Notes

1      “Ach’im p’yŏnji sogae,” in Ko Towŏn ŭi ach’im p’yŏnji, www.godowon.com/intro/Mletter_intro.gdw (accessed 3/20/2017).

2      See Ko Towŏn, Ko Towŏn ŭi ach’im p’yŏnji.

3      See Mauss, The Gift. Antje Richter has also discussed how letters as material objects played the role of gifts in early medieval China (see Richter, Letters and Epistolary Culture, 132–34).

4      Daybell, Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England, 160.

5      Shirky, Here Comes Everybody.

6      Innis, The Bias of Communication.

7      On the reference function of commonplace books in early modern Europe, see Blair, Too Much to Know, 62–116.

8      Goodman, Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters, 155.

9      See Shirky, Cognitive Surplus.

1      For discussion of the intricate interactions between literary Chinese and diverse vernacular languages in East Asia, see Kornicki, Languages, Scripts, and Chinese Texts in East Asia. In Korean context, Ross King also claims that the idea of diglossia oversimplifies the multilayered linguistic interactions (see King, “Ditching ‘Diglossia’ ”).

2      Richter, Letters and Epistolary Culture, 34−37.

3      Richter, Letters and Epistolary Culture, 35.

4      Pattison, “The Market for Letter Collections,” 129.

5      For an example showing political debates over such epistolary protocols between Chosŏn and the Ryūkyū kingdom, see Baker, “Confucianism and Civilization,” 45–47.

6      Ch’oe Sŭnghŭi, Han’guk komunsŏ yŏn’gu. For examples from Koryŏ and early Chosŏn, see Hŏ Hŭngsik, Han’guk ŭi komunsŏ.

7      For instance, Emperor Hongwu (r. 1368−1398) found that the diplomatic letter that the Chosŏn court presented to him in 1395 insulted the Ming (1368−1644) dynasty. Hongwu demanded the Chosŏn court hand over Chŏng Tojŏn (1342−1398), who had drafted it (see Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, ed., Chungguk chŏngsa Chosŏn chŏn, 4:35−36).

8      Chu Hŭi [Zhu Xi], Chuja karye, 156−60.

9      On the development of wedding correspondence in China, see De Pee, The Writing of Weddings in Mid-Period China.

10    Ch’oe Kiho, “Hunmin chŏngŭm ch’angje e kwanhan yŏn’gu,” 531–57, esp. 547.

11    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 42.

12    The recent discoveries of wooden strips from this period, along with inscriptions on steles, present many such examples (see Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 11−13).

13    Hyangch’al was used to write down whole Korean sentences with Chinese characters and was mostly used in a Sillan poetic genre: hyangga. Kugyŏl was used to add grammatical devices, such as particles and postpositions, to help Korean readers decipher the classical Chinese texts. Although idu was similar to kugyŏl in operating principles, it was mostly used for practical and administrative purposes. Instead of phonetically accurate transcriptions, the selected Chinese characters were expected to simply evoke designated Korean morphemes (see Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 13−29; and Young Kyun Oh, Engraving Virtue, 60−61n16, 123n140).

14    Noma, Han’gŭl ŭi t’ansaeng, 132−33.

15    Sejong sillok, 103:19a. There is no record of the actual publication of this title as a result of this royal order.

16    Sejong sillok, 117:22a−23b.

17    Sejo sillok, 20:35a. See also Chŏng Chaeyŏng et al., Han’gŭl nadŭri 569, 56.

18    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 276.

19    For details about the publication of The Illustrated Guide to the Three Relationships, see Young Kyun Oh, Engraving Virtue.

20    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 277.

21    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 172−73.

22    Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 62−63; Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 164.

23    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 68.

24    For the establishment and shutdown of this bureau, see Sejo sillok, 24:25b; and Sŏngjong sillok, 13:18a.

25    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 117−18.

26    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 109.

27    Mair, “Buddhism and the Rise of the Written Vernacular in East Asia,” 709, 719, and 734.

28    The new writing system also affected the teaching of foreign languages. For instance, Ch’oe Sejin (1468−1542) utilized the Korean alphabet in authoring a series of Chinese language primers. The Korean alphabet was also used for the instruction of Japanese, Mongol, and Manchu that changed the mode of learning foreign languages in the late Chosŏn period (see Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 67−81).

29    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 354−83; Suh, Naming the Local, 2. For the titles of these medical texts, see Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 89−91.

30    Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 91−96.

31    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 388−98.

32    Kojong sillok, 32:66a.

33    Noma, Han’gŭl ŭi t’ansaeng, 297; Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 65.

34    For instance, the nineteenth-century letter-writing manual Kandok chŏngyo includes a section on poetry exchanges, which provides basic rules for poetic rhymes and metrics derived from Du Fu’s poems. See Kandok chŏngyo ([Hansŏng]: Mugyo sinp’an, kisa [1869]), 28a–31b (Harvard-Yenching Library Rare Book, TK 5568.6 8291). For the continuing influence of the translation of Du Fu’s poems on Chosŏn poetic culture, see Sin Ŭn’gyŏng, “Sijo wa kasa ŭi sichŏk kwansŭp hyŏngsŏng e issŏsŏ ŭi ‘Tusi ŏnhae’ ŭi yŏkhal,” 1−21.

35    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 43:23a−24a.

36    Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 267. The Complete Writings of Yulgok (Yulgok chŏnsŏ) includes only a literary Chinese version of this poem, of which the annotation says, “The original was written in vernacular Korean, which Song Siyŏl translated into literary Chinese (本諺錄係宋時烈翻文)” (see Yi I, Yulgok chŏnsŏ, 2:41b−42b).

37    Some girls in elite families familiarized themselves with classics and poetry composition in literary Chinese from what they overheard from their brothers’ lessons, which took place in the shared domestic space when they were young (see Chizhova, “Bodies of Texts,” 63 and 69−70).

38    Peter H. Lee, ed., A History of Korean Literature, 185−88.

39    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 265.

40    Peter H. Lee, A History of Korean Literature, 219−27.

41    Peter H. Lee, A History of Korean Literature, 189−90.

42    Peter H. Lee, A History of Korean Literature, 246.

43    Walraven, “Kasa, Communication, and Public Opinion,” 201–28.

44    The record about Hŏ’s authorship appears in Yi Sik’s (1584–1647) scattered records (sallok). However, some question its veracity, because the collection was edited by Song Siyŏl, whose factional bias against Hŏ’s Namin affiliation might have affected this record. There is no evidence supporting this suspicion, however (see Yi Sik, T’aektang sŏnsaeng pyŏlchip, 15:22b).

45    Chŏng and Si, Chosŏn ŏnmun sillok, 170–71.

46    Lee Ji-Eun, “Literacy, Sosŏl, and Women in Book Culture in Late Chosŏn Korea,” 45 and 49.

47    Jisoo M. Kim, The Emotions of Justice.

48    Hwisang Cho, “Feeling Power in Early Chosŏn Korea,” 7–32.

49    Hwisang Cho, “Feeling Power in Early Chosŏn Korea,” 12–14.

50    Haboush, The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation, 109–11. For the edict itself, see Haboush, “Royal Edicts,” 21–22.

51    Pak Puja et al., Han’gŭl i kŏrŏon kil, 125.

52    For these examples, see Yi Sanggyu, Han’gŭl komunsŏ yŏn’gu, 541–605.

53    For an example of this, see Song Kyuryŏm’s (1630–1709) letter to his slave on the management of estates, preserved in the Gyeonggi Provincial Museum. http://musenet.ggcf.kr/archives/artwork/%EC%84%A0%EC%B0%B0. See also Kukhak chinhŭng yŏn’gu saŏp ch’ujin wiwŏnhoe, ed., Hoedŏk Ŭnjin Song-ssi Tongch’undang Song Chun’gil huson’ga p’yŏn, 22.

