In 1983, Korean scholar Kang Ingu ignited a firestorm by announcing the discovery of keyhole-shaped tombs in the Yongsan River basin in the southwestern corner of the Korean peninsula. Keyhole-shaped tombs were considered symbols of early Japanese hegemony during the Kofun period (ca. 250 CE - 538 CE) and, until then, had only been known on the Japanese archipelago. This announcement revived long-standing debates on the nature of early "Korean-Japanese" relations, including the theory that an early "Japan" had colonized the southern Korean peninsula in ancient times. Nationalist Japanese scholars viewed these tombs as support for that theory, which Korean scholars vehemently rejected. Approaches to understand the eclectic nature of the keyhole-shaped tombs in the Yongsan River basin starkly revealed larger issues in the studies of early "Korean-Japanese" relations: 1) geonationalist frameworks, 2) hegemonic texts, and 3) core-periphery models of interaction.

This dissertation critiques these issues and evaluates the various claims made on the origins of the keyhole-shaped tombs in the Yongsan River basin, the racial identity of the entombed, and their geopolitical circumstances. In order to avoid the pitfalls of nationalist and text-centered frameworks, I apply a holistic approach to these tombs by combining a critical analysis of the available historical texts with a quantitative analysis of the archaeological material. In addition, this project addresses questions of territorial control and borders of historical states, such as Paekche on the Korean peninsula and Yamato on the Japanese archipelago in relation to these tombs. I argue that these tombs arose from interactions between autonomous polities in the textually defined borderlands or frontier regions of the historical states of Paekche and Yamato. This study illuminates the role of these "borderlands" within the dynamic political changes occurring in early relations between groups on the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago which eventually led to the formation of an early "Korea" and "Japan." As a secondary objective, the dissertation illustrates how geonationalism (i.e. the projection of arbitrary geographical borders into the past), totalizing notions of territory and conquest, and the hegemonic nature of text-based narratives render these "borderlands" invisible and silent.

After Choson Korea was forced to open its ports in 1876 by Japan, Korea was incorporated into a regional East Asian economy based on the unequal treaty system and predicated on a structure of core and periphery relationships between the industrialized and industrializing nations. As the first modern bank in Japan, Daiichi Bank was the first Japanese bank to establish operations in the Korean open ports. Daiichi was heavily dependent on its business in Korea for survival, but it ultimately thrived within the fierce competition of the time. Daiichi also demonstrated the inherent contradiction of functioning as the erstwhile Korean central bank as well as a private commercial bank.

After annexation in 1910, Daiichi Bank transferred nearly all of its operations into the Bank of Chosen. The internal Japanese debate over the establishment of a stand-alone central bank between the Bank of Japan, Ministry of Finance, and colonial government established the Bank of Chosen with a separate-but-equal yen currency which placed colonial Korea on the periphery and insulated Japan from the Korean economy. Also, the Bank of Chosen aggressively expanded into Manchuria to remedy the colonial contradictions of a perpetual trade imbalance, but it also reinforced a new core-periphery relationship between colonial Korea and the Manchuria. The post-WWI economic crash, the 1923 Kanto Earthquake, and the 1927 Showa Financial Crisis presented new challenges for the Bank of Chosen which was forced to rely on a government-sponsored rescue.

After 1945, the Bank of Chosen continued to play a pivotal role in the southern economy under American occupation authority. Despite the internal power struggle between the Bank of Chosen and the Ministry of Finance over the creation and independence of the South Korean central bank, the prominence and authority of the Bank of Chosen ensured continuity in the institution and personnel in the new Bank of Korea. The histories of Daiichi Bank, the Bank of Chosen, and the Bank of Korea thus demonstrate the continuity and contingent adaptations of these institutions with the demands of the state as they traversed late nineteenth and early twentieth century Korea, Japan, and Manchuria.

