Kim Young (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Participating in the Jangseogak Summer Hanmun Workshop 2017 at the Academy of Korean Studies was a truly unique experience for me. I cannot innumerate all the exceptional benefits offered by this program, but I will try to list just a few.
First, the program was true to its goal: by immersing myself in the study of hanmun sources day and night for the three weeks, I could feel that my ability to comprehend hanmun improved significantly, and along with it came a deeper understanding of Joseon Korea. Types of sources we read included royal edicts, economic contracts selling land and slaves, documents of property distribution, philosophical essays, literary tales and poems, and so on. I especially enjoyed reading documents of economic transaction and property distribution, which gave me a vivid picture of social, economic, and familial life of the Joseon dynasty. I very much appreciated the special lectures given by the Jangseogak experts who taught us how to read and make use of these documents. The lectures opened up for us a whole new world of Korea’s old documents, an enchanting and fascinating encounter that will permanently change how I conceptualize Joseon Korea and conduct my future research.
No matter how interesting the materials were, this workshop would not have been so rewarding without the efforts of most passionate professors and peers. We as students had the privilege of learning from top-notch, multi-lingual professors who were extremely knowledgeable, caring, funny, and inspiring. It was humbling to see the professors not once lose their dedication to students and enthusiasm for teaching throughout the excruciating schedules. They not only tried to share with us every bit of their academic expertise and experiences, but they also created a discussion-based, cooperative environment where everyone could learn from each other and collectively produce output. I have yet to see a team of students more diverse in their academic and disciplinary interests, yet alike in their passion for learning. In such a short time, I feel that we formed a lifelong community of friends and mentors to cooperate and support each other in our future tasks of teaching, learning, and researching.
A group of capable staff ensured that all the participants stayed safe and healthy throughout the program and made the most out of their visit to Korea. They organized two field-trips, one to Namyangju and the other to Ganghwado, both of which were very informative, exciting, and accompanied by gastronomic pleasures. Thanks to the staff’s good planning and care, everyone in our cohort stayed healthy (save for some minor aches) in the hot and humid Korean summer, and managed to see Korea and have fun in between the demanding classes. Overall, I had such an amazing experience that the three weeks felt all too short, and with the friends, teachers, and staff I had, (call me a nerd but) I could have kept going. I encourage all overseas Koreanists and scholars in related fields to apply to this program because it truly is an opportunity too good to be missed. It is an experience I will continue to treasure and miss for sure.

Ahn Kanghun (Leiden University)

My name is Kanghun Ahn, and I am a ResMA (Research Master) student in Asian Studies at Leiden University, Netherlands. In the 2017 summer, I attended the Hanmun workshop at the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS hereafter). I really enjoyed this workshop, as it is a very rare opportunity to read/study traditional Korean sources written in classical Chinese. In fact, my home university (Leiden) is famous for its long-standing emphasis on philological methodology as primary means of one’s research. In this sense, I cannot forget having taken the course [Topical Readings in Premodern Chinese], given by Prof. Hilde de Weerdt, in which we read the local gazetteers of the Ming dynasty together last semester. The course per se was very instructive, as the professor had us translate each passage line by line (even character by character), and provided a lot of advice on Chinese particles/grammatical terms as a whole. However, not only is the number of students attending such classes rapidly decreasing, but one cannot expect any classical Chinese course on premodern Korea (and Japan) to be held. For this reason, it should have been a great chance for everyone in this workshop (especially those working in the field of Korean studies outside of Korea) to study premodern Korean texts of various kinds.