54    Hwang Wiju et al., Komunsŏ ro ingnŭn Yŏngnam ŭi misi segye, 94.

55    Yi Sanggyu, Han’gŭl komunsŏ yŏn’gu, 85–156.

56    Yi Sanggyu, Han’gŭl komunsŏ yŏn’gu, 157–212.

57    Haboush, “The Vanished Women of Korea,” 295.

58    Chizhova, “Bodies of Texts,” 64.

59    Yi Sanggyu, Han’gŭl komunsŏ yŏn’gu, 649–61.

60    Yi Sanggyu, Han’gŭl komunsŏ yŏn’gu, 661–65.

61    Chŏng Chaeyŏng et al., Han’gŭl nadŭri 569, 104–7.

62    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 398–99.

63    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 401.

64    Sŏ Kyŏnghŭi, “Kaein p’ilsabon Han’gŭl sosŏl ŭi tokcha ch’wihyang kwa hyangyu pangsik,” 206 and 208–9.

65    Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, 105.

66    Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, 67–68.

67    Rogers, The Diffusion of Innovations, 11–26.

68    Rogers explains this by dividing social actors into five groups—innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (see Rogers, The Diffusion of Innovations, 279–97).

69    Rogers, The Diffusion of Innovations, 169–94.

70    The earliest documented record about vernacular Korean letters is dated 1451, which mentions that Prince Yangnyŏng (1394–1462) wrote a short letter using the alphabet (see Munjong sillok, 10:24b).

71    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 313–14.

72    Deuchler, “Propagating Female Virtues in Chosŏn Korea,” 142–69, esp. 152–53.

73    Bray, Technology and Gender, 149.

74    Song Siyŏl, Songja taejŏn, 187:12a.

75    Park, “Reception, Reappropriation and Reinvention,” 129–48, esp. 136.

76    Kim Sŭrong, Hunmin chŏngŭm ŭi paltalsa, 337.

77    Hwisang Cho, “Embodied Literacy,” manuscript.

78    An, Chŏngjo ŭi pimil p’yŏnji, 61.

79    Ha, Yangban ŭi sasaenghwal, 208.

80    Ha, Yangban ŭi sasaenghwal, 208.

81    Ha et al., eds., Yet p’yŏnji nanmal sajŏn, 510; Yi Insuk, “Chosŏn sidae p’yŏnji (kanch’al) ŭi munhwasachŏk ŭiŭi,” 389–437, esp. 394.

82    For this example, see Haboush, trans., The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng, 49.

83    These people were also called chŏnjok or chŏnp’aeng.

84    Rutt and Kim, trans., Virtuous Women, 321–22.

85    Secrecy in correspondence is a relatively modern notion in many cultures. For instance, women in eighteenth-century France habitually shared the letters that they received from their daughters to boast about their writing skills and good calligraphy. Likewise, Jane Austen (1775–1817) knew that her letters to her sister, Cassandra, were often read aloud and passed around, which made her censor them before sending them (see Goodman, Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters, 100; and Garfield, To the Letter, 220).

86    An, Chŏngjo ŭi pimil p’yŏnji, 33.

87    An, Chŏngjo ŭi pimil p’yŏnji, 64–65.

88    Derrida, The Post Card, 62.

89    Bundock, “The (Inoperative) Epistolary Community in Eliza Fenwick’s Secresy,” 709–20, esp. 717.

90    Goldberg, “The Use and Abuse of Commercial Letters from the Cairo Geniza,” 127–54, esp. 139.

91    Goldberg, “The Use and Abuse of Commercial Letters from the Cairo Geniza,” 135.

92    Haboush, “Introduction,” 1.

93    Barton and Hall, introduction to Letter Writing as a Social Practice, 1.

94    Pattinson, “The Chidu in Late Ming and Early Qing China,” 13, qtd. from Heller, “Between Zhongfeng Mingben and Zhao Mengfu,” 113.

95    Derrida, The Post Card, 48. Ivask made a similar point in “The Letter: A Dying Art?,” 213–14.

96    Garfield, To the Letter, 206–31.

97    van Hensbergen, “Towards an Epistolary Discourse,” 508–18, esp. 509 and 512.

98    Haboush, Epistolary Korea, 1.

99    White, Cicero in Letters, 77.

100  The importation of preprinted stationery from Qing China in the late nineteenth century introduced elite letter writers to the practice of writing multiple pages for a single piece of correspondence (see Yi Kidae et al., eds., Myŏngsŏng hwanghu Han’gŭl p’yŏnji wa Chosŏn wangsil ŭi sijŏnji).

101  Walraven, “Reader’s Etiquette, and Other Aspects of Book Culture in Chosŏn Korea,” qtd, from Ji-Eun Lee, “Literacy, Sosŏl, and Women in Book Culture in Late Chosŏn Korea,” 37.

102  See Chartier, The Order of Books.

103  Here, Maxwell Hearn’s demonstration of how to appreciate Chinese scroll paintings is suggestive. Although the logic of reading texts differed from that of savoring paintings, the scroll form shared between them as material support makes this demonstration applicable to the analysis of letter scrolls (see Harris and Cotter, “The Ancient Chinese Arts,” New York Times, March 17, 2011).

104  Pak Taehyŏn, Hanmun sŏch’al ŭi kyŏksik kwa yongŏ, 35–36 and 50.

105  Pak Taehyŏn, Hanmun sŏch’al ŭi kyŏksik kwa yongŏ, 53.

106  Pak Taehyŏn, Hanmun sŏch’al ŭi kyŏksik kwa yongŏ, 54.

107  These titles include Brief Records of Letters of Regards (Hanhwŏn ch’arok) and Learning the Essence of Letter Writing (Kandok hoesu) from the early nineteenth century; The Essence of Letter Writing (Kandok chŏngyo) in 1861; The Classified Collection of Letters of Regards and Thank-You Notes (Husa yujip) in 1869; and Word Forms to Write Good Letters (Myŏnsŏ hwisik) in 1929.

108  Some of these titles include The Rules and Forms of Vernacular Korean Letters (Ŏnch’al kyusik) in 1889 and The Reading of Vernacular Letters (Ŏn’gandok), published in many different editions, such as The Augmented and Supplemented Reading of Vernacular Letters (Chingbo ŏn’gandok) from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and How to Write Vernacular Korean Letters (Ŏn’gan p’ilpŏp) in 1926.

109  Paek Tuhyŏn, “Chosŏn sidae yŏsŏng ŭi muncha saenghwal yŏn’gu,” 64–66.

110  Kandok chŏngyo ([Hansŏng]: Mugyo sinp’an, kisa, [1869]), kukki 1a–6b and 28a–31b (Harvard-Yenching Library Rare Book, TK 5568.6 8291).

111  For discussion of the peculiar page layouts in Ming commercial publications, see Wei Shang, “Jin Ping Mei and Late Ming Print Culture,” 187–238.

112  American letter writers also strove to define the epistolary genre while conflating it with other forms and rhetorical frames of reference (see Decker, Epistolary Practices, 3–17, esp. 7 and 17).

1      My usage of the term “spiral letter” is inspired by Brinkley Messick’s “spiral texts” in his study of Yemeni textual tradition (see Messick, The Calligraphic State, 231–50).

2      Kukka kirogwŏn Pogwŏn yŏn’gukwa, P’yŏnjiro chŏnhaejin 500-nyŏn ŭi sarang, 1–11.

3      D. F. McKenzie argues that the peculiarities of different readings can be recovered from the scrutiny of physical forms of texts. Jerome McGann claims that the interpreters of texts ought to put an equal emphasis on bibliographic codes of texts and the linguistic codes of semantic meanings, which he calls “materialist hermeneutics” (see McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, 9–76; and McGann, The Textual Condition, 15–16).