This dissertation explores the contacts, conflicts, and contestations surrounding Seoul's city walls, and how they shaped Seoul's transformation and Korea's transition from the opening of the ports to the early colonial period (1876-1919). One of the main goals in this dissertation is to assert the inseparable connection between the capital and its city walls in the premodern period, and thereby the importance of examining various contestations and negotiations over its city walls in understanding Seoul's transformation into a modern city. More specifically, not only was the construction of Seoul's city walls instrumental in establishing Seoul as a capital and Chosŏn as a dynasty, but also its very existence came to symbolize royal authority and national sovereignty within the changing sociopolitical conditions of the Chosŏn dynasty as well as the diplomatic relationships in the larger East Asian contexts. In the same way, I argue that, the reverse, the destruction of the walls--both as symbolic and physical boundaries--played a significant role in Seoul's transformation and Korea's transition from the premodern to modern period in the global context. By largely focusing on forces from above and their intentions, the existing scholarship presents Seoul's transformation during this period as a progression from the royal capital Hansŏng (1394-1897) to the imperial capital Hwangsŏng (1897-1910), before being disrupted by Japanese rule as the colonial city Kyŏngsŏng (1910-1945). Stepping outside this teleological explanation, my dissertation challenges and adds complexities to the existing narratives by revealing how the Taehan Empire's efforts to make Seoul as a spatial manifestation of its imperial power were contested by other historical groups' attempts to respatialize the capital with different agendas: to an extraterritorial space, a democratic space, and a colonial space. Within a larger theoretical framework of the mutually constitutive relationship between space and society, this study argues that the transformation of Seoul from a walled to an open space was a process in which various historical actors competed against and cooperated with one another to make Seoul a new space of possibilities, at the crossroads of modernity in Korea.

This dissertation engages two separate lines of inquiry simultaneously. The first of these involves a series of close readings of a text from the Namwŏn region in 1730s Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) called the Collected Volume of Administrative Reports and Inter-agency Communications of Namwŏn County [K. Namwŏn-hyŏn ch’ŏppo imun sŏngch’aek]. Each of these close readings asks how specific aspects of society, politics, law, and culture in Chosŏn might be re-thought in light of the content of the cases—specifically, in light of the processes of negotiation that drove the unfolding of those cases. Each body chapter presents a stand-alone argument. Chapter 1 re-examines established understandings of the relationship between the state’s ritual and legal codes. Previously, law was considered to play a supplementary or complementary role to ritual. In this case, however, an argument emerged concerning the possibility that legal codes might occasionally frustrate the execution of ritual. Chapter 2 examines the position of slaves in late-Chosŏn law. The analysis focuses on the Namwŏn magistrate’s strategic use of rhetoric to resolve a lawsuit concerning a brutal assault on a slave. His intricate rhetorical strategy (one that contained many contradictory messages) reveals the complicated position of slaves in the legal system, which in turn allowed magistrates to develop such creative strategies if necessary. Chapter 3 argues for a re-evaluation of the position of Buddhist temple communities in the state corv�e system. Though the state undoubtedly extracted from the Buddhists, at the same time the system itself created an interdependent relationship between the state and the temples, thus providing the Buddhists an opportunity to articulate their interests and problems. Chapter 4 examines a local conspiracy by several men to install a friend and distant relative as the head of the Local Elite Bureau and concludes that the group grossly miscalculated the degree to which local elite interests guarded that appointment process. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the nature of inter-magistrate relationships through the lens of the illicit movement of people. It concludes that disparities in rank played little role in determining negotiations between magistrates, that rank seems to have been “empty,” merely a reflection of the scope of duties within local boundaries.