First of all, I would like to thank my teacher Prof. Song Jae-yoon for his erudition and enthusiasm throughout the workshop. I have never seen such a passionate teacher, who indeed endures six hours of teaching on a daily basis, but never ceases to motivate his students, and endeavors to provide as much of his knowledge as possible. In particular, his philological rigor was outstanding. (Later I realized that he is a close friend of Prof. de Weerdt.) Not only did he teach how to read classical Chinese sources thoroughly, but he also focused on how to translate each and every line of them in a meticulous fashion. In fact, it is one of the biggest dilemmas for those working on Korea in the West to translate certain technical (or laden) terms into modern (understandable) English in an authentic sense. In this regard, Prof. Song gave a number of precedents to help us translate (more effectively) on the grounds of Western scholars’ established translations, which enabled us to enhance our translation skills and methods to a great extent. Furthermore, he was a very open-minded teacher, allowing different translations of given passages, which occasionally resulted in fierce, yet constructive debates between students. Last but not least, he always attempted to prompt our scholarly potential, by making us pull out as many research questions as possible over the sources, so we could situate them in a broader (and historical) perspective.
I would say that what makes this workshop truly unique (and successful) is its “diversity” on multiple levels. First and foremost, a great level of diversity in classroom enabled a wonderful atmosphere for various academic exchanges between classmates. Indeed, the students in this workshop came from different parts of the world, including China, America, Eastern/Western Europe etc. And I am sure that their fresh/different perspectives will make a great contribution to enriching the field of Korean studies, by pulling up new (and even unprecedented) questions over its various narratives. Moreover, they contained different academic backgrounds after all. Hence, their regional/disciplinary foci were radically expansive, including Chinese/Korean/European (art) history, linguistics, literature, digital humanities (DH) etc, and they presented their interest in different kinds of sources accordingly. Personally, I learned a lot from Chinese students, in particular, in the field of sinology. Since most of the references in premodern Korean texts are predicated upon ancient Chinese classics, their expertise in various Chinese texts helped me figure out a bunch of (Chinese) proper nouns, including names, cities, anecdotes, official titles etc, in premodern Korean sources. (Prof. Song, a specialist of medieval China, also helped me a great deal in this regard.) As a whole, this made me realize that in order to study Korean history, the knowledge of Chinese history & classics is more than indispensable. Furthermore, this pushed me toward the question of how to understand China, Korea, and Japan comprehensively, which had been my persistent research topic during my academic years at Leiden.
Overall, we went through a diverse range of documents, including royal edicts, literati writings, private contracts, Buddhist texts etc., based on various types of classical Chinese scripts. Since I am working on East Asian intellectual history, a group of royal/literati writings helped me enhance my understanding of the doctrines (and general paradigms) of Chosŏn rulers/elites at various stages. However, the Idu script, in particular, was rather new and strange to me, even though I once learned it, at least a bit, during my high school years. Especially, the combination of classical Chinese and the Idu script, which had been deeply embedded in Chosŏn’s writing system among private contracts, was extremely confusing to everyone. Nevertheless, Doctor An Seung-jun’s expertise in Chosŏn old documents was indeed helpful in deciphering such sources. Also, he provided a number of tips on widely used particles and idiomatic phrases in the Idu script, which brought me a great deal of confidence in reading similar formats of documents. Later this gave rise to a range of research questions in regard to the characteristics of Chosŏn’s slavery system, as well as how the Chosŏn government (statehood) operated in this regard. As a whole, it was interesting to see how a careful examination of primary sources could bring about a broad range of creative research questions through this workshop.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone working at the AKS, who did their best to make this workshop a success. First of all, Han Do-hee, a serious student of philosophy at the AKS, and a diligent one having never missed any class of the workshop, truly dedicated himself to helping us deal with any sort of problems here as strangers. Moreover, his expertise in Chosŏn’s various documents was instrumental in keeping us informed and motivated in classroom. Also, I’d like to give special thanks to Lee Tae-hee, who had been in charge of “everything,” including a wide range of unexpected dysfunctions here and there. Overall, it has been a very intensive workshop, as indicated by the announcement, but it should be worthwhile, especially for those who have a serious interest in classical Chinese sources, to participate in it, and exert themselves to enhance their literary Chinese reading skills. (At any rate, it’s a beautiful campus, with a lot of nature/cultural places involved, and the quality of the guesthouse is truly second-to-none.) Hence, I would strongly encourage future students here to study hard, make the most of this opportunity, and keep this tradition alive.