4      For the discussion of the writer’s “traces” left on texts and the possible reproduction of his/her presence, see Freud, “A Note upon the ‘Mystic Writing Pad’ (1925),” in General Psychological Theory, 207–12; and Derrida, “Freud and the Scene of Writing,” in Writing and Difference, 196–231.

5      Natasha Heller has pointed out that the bodily implication involved in manuscript letters distinguishes them from printed texts. However, all manuscripts other than letters, regardless of their genres, also involve bodily implications in one way or another. Besides the bodily traces, Korean spiral letters are distinctive for the cognitive implications that they carry (see Heller, “Between Zhongfeng Mingben and Zhao Mengfu,” 109–23, esp. 122).

6      Gibson, “Significant Space in Manuscript Letters,” 1–10; Sternberg, “Epistolary Ceremonial,” 33–88.

7      Sharpe, Reading Revolutions, 50.

8      Camille, Images on the Edge.

9      For a study of the functions of margins in Western book culture, see Jackson, Marginalia.

10    Likewise, it was only foreign travelers to Yemen who found Yemeni spiral texts eccentric, which led them to record them (see Messick, The Calligraphic State, 231–34).

11    Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 31.

12    Trouillot, Silencing the Past; Brown, The Reaper’s Garden.

13    Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts.”

14    Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts,” 11; Lowe, “The Intimacies of Four Continents,” 208.

15    Mt. Pleasant et al., “Materials and Methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies,” 207–36.

16    For a similar case, see Seymour, “Epistolary Emotions,” 149–50.

17    Cho Hangbŏm, Chuhae Sunch’ŏn Kim-ssi myo ch’ult’o kanch’al.

18    Paek Tuhyŏn, Hyŏnp’ung Kwak-ssi ŏn’gan chuhae.

19    Andong Taehakkyo Pangmulgwan, Andong Chŏngsang-dong Ilsŏn Mun-ssi wa Yi Ŭngt’ae myo palgul chosa pogosŏ.

20    Cho Hangbŏm, Chuhae Sunch’ŏn Kim-ssi myo ch’ult’o kanch’al, 6.

21    Chŏng Sŭnghye, “Chosŏn t’ongsa ka namgin Taema-do ŭi p’yŏnji e taehayŏ,” 219–50.

22    Ben Kafka demonstrates that the uncontrollable surge of paperwork in government functions required ministers to hire more clerks, which subsequently lowered the general quality of state administration. The chungin class emerged in Chosŏn for the same reason, to perform petty government functions. However, they cultivated both intellectual and cultural sophistication that matched the yangban elites rather than lowering the quality of state services (see Kafka, The Demon of Writing, 92).

23    Kang Myŏnggwan, Chosŏn hugi yŏhang munhak yŏn’gu, 42–45.

24    A literacy survey by the Japanese colonial government in 1930 shows that 77.73 percent of the Korean population was illiterate in vernacular Korean script. Although we have to consider the political calculation of Japanese colonizers in interpreting this information, it does not seem possible that Chosŏn society enjoyed the modern literacy rate even in vernacular Korean, let alone in literary Chinese (see Michael Kim, “Literary Production, Circulating Libraries, and Private Publishing,” 18–19).

25    Pollock, “India in the Vernacular Millennium,” 46.

26    Burglund, The Secret of Luo Shu, 56.

27    Burglund, The Secret of Luo Shu, 22.

28    Such examples include the day books (rishu), part of the bamboo-strip occult miscellanies discovered in the Zhoujiatai tomb 30 in Hubei. They include a large circular diagram that “correlates stems, branches, agents, spatial directions, and times of the day with the celestial ring of twenty-eight stellar lodges (xiu)” (see Harper, “The Textual Form of Knowledge,” 60–61).

29    My description here follows Rao Zongyi’s interpretation. He understands this manuscript as an astronomical text discussing activities of the months. Li Ling, however, understands it as the oldest manuscript on numerals and skills (shushu) (see Chaves et al., “Discussion,” 176–84).

30    Chaves et al., “Discussion,” 178.

31    Wikipedia entry on “Chu silk manuscript,” accessed November 29, 2018.

32    Huang, “Changsha Zidanku Chuboshu de fangxiang,” in Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts Blog, accessed November 30, 2018, www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=1092.

33    Chen, Jianbo yanjiu wengao, 339, qtd. in Huang, “Changsha Zidanku Chuboshu de fangxiang.”

34    Wang, “Patterns above and Within,” 49.

35    Citing Schuyler Cammann, Burglund argues that Luoshu and Hetu were not brought to public notice until the Song dynasty. However, Eugene Wang’s analysis suggests that the astrographical references derived from them had been already widely circulated (see Burglund, The Secret of Luo Shu, 168).

36    Wang, “Patterns above and Within,” 58.

37    Wang, “Patterns above and Within,” 59.

38    Wang, “Patterns above and Within,” 82; Burglund, The Secret of Luo Shu, 222–35.

39    For more discussion of the origins of Korean spiral letters, see Hwisang Cho, “Embodied Literacy,” manuscript.

40    Gatten, “Fact, Fiction and Heian Literary Prose,” 153–95.

41    Gatten, “Fact, Fiction and Heian Literary Prose,” 162.

42    Sato, Japanese Calligraphy, 86 and 88.

43    LaMarre, Uncovering Heian Japan, 113–15.

44    Lee Eun-Joo et al., “Eung Tae’s Tomb,” 145–56; Son Kye Young, “Chosŏn sidae sijŏnji sayong kwa sijŏn munhwa ŭi hwaksan,” 187–209; Yi Chongdŏk, “Chosŏn sidae Han’gŭl p’yŏnji ŭi t’ŭksŏng kwa p’ilsa hyŏngsik,” 154–67.

45    Kim Hyo Kyung, “Chosŏn sidae kanch’al sŏsik yŏn’gu,” 103–4.

46    For instance, Eliza Leslie’s behavior guide for American women published in 1859 condemns the practice of crossing letters as a violation of politeness and courtesy, as the postage rates were currently affordable enough for everyone to pay (see Mahoney, “More Than an Accomplishment,” 416).

47    Some spiral texts have been also found in Arabic diplomatic letters preserved in Spain (see Subirà, The History of Paper in Spain, 220–22).

48    Messick, The Calligraphic State, 237.

49    Chinese letter writers also occasionally wrote on the backs of pages. For instance, Wang Xianzhi (344–386), the youngest son of a well-known calligrapher, Wang Xizhi (303–361), sent a letter to Xie An (320–385) expecting that Xie would keep it for its calligraphic value. Xie, however, wrote his reply on the back of the page and returned it immediately, and Xianzhi resented this. Xie’s reply using the back page slighted Wang by returning his gift of calligraphy (see Richter, “Beyond Calligraphy,” 397).

50    Hay, “The Human Body as a Microcosmic Source of Macrocosmic Values in Calligraphy,” 179–211.

51    Chizhova, “Bodies of Texts,” 67.

52    In both Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, the cursive writing style is considered to have developed for efficiency in letter writing (see Ledderose, “Chinese Calligraphy,” 36; and Shimizu, “The Historical Dimension,” 9).

53    “Ŏn’gan sayong ŭi hwaksan kwajŏng,” in Ŏn’gan, Digital Hangeul Museum. http://archives.hangeul.go.kr/hangeul/living/view/66?page=1 (accessed 4/7/2016).

