Acknowledgments

Just as it took many years to complete this book, I am indebted to many people who helped in the process of conducting research, crafting arguments, and writing it. In particular, I am grateful to those who have shown faith in my potential as a scholar and provided unwavering support, even when I was still shaping up with no definite evidence of accomplishments to come. The following mentors have deeply affected who I am as both a scholar and a thinker. JaHyun Kim Haboush guided me in the methods of sophisticated thinking and skills in historical and literary studies. She shuffled various cards of advice for this novice historian with high ambition but no clue how to achieve it. Her untimely passing did not allow me to show her how my project has evolved, which remains my biggest regret. I would like to express my utmost thanks for her unconditional support. I was also extremely fortunate to work with Brinkley Messick. He introduced me to some seminal works on written culture in anthropology and beyond, which became the theoretical foundation of my academic career. He also taught me how to decipher the material attributes of texts, which I continue to pursue in dealing with diverse historical source materials. Whenever I talked with him, he opened up a door to a new direction of research and thinking. I also benefited from candid advice and moral support from the late Pei-Yi Wu, who taught me to read literary Chinese texts for research purposes. Besides showing me how to navigate complicated classical Chinese texts, he always encouraged me to sharpen my English writing to be successful in American academia, advice with which I cannot agree more as a more seasoned scholar now. I would also like to thank Theodore Hughes for his tireless support during my unusually long job searches. Without his warm encouragement, it would not have been possible for me to persevere all those years in the job market. I am equally grateful to Sunyoung Park who unreservedly reached out to me with invaluable advice and emotional support when I had no one to turn to as a newly minted PhD.

My projects developed along with my career, in four one-year positions at Harvard, Columbia, Colby, and William & Mary as well as two tenure-track positions at Xavier and currently at Emory. I am grateful to all my colleagues and friends in these six institutions for their kindness and encouragement. I particularly thank Karim Tiro for his genuine interest in my research projects and his demonstration of heartfelt collegiality and unparalleled leadership. My time at the Institute for Advanced Study as a member of the School of Historical Studies from 2016 to 2017 was indispensable in completing this book. I wrote about two-thirds of the manuscript during my time there and experienced unique intellectual growth. Endorsements from senior colleagues—Nicola Di Cosmo, Benjamin Elman, Susan Naquin, Heinrich von Staden, and the late Irving Lavin—enabled me to have confidence about some research methodologies that I applied to this project. I thank them deeply.

I also met a wonderful group of early career scholars working on material texts through the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School (RBS). The RBS courses that we took, the events that we organized together, and many conversations that we had about our research projects and others exemplified ideal forms of intellectual interaction. I am equally grateful to Ann Blair and Michael Suarez for their attentiveness to and encouragement in my research. Their intellectual generosity and collaborative spirit have inspired me to strive to become a better scholar and person.

This project has been supported by many funding sources, which include the Korea Foundation, the Association for Asian Studies, the Harvard-Yenching Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Assistant Professors at IAS, and the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School. I am also thankful to Emory College of Arts and Sciences for awarding me the TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) grant for the production of this book. I would also like to thank the editor of the Journal of Asian Studies for permission to use my article “The Epistolary Brush: Letter Writing and Power in Chosŏn Korea,” 75, no. 4 (2016): 1055–81, excerpts from which are scattered throughout this book.

Most of all, it would not have been possible to complete this book were I not lucky enough to have the ideal family. My wife, Miyoung Kim, has been by my side throughout this project, during which our daughter, Mina, was born. The three of us have been a great team through both good times and bad times. I am truly grateful to Miyoung for her persistent confidence in me and my research even during the precarious period filled with one gig job after another. Her positive spirit and enthusiasm kept me going all those years when nothing was certain. I dedicate this book to Miyoung.