International Christian University, Tokyo Edward Shultz, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa Senior Editor: Jennifer Jung-Kim, University of California, Los Angeles This work was supported by the English Translation of 100 Korean Classics program through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2010-AAA-2102). University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Design and composition by Wanda China Contents Acknowledgments vii Note on the Translation ix Part I Translators’ Introduction 3 Part II Translation A Discourse on Northern Learning 21 Author’s Preface 21 Preface by Pak Chiwŏn 23 Preface by Sŏ Myŏngŭng 26 Inner Chapters 28 Outer Chapters 87 Memorial of 1786 125 A Discourse on Northern Learning Presented to His Majesty in Response to a Royal Decree (1798) 133 Appendix: The Life of Pak Chega: A Chronology 169 Notes 185 Glossary 205 Bibliography 213 Index 217 Acknowledgments This work was supported by various institutes, including the Korea Liter- ature Translation Institute, Academy of Korean Studies, and Research In- stitute of Korean Studies at Korea University, and we are all very grateful. The translators are especially indebted to the authorities of the Research Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University for this translation, as well as to the scholars who joined us in reading and discussing the difficult hanmun source text. We are also grateful to Donald Baker of the University of British Columbia and Ned Shultz of the University of Hawai‘i for their insightful advice, and to Robert Buswell, director of the Korean Classics series of the Academy of Korean Studies, and Stephanie Chun, acquisition editor at the University of Hawai‘i Press, for their critical guidance and facilitation of the final publication. Lastly but most importantly, our grati- tude goes to Stuart Kiang, the copyeditor of this text, who did a superb job in reshaping the book and making the text more accessible to readers. vii Note on the Translation An English translation of the Discourse on Northern Learning (Pukhak ŭi) is long overdue considering its importance in the development of Korean thought. The influence of this text is evident not only in the reformed Con- fucianism or School of Practical Learning (Sirhak) of the late eighteenth century, but also among intellectuals of our own time in the age of glo- balization. Mainly dealing with advances in the material culture of Qing China, the text is complicated, because its language reflects a now anti- quated technology, and it is difficult to translate, because of the author’s idiosyncratic literary style. While a few of its essays have previously ap- peared in English, those selections in an anthology of Korean studies do not adequately represent the breadth of the author’s contributions and achievement. The present translation is based on the original text of the Discourse as edited by An Taehoe, which has been recognized as the most authori- tative of the various versions of the text available today. An discovered about twenty extant versions of the Pukhak ŭi, all slightly different from each other. After carefully examining and comparing them, he translated the text from classical Chinese into Korean and presented it in three parts, consisting of the inner and outer chapters together with a version entitled Chinsangbon (Memorial of 1798), written as a memorial or petition to the throne. This arrangement produced an accurate and reliable text, but with the addition of the Chinsangbon, which includes edited versions of some of the essays in the inner and outer chapters, it also made for a certain re- dundancy. Eliminating the Chinsangbon altogether, however, would have presented more problems since many of its essays are composed of new material found only in that version. It seemed indispensable for the integ- rity of the source text, therefore, to present the Chingsangbon as it is. As for the English translation, Timothy Atkinson and I initially trans- lated the whole corpus and later combined our work with that of Seung B. Kye, who had made an independent translation on his own. We believe the accuracy and fluency of the present translation have benefited greatly from this collaboration. Byonghyon Choi ix
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