54    See Haboush, “The Vanished Women of Korea,” 292, 295; and Yi Kidae et al., eds., Myŏngsŏng hwanghu Han’gŭl p’yŏnji wa Chosŏn wangsil ŭi sijŏnji.

55    Davis, “Printing and the People,” in Society and Culture in Early Modern France, by Davis, 201–2.

56    Sŏng, Yongjae ch’onghwa, trans. Nam, 361–62.

57    Kim Chun’gŭn’s (d.u.) painting Playing the Diagram of Promotion in Official Positions (Chonggyŏngdo ch’inŭn moyang) actually shows people sitting around the board game and playing it together (see the entry on Kim at the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0008270#).

58    Yi Wŏnbok et al., eds., Chosŏn sidae p’ungsokhwa, 192, 304–5.

59    In another painting included in the same album, titled Weaving the Mat (Chari tchagi), he painted a boy reading a book. Although the book in this painting has the lines placed between text, no text was actually added. Kim Chun’gŭn also did not draw the texts in the board game.

60    Han’guk Koganch’al Yŏn’guhoe, ed., Yet munin tŭl ŭi ch’osŏ kanch’al, 14–15.

61    Ha et al., eds., Yet p’yŏnji nanmal sajǒn, 35.

62    Ahroni, The Jews of the British Crown Colony of Aden, 172; Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 181; Olszowy-Schlanger, “Learning to Read and Write in Medieval Egypt,” 47–69.

63    Dyson, “Unfashionable Pursuits,” 53.

64    The earliest manuscript letter bearing boomerang form that I found was written by Yun Tusu (1533–1601) in 1585. However, all other examples were produced after the nineteenth century. For the example of 1585, see Han’guk Koganch’al Yŏn’guhoe, trans. and ed., Ch’ŏnggwanjae sojang sŏhwaga tŭl ŭi kanch’al, 26–27.

The only non-Korean example of this kind of interspersed writing appears on a bronze vessel produced in ancient China. Tsuen-Hsiun Tsien explains that “the text is read in alternate lines, that is, the first, third, and fifth lines read from top to bottom, but the second and fourth lines from bottom to top.” I could not discover any cultural connection between Korean spiral letters and these inscriptions on Chinese bronze vessels. Moreover, no Chinese texts after this period bears such idiosyncratic forms (Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk, 44–45).

65    Austen, Emma, 51.

66    Lutz, The Brontë Cabinet, 123–56.

67    “Flip Your Text Upside Down,” www.fliptext.info.

68    Brian Stock defines “textual community” as the imposition of written words to articulate the identity of a certain group of social actors. Building on his idea, I consider the spatial layout and the synchronization of physical movements between writers and readers as the textual glue bonding them as a community (see Stock, Listening for the Text).

69    This idea was inspired by Jonathan Sterne’s discussion of the interaction between technologies and social environments (see Sterne, “Bourdieu, Technique, and Technology,” 367–89).

70    Sejong sillok, 103:19a–22a, esp. 20b in Chosŏn wangjo sillok, vol. 4.

71    The use of the Korean alphabet could not be completely discouraged in actual government functions. JaHyun Kim Haboush’s study of the Imjin War (1592–98), for instance, shows how the Chosŏn government used vernacular Korean script in official writings, fearing leakage of information to both Japanese enemies and the Chinese military (see Haboush, The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation, 93–119).

72    Similarly, Emmanuel Yi Pastreich argues that narratives written in vernacular Korean modeled after literary Chinese narratives both stylistically and lexicographically rather than reflecting the spoken languages. Only readers with deep understanding of literary Chinese classical tradition could understand vernacular Korean narratives easily. This argument is informative in comprehending the mutual influences between cultures embedded respectively in vernacular Korean script and literary Chinese. For more details, see Pastreich, “The Transmission and Translation of Chinese Vernacular Narrative in Chosŏn Korea,” 75–105.

73    LaMarre, “Writing Doubled Over, Broken,” 250–73.

74    Yoda, “Literary History against the National Frame, or Gender and the Emergence of Heian Kana Writing,” 465–97.

75    Han’gukhak Chungang Yŏn’guwŏn, ed., Kwangju An-ssi Sunam An Chŏngbok chongga kojŏnjŏk, 32.

76    Han’guk koganch’al yŏn’guhoe, ed., Yet munin tŭl ŭi ch’osŏ kanch’al, 122–23.

77    The only publication that includes the printed spiral letter is Paek Tuyong, ed., Taebang ch’ogandok. Kyŏngsŏng: Hannam Sŏrim, Taishō 10 (1921)), 2:47a–b, Harvard-Yenching Library Rare Book TK 5973.7 2638 (see figure E.3).

78    Chow, Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China, 59.

79    Sunam chip, 6:40a–b.

80    Chŏnggwanjae chip, 8:1b–2a.

81    Fujimoto, “Chōsen giji kanbun ni tsuite,” 81–82.

82    See Ryu, Han’gŭl hwalcha ŭi t’ansaeng, 1820–1945, 336–37.

83    Strewn, “Protestant Bible Education for Women,” 99–121. For discussion of Catholic priests’ reluctance to embrace vernacular Korean, see Baker, “The Transformation of the Catholic Church in Korea,” 11–42.

84    Ross King, “Western Protestant Missionaries and the Origins of Korean Language Modernization,” 7–38.

85    Galambos, “Punctuation Marks in Medieval Chinese Manuscripts,” 341.

86    Galambos, “Punctuation Marks in Medieval Chinese Manuscripts,” 354–55.

87    Ross, Corean Primer.

88    Hulbert, “Commas or Spacing,” 39.

89    “Nonsyŏl,” Tongnip sinmun, April 7, 1896, 1–2.

90    Saenger, Space between Words.

91    Later, the editorial in the first pure Korean issue of the Korean Daily News (Taehan maeil sinbo) also claimed that the strenuous and time-consuming process of learning literary Chinese hindered the spread of common knowledge in Korea, which would be essential for national independence (see “Sasyŏl,” Taehan maeil sinbo, May 23, 1907, 1).

1      See a similar point made by Pierre Bourdieu about everyday practices (Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 51).

2      Haboush, “The Confucianization of Korean Society,” 84–110.

3      For the most recent scholarship on this subject, see Deuchler, Under the Ancestors’ Eyes.

4      Duncan, The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty.

5      Palais, “Confucianism and the Aristocratic/Bureaucratic Balance in Korea,” 427–68.

6      See Song, Chosŏn sahoesa yŏn’gu; and Deuchler, The Confucian Transformation of Korea.

7      Clark, “Sino-Korean Tributary Relations under the Ming,” 272–300; Sixiang Wang, “Co-constructing Empire in Early Chosŏn Korea.”

8      Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, ed., Chungguk chŏngsa Chŏson chŏn, 4:29–31.

9      Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, ed., Chungguk chŏngsa Chŏson chŏn, 4:34–35. See also T’aejo sillok, 3:3b–4a.

10    Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, Chungguk chŏngsa Chŏson chŏn, 4:35–36. See also T’aejo sillok, 9: 9a–b.

11    In 1396, the Chosŏn court sent Kwŏn Kŭn, Chŏng T’ak (1363–1423), and No Indo (?–?) instead of Chŏng Tojŏn, pleading Chŏng’s illness. Kwŏn and No had been detained in Jinling, and Kwŏn’s literary talent, revealed in his poems composed at Emperor Hongwu’s request, caused the emperor’s attitude toward Chosŏn to turn positive. For the poems, see Yangch’on chip, 1:1a–9a.

12    In 1397, Hongwu again reproved the Chosŏn envoy for the literary flaws in the diplomatic document and detained him (see Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, ed., Chungguk chŏngsa Chŏson chŏn, 4:36).