The second investigation concerns the scope of the power of magistrates in local society. Previous scholarship often portrays the 18th- and 19th-century magistrates as strongly empowered and exploitative—for these reasons, the misrule of magistrates formed a core grievance of Korea’s noted 19th-century rebellions. However, the cases above show that the Namwŏn magistrate actually operated with variable levels of power. The degree to which the magistrate influenced local actors depended heavily on the institutions and interests implicated in his negotiations. None of this is to deny the reality that magistrates mistreated local populations during this period; however, the dissertation does argue that, when one moves from moments of dramatic action and resistance to moments of everyday life and negotiation, the power of magistrates seems much more variable and contingent, a fact that local populations recognized and knew how to exploit. In short, the dissertation proposes a gradated understanding of magistrate power.

This dissertation examines whether, among Koreans in the premodern period, there existed a shared collective identity that could be utilized by modernizing nationalists and that significantly informed the nature of nationalism in twentieth century Korea. The specific time this dissertation delves into is the period of the Chosǒn dynasty (1392-1910), especially the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which are believed to be the most important period of Korea’s institutional and philosophical systemization. Examining the reciprocal interactions among Chosǒn people and their accompanying political and intellectual debates, this dissertation explores how the government’s state-building project, generally understood as Korea’s Confucianization in existing studies, contributed to the construction of a shared collective identity among the constituent social groups of Chosǒn.

This dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter One delves into ritual debates such as the debates on the sacrifice to Heaven during the early Chosǒn period in which the Chosǒn elite should refer to their state’s history and tradition to support their arguments. Chapter Two deals with the tension between Korea’s socio-cultural heritage and the new cultural and institutional tendencies accompanied by the influx of Neo-Confucianism in the late fifteenth century. Chapter Three examines how the elite’s efforts to transmit their core values to the non-elite influenced the construction of people’s sense of belonging to a larger collectivity whose members shared the same social and cultural values. The final chapter discusses how the non-elite in Chosǒn reacted to the elite’s guidance and how they reinterpreted the values the elite emphasized. This chapter leads to the conclusion that the systemization of rituals and institutions where various social groups of Chosǒn people could reciprocally interact contributed to the construction of a certain Koreanness

By putting more emphasis on Korea’s historical and cultural context, this dissertation suggests that Korea had its own process of change, constructing a distinctive political and social entity which is different from but not inferior to Western nation-states. Also, questioning dangerous generalizations about “Asian” or “Confucian” cultures, this dissertation posits that Korea and other Asian cultures should be seen not as backwaters outside the mainstream of world history but rather as representative examples of the historical processes of nation formation.

This dissertation examines the questions concerning the writing of history of leprosy and of diseases in Korea. In this dissertation, I argue that despite the wealth of literature available on the history of leprosy around the world, there has yet been an examination of the very act of writing history of disease such as leprosy. I present the Korean history of leprosy as case study for exploring the limitations, problems and strengths in writing history of disease. Korea is a good place to examine these questions as Korea was not colonized by a Western power and does not have tropical climate. Western imperialism and tropical disease have been two concepts most frequently used to explain the history of leprosy. As Korea has neither of these two conditions, the Korean history of leprosy presents interesting challenges and provokes further questions as to whether a history of leprosy can be written. `Can history of leprosy be written?' is a question that is explored through Korean history of leprosy from the pre - modern Chosŏn to post - Korean era that is examined in this dissertation.

Abstract

The image of a hero reflects the desires, ideals and dreams of the people of a given time. ¡°It is in times of emergency that heroes are looked for, and found,¡± as Lucy Huges-Hallett pointed out. In times of war or social disorder, people look for someone who can save them from chaos. That is why these intellectuals of the colonial period gathered to find heroes from the past. If the environment is what creates necessity for a hero, what does the type of heroic figures tell us about the past or present?

The role of heroes in premodern Korean literature is similar to what Ruhlmann depicts. They ¡°embody current values and ideals¡± which can be understood in part as Confucianism, and they also ¡°convey a powerful image of the conflicting forces at work in the society of their time.¡± Furthermore, if, as Frederic Jameson argued in The Political Unconscious, narratives are ¡°socially symbolic acts,¡± then works of popular fiction may be seen as texts representing an ¡°individual parole or utterance¡± of ¡°collective and class discourses,¡± since such works simultaneously represent perspectives of writers and readers, the literati and commoners in the Chosŏn period (1392-1897).

