Seth - A concise history of Korea: from the neolithic period through the nineteenth century

I am indebted to the many people who have assisted me with this book. They are too numerous to mention here so I will just single out a few. I would like to thank the late Kim Chul-hee, who made my times in Korea comfortable, and my professor at the University of Hawaii, Yong-ho Choe, from whom I learned a great deal about Korean history. Many thanks to Edward Shultz and Donald Baker, who read the manuscript, offered many useful suggestions, and caught an embarrassing number of errors. Lisa Kuchy aided me in making the maps. The Korea Foundation and the Academy of Korean Studies have partially sponsored my visits to Korea. The patience and help of Jessica Gribble and the staff of Rowman and Littlefield walked me through the final stages of completing the manuscript. My colleagues in the area of Korean studies whose work is cited in the endnotes and bibliography of this book have done the hard research that this book is based on. My students at James Madison University have been guinea pigs for the early drafts of this text. Their questions guided me in deciding what to include and how to make it comprehensible to nonspecialists.

This book is the product of years of being around people who aided me in various ways in my pursuit of understanding Korean history. I want to express my gratitude to them, especially to the many Koreans who over the years have shared their love and knowledge of their culture and who have encouraged me to continue in my attempt to make Korea a bit better known to non-Koreans. To one Korean in particular, Choe Soo-ok, I owe a special thanks. Without her encouragement I would probably not have written this book.

Appendix: Romanization

The Korean language has a rather complex sound system that has posed challenges to romanization. This book follows the McCune-Reischauer system that is used by the Library of Congress and with minor variations in most scholarly texts. Below is a basic guide to the pronunciation of the McCune-Reischauer system used in this book. Note: the Korean sound system is very different than in English so the equivalents below are only rough approximations.

CONSONANTS

ch is as in English but unaspirated, sounding a bit more like a j
ch is pronounced as in English but more aspirated
k as in English but unaspirated, sounding a bit like a hard g
k as in English but more aspirated
kk a very tense unaspirated k sound
p as in English but unaspirated and sounding a bit likeab
p as in English but more aspirated
pp a very tense unaspirated p sound
s softer than an English s, but if followed by i pronounced as sh
ss more tense than an English s
t as in English but unaspirated, sounding a bit likead
t more aspirated then in English
tt a tense unaspirated t
tch a tense unaspirated ch sound

Other consonants are pronounced more or less as they are in English.

VOWELS

a as the a in father
ae a bit like the a in cat
e roughly as in English
i between the i of tin and the ee of teen
o as in hope
between the sound of u in fun and the aw in fawn
oe roughly as way
u as the u in tune
similar to the oo in book
i sometimes as in eh

In 2000 the South Korean government adopted a new official Revised Romanization that is also coming into use. Below are some of the differences.

McCune-Reischauer	Revised Romanization
ch	j as initial sound
ch	ch
k	g as initial sound
k	k
p	b as initial sound
p	P
t	d as initial sound
t	t
eo
eu

In Revised Romanization hyphens between syllables in names are optional.

Below are some names and terms written in First McCuneReischauer, then in Revised Romanization and in the Korean alphabet.

1.	chnmin	cheonmin
2.	Chosn	Joseon
3.	Hangl	Hangeul
4.	kisaeng	gisaeng
5.	Kim Pusik	Gim Bushik
6.	Kory	Goryeo
7.	kwag	gwageo
8.	Paekche	Baekje
9.	pansori	pansori
10.	Silla	Silla*
11.	Tangun	Dangun
12.	Toegye	Toegye
13.	yangban	yangban*
14.	Yi Snggye	Yi Seonggye
* Note some Korean names and terms are spelled the same in both McCuneReischauer and Revised Romanization.

About the Author

Michael J. Seth is associate professor of East Asian and world history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He received his PhD from the University of Hawaii and his MA and BA from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Seth has lived and worked in South Korea and is the author of Education Fever. Society, Politics and the Pursuit of Schooling in South Korea (2002).

Selected Bibliography

Barnes, Gina L. State Formation in Korea: Historical Archaeological Perspectives. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001.

A summary of archaeological and historical scholarship on the early states in Korea from Old Chosn through the Three Kingdoms period. More for the serious student of early Korea than the general reader.

Bishop, Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbors. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1897.

The intelligent observations of the wife of a late-nineteenth-century British diplomat, entertaining but also useful for her insights into Korea in the last days of the old order.

Buswell, Robert E. Jr. Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinuls Korean Way of Zen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.