13    Holcombe, The Genesis of East Asia, 221 BC–907 AD, 30–77.

14    Kuksa P’yŏnch’an Wiwŏnhoe, ed., Chungguk chŏngsa Chŏson chŏn, 4:37.

15    Tsien, “Paper and Printing (Part I),” 345. A few Korean scholars passed the Ming civil examinations in the early fifteenth century. We need close studies on this contrast between the ban of Korean scholars from Ming state schools and the success of Korean scholars in the Ming civil examinations (see Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, 132).

16    Sejong sillok, 61:47b.

17    Sejong sillok, 69:18b–19a.

18    The Chinese authorities have attempted to control the export of books for political reasons since the Song period. However, smuggling books to foreign countries for profit was rampant throughout the early modern period (see Edgren, “China,” 106).

19    Deuchler, “Reject the False and Uphold the Straight,” 377–78.

20    Deuchler, “Reject the False and Uphold the Straight,” 401–2.

21    This collection had been brought to Korea three times before the reign of King Munjong (r. 1450–1452); however, it had not been printed until 1523 (see Yi Sangha, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ka Chosŏn cho e kkich’in yŏnghyang,” 5–38).

22    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 42:3b–4a.

23    Chujasŏ chŏryo sŏ, 1a–b.

24    Chujasŏ chŏryo sŏ, 2b–3a.

25    For the relationship between anthologists and their readers, see Price, The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel, 69.

26    Skinner, “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas,” 3–53.

27    Skinner, “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas,” 49.

28    Gordon, “Contextualism and Criticism in the History of Ideas,” 42.

29    Altman, “The Letter Book as a Literary Institution, 1539–1789,” 19.

30    See Instructive Critique of Chen Xianzhang’s Poems (Paeksasi kyobyŏn) and Discussion and Critique on “Record for Transmitting Learning” (Chŏnsŭmnok nonbyŏn) in T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 41:23a–23b and 41:23b–29b.

31    T’oegye sŏnsaeng sokchip, 8:1a–3a.

32    Blair, “Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload, ca. 1550–1700,” 11–28, esp. 12.

33    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:20b.

34    St. Clair, “Political Economy of Reading,” 11.

35    Chujasŏ chŏryo sŏ, 2a–b.

36    Kang Chinsŏk, “T’oegye ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ p’yŏnjip ŭi pangbŏpchŏk t’ŭkching kwa ŭiŭi,” 51–94; Ryu Chunp’il, “T’oegye ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ŭi Chuja munhŏn p’yŏnjip pangsik,” 95–121.

37    For a similar case, see White, Cicero in Letters, 34.

38    Yi Sangha, “Haeje,” in Chujasŏ chŏryo, 1:11–20.

39    These quasi-public letters were no different from essays, persuasive and explicatory in content (see Pattinson, “Privacy and Letter Writing in Han and Six Dynasties China,” 97–118).

40    Derrida, “This Is Not an Oral Footnote,” 197.

41    Mayali, “For a Political Economy of Annotation,” 190.

42    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 35:11a.

43    Genette, Paratexts.

44    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:14b–15a.

45    See Jardine and Grafton, “Studied for Action,” 30–78, esp. 30–31.

46    Chartier, The Order of Books, viii.

47    McKenzie, Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts, 13.

48    Yi Sangha, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ka Chosŏn cho e kkich’in yŏnghyang,” 6.

49    Sŏ Chŏngmun, “Chosŏn chunggi ŭi munjip p’yŏn’gan kwa munp’a hyŏngsŏng,” 144.

50    Yi Hwang, Yŏkchu Yi T’oegye ŭi Chasŏngnok, 37.

51    Yi Hwang, Yŏkchu Yi T’oegye ŭi Chasŏngnok.

52    Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium.

53    Ching, trans., The Philosophical Letters of Wang Yang-ming.

54    For instance, Yi Ŏnjŏk and Cho Hanbo (d.u.) debated on the relationship between “supreme ultimate” (t’aegŭk) and “without ultimate” (mugŭk) in their letters exchanged in the early sixteenth century. However, their debate was not as widespread and influential as that between T’oegye and Ki (see Hwang Chunyŏn, “Yi Ŏnjŏk ŭi mugŭk t’aegŭk sŏl nonbyŏn,” 31–56).

55    The Four Beginnings are the dispositions of commiseration, shame and dislike of evil, yielding and deference, and approving of good and disapproving of evil. Joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hate, and desire compose the Seven Chŏng.

56    T’oegye shared these letters with Chŏng Yuil (1533–1576) and Kim Ch’wiryŏ (1538–?) (see T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 25:4b–9a; 25:14b–16a; 25:22b–24b; 30:7b–8a; 30:23b–25b).

57    T’oegye’s letter to Ki in 1560, for instance, mentions that he did not seal the letter because Chŏng Chiun (1509–1561) wanted to read it (see T’oegye sŏnsaeng sokchip, 3:35a).

58    The letters were frequently shared among people other than addressees in ancien régime France to cement, maintain, and extend the bonds of social life and solidarity (see Chartier, Boureau, and Dauphin, eds., Correspondence, 15).

59    Hwisang Cho, “The Epistolary Brush,” 1055–81, esp. 1060–61.

60    Chung, trans. and ed., A Korean Confucian Way of Life and Thought, 19.

61    Yang sŏnsaeng wangboksŏ, 3:58a–59a.

62    Kang Chinsŏk, “T’oegye ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ p’yŏnjip ŭi pangbŏpchŏk t’ŭkching kwa ŭiŭi,” 73; Ryu T’agil, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ chusŏk ŭi maengnak kwa kŭ chusŏksŏ tŭl,” 5–22.

63    T’oedo sŏnsaeng ŏnhaeng t’ongnok, 2:17a.

64    T’oedo sŏnsaeng ŏnhaeng t’ongnok, 2:7a–b.

65    T’oedo sŏnsaeng ŏnhaeng t’ongnok, 2:8a–b.

66    Yun Pyŏngt’ae, “T’oegye ŭi chŏsŏ wa kŭ kanhaeng,” 83–155, esp. 91.

67    Han’gang sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:2a.

68    Tonggang chip, 12:21b.

69    Pak Kyunsŏp, “Ugye ŭi Chujasŏ ihae wa mundo kyoyuk ŭi p’yojun,” 79–108.

70    Chŏng Ch’ŏl, Songgang Yugo (ha), 6b.

71    Ryu T’agil, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ŭi p’yŏnch’an yut’ong kwa Pak Kwangjŏn ŭi wich’i,” 97–136.

72    T’oedo sŏnsaeng ŏnhaeng t’ongnok, 2:8a.

73    Although it seems that T’oegye and Pak had exchanged letters extensively, only one of them is extant (see T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 15: 40a–b).

74    Chukch’ŏn chip, 7: 2b.

75    Wŏlgan sŏnsaeng munjip sŏ, 1a–8a. See also Taesan sŏnsaeng munjip, 44:8a–10a.

76    Ryu T’agil suggests that Kim Sŏngil published this anthology in 1586, as the magistrate of Naju, based upon the record about Kim’s life. This version, however, is no longer extant (see Ryu T’agil, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ŭi p’yŏnch’an yut’ong kwa Pak Kwangjŏn ŭi wich’i,” 97–136; see also Hakpong sŏnsaeng munjip purok, 1:15a–b).

77    The Record of Lectures preserved in the Kyujanggak archive includes only eight chapters. The end of the eighth chapter states that Yi Tŏkhong compiled these chapters. It is believed that Yi Hamhyŏng (1550–1586) compiled the twelve missing chapters (see Yi Sangha, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ka Chosŏn cho e kkich’in yŏnghyang,” 8–9).