By investigating heroes in premodern literature, we can find an answer to the question of ¡®who created which heroes for whom?¡¯ Furthermore, it is also important to look at any differences of heroic images within the same period to see how they may vary depending on social class, gender, and region. The answer to these questions tells us about current values and ideas, in addition to class/gender conflicts of the time. This dissertation will specifically focus on Korean hero fiction (yŏng¡¯ung sosŏl; Ó¢ÐÛСÕf) in the late Chosŏn period, a genre considered to be most ¡°influenced¡± by Chinese works.

Hero fiction was the most popular literary genre in premodern Korea. For that reason, we can consider writing/reading/circulating hero fiction as a reflection of contemporary popular culture. John Storey defines popular culture in five different ways. First, ¡°popular culture is simply culture that is widely favored or well liked by many people.¡± Second, ¡°it is the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture.¡± Third, popular culture is ¡°a mass culture.¡± In this case its focus is on commercial culture. Fourth, ¡°popular culture is the culture that originates from the people.¡± Lastly, it is ¡°a site of struggle between the ¡®resistance¡¯ of subordinate groups and forces of ¡®incorporation¡¯ operating in the interests of dominant groups.¡±

Using Storey¡¯s five definitions of popular culture, I will examine four major works of hero fiction: A Dreams of Nine Clouds (Kuun mong) Record of Black Dragon Year (Imjin rok) and Tale of Hong Kyewŏl (Hong Kyewŏl chŏn). By examining these three hero fictions, we will be able to see how popular culture functions against dominant elite culture in the late Chosŏn period. This kind of study will be a foundation for examining the cultural, social and literary characteristics of that time.

The scholarship on the history of Korea-U.S. interactions (1866 onwards) remains limited from 1905 to 1945. As the Japanese protectorate ended Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations, scholars have often focused on the interactions up to 1905 and after 1945. In doing so, the literature occluded non-diplomatic interactions that continued throughout the colonial period and their significance to post-1945 relations and to Korean society generally. This dissertation redresses this issue by exploring pre-1945 Korean diplomatic, cultural, and intellectual engagements with America--with a focus on "Americanism" during the colonial period--and their significance to Korean society.

This dissertation argues that these engagements with America were significant to Korea's modern experience in two ways. First, within the contexts of colonialism and the global rise of the U.S. and "Americanism" post-WWI, a significant group of Koreans articulated America as the source of political and cultural solutions for Korea's colonial situation and upheld American institutions and developments as models. This articulation of America, in turn, had direct links to the adoption of American models in certain reform and development efforts in South Korea. Second, America became a significant vantage point for the contradictions of capitalist modernity and a specific reference point for articulating Korea's particularity.

This study asserts global dynamics as an inseparable dimension to Korea's engagement with America. The Koreans' discourse on America is explored in relation to the post-WWI rise of the U.S. and Europe's and East Asia's discourse on America in the 1920s and 1930s. This project's contributions are two-fold. First, by revealing the often overlooked significances of America in Korea during the colonial period, the project offers a way to historicize and better understand the discourses and patterns that govern post-1945 relations. Second, it highlights the temporal simultaneity and resemblances in Americanism in Korea with that of other parts of the world, and roots them in capitalism that allowed for forms of Americanisms to rise globally at the same time and make them gain currency in each region. Through this global framework and emphasis in the roots in capitalism, the project rethinks the tendency in Korean historiography to privilege Japanese mediation of Western civilization when examining the origins of modern Korea.

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

An Ancient and Glorious Past:

Koguryo in the Collective Memories of the Korean People

by

Hyung-Wook Kim

Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures

University of California, Los Angeles, 2012

Professor John B. Duncan, Chair

Scholars generally agree that nationalism first emerged in the late eighteenth century, and

that collective memories shared by members of a society contributed to the formation of modern

nationalism. It does not mean, however, that collective memories did not exist before the modern

period. In contrast to some modernist arguments, long before modern nationalism appeared in

Korea, there was distinct evidence of the existence of certain collective memories among literati.

Literati's memories of Koguryo throughout the pre-modern period and the influence of Koguryo

memories on the formation of Korean nationalism after the late nineteenth century strongly

indicate that collective memory should not be tied to the notion of modern nationalism.

It is apparent that since as early as the tenth century, Koryo literati considered Koguryo a

part of Korean history, and their recognition of Koguryo appeared in political, cultural, and

ethnic perspectives. The dynastic change from Koryo to Choson in 1392 did not cast doubt on

the literati's affirmation of Koguryo's position in Korean heritage, and elevated the status of

Confucianism in Choson, even contributing to consolidation of Koguryo memories among the

literati due to Koguryo's connection to the Kija tradition. Although memories of this ancient

kingdom were affected by the political situation of the time, especially during the early years of

the Choson-Ming relationship, Koguryo's status in Korean history was not questioned, and it still

remained historically viable after the notion of the so-called "last bastion" of Confucian

civilization emerged following the Ming's collapse.

Unquestionably, it was since the late nineteenth century when Koguryo memories were

arguably embedded in the collective memory of Koreans, as Korean nationalists ardently tried to

take advantage of Koguryo memories for their independence movements. In this period,

Koguryo memories, which had survived since the tenth century, fit well into the model of

collective memory as presented by Maurice Halbwachs. Additionally, its projection in the last

few decades, including in the relationship between North and South Korea, as well as Korea and

China regarding the ownership of Koguryo history, demonstrates how the collective memory of

Koguryo has been maintained and still operates vigorously today.

My dissertation aims at historicizing the formation, spread, and institutionalization of the discourse on pro-Japanese collaborators (ch'inilp'a discourse) in contemporary South Korean society from the late 1970s to the late 2000s. The ch'inilp'a discourse is a unique historical narrative that claims to resolve the issue of unpunished pro-Japanese collaborators--who were not punished right after Korea's liberation from Japan--in the present. This discourse attributes all post-1945 political mishaps to the failure to punish collaborators immediately after liberation. Located at the interlocking position of calling for dealing with the unsolved task of decolonization and democratic progress, the ch'inilp'a discourse reflects a victimized postcolonial historical consciousness of Korean progressives and functions as progressives' powerful political rhetoric against political conservatives after the demise of radical socio-political reform movement in the early 1990s.

Closely looking at media coverage and intellectual writings on pro-Japanese collaboration issue, this dissertation examines how specific socio-political culture and events interactively worked together to form, disperse, and popularize this discourse, after bringing this once-taboo subject back into society in the 1980s to the biggest polemical issue in politics and civil society by the 2000s. Furthermore, the rise of the movement for resettling the ch'inilp'a issue (Ch'inilp'a ch'ŏngsan movement), in association with memorial project disputes, drastically reshaped public memory of powerful post-1945 elites as well as 20th century Korean history.

The inarguable political victory of the discourse--successfully transforming itself from a marginalized historical narrative to a state-sanctioned one--was greatly indebted to its reproduction and mobilization of historical trauma from Japanese colonialism and unhealed memory in postcolonial Korea. The birth of the ch'inilp'a discourse is closely tied to the strong postcolonial historical consciousness of progressives, encapsulated with a phrase "liberated, but in fact not," and associated with the absence of a "proper" decolonization process, continuing foreign influence, and frustrated democratization process up until the 1980s. However, the social phenomenon of ch'inilp'a at turn-of-the-21st-century Korea has taken place at the intersection of the rise of a new form of anti-foreign nationalism and desire for further democratic progress among the public after Korea's democratization in 1987.