78    Ryu T’agil, “ ‘Chujasŏ chŏryo’ ŭi chusŏksŏ e taehayŏ,” 45–62.

79    Ubok sŏnsaeng pyŏlchip, 5:7b–8a.

80    Chumun chakhae pal, 3a–b.

81    Kang Munsik, “Song Siyŏl ŭi ‘Chuja taejŏn’ yŏn’gu wa p’yŏnch’an,” 71–95.

82    Songja taejŏn, 139 (sŏ):42b–43b.

83    Ryu, “Chujasŏ chŏryo ŭi p’yŏnch’an kanhaeng kwa kŭ huhyang,” xviii–xix.

84    Songja taejŏn, 139 (sŏ):43b.

85    U Kyŏngsŏp, “ ‘Chuja taejŏn sŭbyu’ Haejae,” 20.

86    Chusŏ yoryu sŏ, 1b.

87    Kang Munsik, “Cho Ik ŭi hangmun kyŏnghyang kwa ‘Chusŏ yoryu’ p’yŏnch’an ŭi ŭiŭi,” 97–133.

88    Miram sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:14b–16a.

89    Kim Chunsik, “ ‘Chusŏ paeksŏn’ ŭi pŏnyŏk e puch’im,” 33–37.

90    Udam sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:1a–2b (Sach’il pyŏnjŭng sŏ).

91    Sŏngho sŏnsaeng chŏnjip, 49:18b–20b, especially 19b (Sach’il sinp’yŏn sŏ).

92    Sŏngho sŏnsaeng chŏnjip, 54:27a–32a (Sach’il sinp’yŏn husŏl).

93    Ijasŏ chŏryo pal, 1a–2a.

94    Ijasŏ chŏryo sŏ, 1a–2a.

95    Ijasŏ chŏryo pal, 1a.

96    Miram sŏnsaeng munjip, 24:33a.

97    Ch’ŏngdae sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:10b–11b.

98    Sŏngho sŏnsaeng chŏnjip, 13:25a–28b, esp. 25b–26a.

99    Hwisang Cho, “The Community of Letters,” 260–337.

100  Yŏyudang chŏnsŏ, che 1-chip, 22:1a–12a, esp. 1a.

101  Richter, “Letters and Letter Writing in Early Medieval China,” 1–29.

102  Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, 203.

103  Richter, Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China, 6.

104  McDermott, A Social History of the Chinese Book, 65.

1      Sarim, literally meaning “backwoods scholars,” has been considered a group of Chosŏn scholars who inherited the ethos of those Confucians who kept fidelity to the Koryŏ and retreated to the countryside, where they delved into scholarship. Martina Deuchler, however, has shown that fewer than half of sarim scholars originated from Kyŏngsang, whereas the other half had lived in the capital and its environs. Regardless of their different regional origins, sarim scholars’ emphasis on unwavering loyalty motivated them to advocate Confucian ethical principles and called for their implementation in politics. The academic lineage of this group had been constructed beginning in the sixteenth century (see Yi Sugŏn, Yŏngnam sarimp’a ŭi hyŏngsŏng; Yi Sugŏn, Yŏngnam hakp’a ŭi hyŏngsŏng kwa chŏn’gae; and Deuchler, Under the Ancestors’ Eyes, 74).

2      Wagner, The Literati Purges.

3      T’oegye was involved in the establishment of at least ten academies from 1549 (see Chŏng Manjo, Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 40–41).

4      Hejtmanek, “The Elusive Path to Sagehood,” 251–59; Chŏng Manjo, Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 23–32.

5      Chŏng Manjo, Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 36.

6      Chŏng Sunmok in Hejtmanek, “Sŏwŏn in Chosŏn Korea, 1543–1741,” 280–81.

7      Yi Sŏngmu, “The Influence of Neo-Confucianism on Education and the Civil Service Examination System in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century Korea,” 125–60.

8      Duncan, “Examinations and Orthodoxy in Chosŏn Dynasty Korea,” 80 and 93–94.

9      Chŏn, “Chosŏn hugi ŭi kyosaeng,” 281–318.

10    The number of local academies ranges from 582 to 701 in different statistics produced in the late Chosŏn period. Two statistics produced during the Japanese colonial period indicate 680 and 684, respectively (see Yun Hŭimyŏn, “Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn chŏngch’aek kwa sŏwŏn ŭi sŏllip silt’ae,” 77).

11    Yi Sugŏn, Yŏngnam sarimp’a ŭi hyŏngsŏng, 152–53.

12    Yi T’aejin, Han’guk yugyo sahoe saron, 111.

13    Palais, “Political Leadership and the Yangban in the Chosŏn Dynasty,” 400.

14    Yi T’aejin, Han’guk yugyo sahoe saron, 111.

15    Yi T’aejin, Han’guk yugyo sahoe saron, 92; Kim Hyŏnyŏng, Chosŏn sidae ŭi yangban kwa hyangch’on sahoe, 445.

16    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 9:4a–8b.

17    Myŏngjong sillok, 10:6a–b and 10:12a.

18    The Chosŏn court granted official charters to 270 academies until the official abolition of academies in 1873.

19    Yun Hŭimyŏn, “Honam chiyŏk ŭi sŏwŏn kwa sarim munhwa,” 118.

20    Najita, Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan, 76.

21    Elman, “Rethinking ‘Confucianism’ and ‘Neo-Confucianism’ in Modern Chinese History,” 542.

22    Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.

23    Fraser, “Rethinking the Public Sphere,” 56–80.

24    Berry, Japan in Print, 249.

25    Haboush, “Academies and Civil Society in Chosŏn Korea,” 381–90. For the debate on the issue of civil society in pre-twentieth-century Korea, see Hein Cho, “The Historical Origin of Civil Society in Korea,” 24–41; Duncan, “The Problematic Modernity of Confucianism,” 36–56; and Koo, “The Origins of Public Sphere and Civil Society,” 381–409.

26    Fish, Is There a Text in This Class?

27    Walton, “Southern Sung Academies as Sacred Places,” 338 and 352.

28    Chŏng Kich’ŏl, “17-segi sarim ŭi ‘myoch’imje’ insik kwa sŏwŏn yŏnggŏn,” 118, 310, 349–50.

29    Chŏng Kich’ŏl, “17-segi sarim ŭi ‘myoch’imje’ insik kwa sŏwŏn yŏnggŏn,” 349–50.

30    Walton, Academies and Society in Southern Sung China, 113.

31    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:50a–b.

32    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:47a.

33    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:47a.

34    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:47a–b.

35    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:4a–b.

36    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 7:47b.

37    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:4b–6a.

38    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:7b.

39    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 12:7b–8a.

40    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:11b–12b.

41    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 4:17a–b.

42    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:8a–9b.

43    Chŏng Ku, Kugyŏk Han’gang chip, 1:98–99.

44    Chŏng Ku, ed., Kugyŏk Kyŏnghyŏnnok, 217–23.

45    Chŏng Ku, Kugyŏk Han’gang chip, 1:98–99.

46    Chŏng Ku, Kugyŏk Han’gang chip, 1:99–101.

47    Kuam sŏnsaeng munjip, 2:3b.

48    Kuam sŏnsaeng munjip, 2:9a–9b.

49    Chŏng Kŭkhu, Sŏak chi, 1a–b.

50    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 21:29b–32a.

51    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 21:35b–36a.

52    T’oegye sŏnsaeng sokchip, 4:19b–20a.

53    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:23b–24a.

54    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 22:6b–7a.

55    Kwanghaegun ilgi, 39:14b–17b.

56    Pu, Chosŏn sidae panggakpon ch’ulp’an yŏn’gu, 25–26, 56.

57    Sin Yangsŏn, Chosŏn hugi sŏjisa yŏn’gu, 195, 270–71.

58    Kang Chujin, “Sŏwŏn kwa kŭ sahoejŏk kinŭng,” 73.

59    Yun Hŭimyŏn, Chosŏn sidae ŭi sŏwŏn kwa yangban, 422.

60    Yi Ch’unhŭi, Yijo sŏwŏn mun’go mongnok, 24, 38–39.

61    Kuam sŏnsaeng munjip, 2:14a.

62    Kuam sŏnsaeng munjip, 2:14a–15a.

63    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 19:11a. T’oegye distributed the manuscript to his disciples for transcription in 1555 (see Chŏng Sunmok, T’oegye chŏngjŏn, 457). Kim Puryun (1531–1598) and Kŭm Nansu (1530–1604) also participated in the transcription process (see Sŏrwŏltang sŏnsaeng munjip, 6:2b; and Sŏngjae sŏnsaeng munjip, yŏnbo, 4a).

64    Hwang used movable type rented from Imgo Academy in Yŏngch’ŏn for the publication of this anthology in 1561 (see T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 19:7a–8b; and T’oegye sŏnsaeng sokchip, 4:4b–5b).

65    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 19:14a.

66    Kŭmgye sŏnsaeng munjip, 4:26a.

67    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 19:11b–12a.

68    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 19:14a.

69    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 20:14b–15a.

70    Genette, Paratexts, 12, 409.

71    Hanna, “Annotation as Social Practice,” 178.

72    T’oegye sŏnsaeng munjip, 15:4a–b.

73    Ki, Kugyŏk Kobong chip, 1:355.

74    Chow, Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China, 59.

75    Williams, Marxism and Literature, 145–50.

76    Messick, “Written Identities,” 25–51.

77    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:29–31, 413–14.

78    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:31–32, 415–16.

79    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:71–109, 435–45.

80    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:64–66, 431–32.

81    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:66–71, 432–34.

82    According to the Chosŏn laws, individuals’ social status was decided by that of both their parents. Therefore, the sons of yangban males and their nonelite concubines were categorized as a secondary social group, although they inherited their fathers’ last names. These secondary sons (sŏŏl) were not allowed to take the civil service examinations (see Hwang, Beyond Birth, 208–47).

83    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:112–13.

84    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:113–14.

85    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:114–15.

86    Kojong sillok, 22:29b–30a.

87    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:117–21.

88    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 1:121–22.

89    Yi Suhwan, “Yŏngnam chibang sŏwŏn ŭi kyŏngjejŏk kiban,” 273–309.

90    Son Pyŏnggyu, “Chosŏn hugi Kyŏngju Oksan Sŏwŏn ŭi nobi kyŏngyŏng,” 96.

91    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:70–72, 333–38.

92    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:177, 416.

93    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:150, 399–400.

94    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:138–41, 391–93. These documents were produced in Ŭllyu, Pyŏngsul, Muja, and Imjin years, but with no further information, it is impossible to determine when they were actually written.

95    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:84, 342–43. This petition was presented in the Sinmyo year, but with only this information, we cannot determine exactly when.

96    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:153–54, 404.

97    Jisoo M. Kim, “Women’s Legal Voice,” 667–86, esp. 674–75.

98    Tosan sŏwŏn komunsŏ, 2:114–17, 364–68.

99    Yi Sugŏn, Han’guk ŭi sŏngssi wa chokpo, 56.

100  Jeurgens, “The Scent of the Digital Archive,” 49.

101  Gully, The Culture of Letter-Writing in Pre-Modern Islamic Society, 13.

102  Davis, Fiction in the Archives.

103  For the relation between printed blanks and authority, see Gitelman, Paper Knowledge, 21–52; and Messick, The Calligraphic State, 232–51.

1      Peter Bol argues that these common practices of Song Chinese scholars in their efforts to pass the civil service examination bound nationwide elites together. The same practices also took place in Chosŏn academy education and integrated nationwide scholars into a community (see Bol, “The Sung Examination System and the Shih,” 149–71).

2      Tilly, Contentious Performances, 60.

3      Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious Politics, 20–21.

4      Shirky, “How Cellphones, Twitter, Facebook Can Make History,” TED Talks, June 2009, Washington, DC, www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_iN_QubRs0.

5      A similar genre, “she association circulars” (Ch. shesi zhuantie), had been widely used in medieval China for social gatherings for various purposes (see Galambos, “She Association Circulars from Dunhuang,” 853–77).

6      Hwisang Cho, “Circular Letters in Chosŏn Society,” 100–120.

7      Yi Sugŏn, “Yŏngnam yuso e taehayŏ,” 583–84.

8      For an example of this, see T’ongmun so ch’o in Keimyung University Tongsan Library (고) 951.091 통문소.

9      Kim Sŏkkŭn, “Yugyo kongdongch’e wa chibang chach’i,” 112–28, esp. 118–19.

10    The effectiveness of circular letters in mobilizing people for group actions also appears in popular literature. For the case of The Tale of Hŭngbu, see Kang Myŏnggwan, Chosŏn sidae munhak yesul ŭi saengsŏng konggan, 174.

11    Yi Sugŏn, “Yŏngnam yuso e taehayŏ.”

12    Sŏl, Chosŏn sidae yusaeng sangso wa kongnon chŏngch’i, 38.

13    Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious Politics, 35.

14    William Warner, Protocols of Liberty, 31–74, esp. 32–33 and 39.

15    Sunjo sillok, 2:29b–30a. For details about the failed rebellion in 1800, see Sunjo sillok, 1:20b and 1:23a–28a.

16    I have only found this kind of note slanted at 45 degrees in circular letters. I suspect that the production of such notes might be related to the seating order in the meetings. If the leader of the meeting sat at the center while referring to the document and the record keeper sat at his right side, this record keeper might have had to turn his body to the left and stoop down to record something on the original document, which could have made his notes on it slanted by 45 degrees.

17    The sillok does not include any information about the submission of joint memorials by this group.

18    Ch’a, “Uri nara chobo e taehan sinmunhakchŏk punsŏkko,” 65–102.

19    For these examples, see Han’guk Koganch’al Yŏn’guhoe, ed., Yet Munin tŭl ŭi Ch’osŏ Kanch’al, 166–67 and 176–77.

20    Daybell, Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England, 164.

21    Sood, “Correspondence Is Equal to a Half a Meeting,” 208.

22    Dierks, In My Power, 144.

23    Harrison, “Newspapers and Nationalism in Rural China 1890–1929,” 190.

24    For an example of this, see Kungnip Chungang Pangmulgwan Yŏksabu, ed., Kanch’al (i), 16–17.

25    William Warner, Protocols of Liberty, 46.

26    Michael Warner, The Letters of the Republic.

27    Sukchong sillok, 43:40a–41a.

28    Yŏngjo sillok, 2:5a–b.

29    For such cases during the Imjin War, see Sŏnjo sillok, 53:17b–20a. During this war, the court even considered prohibiting the publication of court newsletters for security purposes (see Sŏnjo sillok, 89:16a–17a). The Chosŏn court was equally eager to collect useful information from Chinese court gazettes (see Sŏnjo sillok, 46:2b–3a).

30    Sŏ Myŏngbin (1692–1763), for instance, challenged such an attempt by Yŏngjo in 1729 (see Yŏngjo sillok, 22:29a).

31    One sillok record describes these people as “those who are literate but idling away in the capital” (kyŏngjung sikcha yusik chi in). They might be the literati who did not have official positions, but Sŏnjo referred to them as “a group of slaves” (nobae) while suspecting that there were some literati instigators behind them. Another sillok record refers to the same group as kiin, which denoted Koryŏ provincial elites held in the capital as political hostages. The domination of political news by this rather politically ambiguous group might have been alarming enough for the state authority (see Sŏnjo sillok, 11:8b and 12:1b; and Sŏnjo sujŏng sillok, 12:1a).

32    Kim Yŏngju, “Chobo e taehan myŏt kkaji chaengchŏm,” 247–82.

33    See Sŏnjo sillok, 30:9a–b and 94:1a–b.

34    Kyŏngjong sillok, 13:18b–19a.

35    Studies on Western print culture have championed this idea of the “fixity” of contents and textual forms as the core characteristic of printed matter, as initially put forward by Elizabeth Eisenstein. Recently, some scholars have raised questions about this idea, most famously Adrian Johns. Johns claimed that even printed matter in early modern Europe suffered numerous variations that were unavoidable in the work of printers. Meanwhile, David McKitterick showed that the production of printed matter was heavily influenced by the tradition of manuscripts. Here I want to put more emphasis on the fixity of the language used in delivering the political news than on the physical forms of the printed matter (see Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change; Johns, The Nature of the Book; and McKitterick, Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450–1830).

36    Chartier, Inscription and Erasure, 60.

37    Rachel Scarborough King, “The Manuscript Newsletter and the Rise of the Newspaper, 1665–1715,” 411–37.

38    Harrison, “Newspapers and Nationalism in Rural China 1890–1929,” 190–92.

39    The first printed modern-style newspaper was Hansŏng sunbo, which was published every ten days starting on October 31, 1883.

40    The political elites, however, monitored the political information appearing in newspapers. The copies of Hansŏng sunbo were delivered to the royal court for the review of both the king and the crown prince as well as various government offices. The elites also attempted to control the political information available to the public; the Office of the Royal Secretariat offered the court gazettes to the Bureau for the Dissemination of Texts (Pangmun’guk), which published this newspaper. These traditional court newsletters functioned as the base sources for modern newspapers (see Yi Kwangrin, “Hansŏng sunbo wa Hansŏng chubo e taehan il koch’al,” 1–45, esp. 5).

41    Duncan and Haboush, “Memorials to the Throne,” 42–55.

42    Early Chosŏn kings also capitalized on the commoners’ petitions to repress the increasing influence of political elites (see Hwisang Cho, “Feeling Power in Early Chosŏn Korea”).

43    Sŏl, Chosŏn sidae yusaeng sangso wa kongnon chŏngch’i, 403–4.

44    Kim and Kim, Chosŏn sidae ŭi ŏllon munhwa, 65.

45    See Hwisang Cho, “The Epistolary Brush,” 1073–74.

46    Kim Yŏngju, “Chosŏn sidae Sŏnggyun’gwan yusaeng ŭi kwŏndang, konggwan yŏn’gu,” 262.

47    Kim Yŏngju, “Chosŏn sidae Sŏnggyun’gwan yusaeng ŭi kwŏndang, konggwan yŏn’gu,” 267–68.

48    Kim Yŏngju, “Chosŏn sidae Sŏnggyun’gwan yusaeng ŭi kwŏndang, konggwan yŏn’gu,” 265. See also Chŏngjo sillok, 25:51a–b.

49    Kim Yŏngju, “Chosŏn sidae Sŏnggyun’gwan yusaeng ŭi kwŏndang, konggwan yŏn’gu,” 279–81.

50    Kim Yŏngju, “Chosŏn sidae Sŏnggyun’gwan yusaeng ŭi kwŏndang, konggwan yŏn’gu,” 284–85.

51    The collection of signatures was usually assigned to each academy, school, or clan organization for the sake of convenience. The booklets containing the signatures were forwarded to the committee and later transcribed on the memorials. Due to this convention, when receiving joint memorials, court ministers were suspicious of the legitimacy of the number of participants.

52    Hwisang Cho, “Joint Memorials,” 56–57; Sŏl, Chosŏn sidae yusaeng sangso wa kongnon chŏngch’i, 34–57.

53    Yi Suhwan, Chosŏn hugi sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 42.

54    Chŏng Manjo, Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 198–99; Yun Hŭimyŏn, “Chosŏn sidae sŏwŏn wŏnim yŏn’gu,” 41–68.

55    Sŏl, “Sŏnjo, Kwanghaegun tae Nammyŏng hakp’a ŭi kongnon hyŏngsŏng kwa munmyo chongsa undong,” 1–81.

56    Koo, “The Origins of the Public Sphere and Civil Society,” 397–98.

57    Injo sillok, 45:41a.

58    Hejtmanek, “Sŏwŏn in Chosŏn Korea, 1543–1741,” 278.

59    Hyojong sillok, 18:54a–55b.

60    Yŏngho Ch’oe, “Private Academies and the State in Late Chosŏn Korea,” 31.

61    Sukchong sillok, 55:10b–11a.

62    Yŏngjo sillok, 53:21a.

63    Kojong sillok, 8:17b–18a. See also Yi Suhwan, Chosŏn hugi sŏwŏn yŏn’gu, 344–84; Hejtmanek, “The Elusive Path to Sagehood,” 234.

1      Charles Tilly presented the repeated displays of collective worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment (WUNC) as one of three characteristics of the social movements that began to develop in England from the late eighteenth century. The other two include sustained campaigns directed at power holders to advance specific programs and the employment of a distinct repertoire. Although the collective activism in the late Chosŏn period involved only educated male elites, these cases did include all three characteristics. The definition of social movements in non-Western societies before modernity awaits more serious study (Tilly, Contentious Performances, 72).

2      Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious Politics, 98.

3      Sŏl, Chosŏn sidae yusaeng sangso wa kongnon chŏngch’i, 403–4.

4      Sŏl, Chosŏn sidae yusaeng sangso wa kongnon chŏngch’i, 89–90.

5      For instance, about one thousand Royal Academy scholars presented a joint memorial criticizing the Buddhists’ influence on state politics in 1560. Although the number of participating scholars exceeded that of Kim Ugoeng’s case, this joint memorial failed to elicit the policy change. Although the number of participants holds significance, it does not generate political impacts unless it is visualized as performative spectacles (see Myŏngjong sillok, 26:17a–19a and 26:19b–20a).

6      Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:9a–b.

7      Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:13a.

8      Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:14a–15a.

9      Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:16a–b, 17b–18a.

10    Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:18b.

11    Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:21a–b.

12    The sillok does not indicate exactly when Pou was executed. However, the annotation on abolishing state examinations for Buddhist monks in 1566 includes an official historian’s comment that the governor of Cheju Island executed Pou (see Myŏngjong sillok, 32:63a).

13    Hwisang Cho, “Joint Memorials,” 56–57.

14    Tarrow, The Language of Contention, 3.

15    Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 2:1a–5a.

16    Tarrow, The Language of Contention, 17.

17    The search gives a total of 1,091 results from T’aejo (r. 1391–1398) to Sunjong (r. 1907–1910). Out of these, 643 cases (58.9 percent) fall into the reigns from Sŏngjong to Sŏnjo—Sŏngjong (204), Yŏnsan (35), Chungjong (217), Injong (3), Myŏngjong (70), Sŏnjo (129), Sŏnjo sujŏng (11).

18    Tarrow, The Language of Contention, 15.

19    Sejo sillok, 39:35a.

20    Yulgok chŏnsŏ, 7:10a–15b, esp. 14b.

21    Kim Ugoeng’s record categorizes about 160 out of these 300 or so participants according to their affiliation with nine different academies, which suggests that local academies played a crucial role in mobilizing rural scholars for this political initiative (see Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:9b–11a).

22    Kaeam sŏnsaeng munjip, 3:9b–11a.