Korean translations not up-to-snuff
A growing number of Korean literary works are being translated into English, thanks to the governments more aggressive financial support. However, experts have often pointed out that quantity tends to override quality in those projects, leading to sloppy and inaccurate translations.
The state-run Korea Literature Translation Institute, a fledgling agency that promotes such projects and trains translators of Korean literature, revealed that about 40 percent of state-sponsored translation projects have serious problems with accuracy.
The readability of translated Korean literature has been improving at a steady pace, but we have found that many of the translations have passages which are inaccurate when placed beside the original Korean texts, said Song Seung-cheol, a professor at Hallym University, at a press conference in Seoul last week.
Under the project initiated by the KLTI, Song led a team of 10 Korean professors specializing in English literature and four foreign scholars to review major English versions of Korean literature. They reviewed 72 works that were translated from about 1910 to 1999, and rated 29 of them -- about 40 percent -- at C+ or C. Only seven works got the top rating of A.
The overall quality of translations of Korean literature into English is far from satisfactory, but, given that more efforts are being made to produce better translations, the quality, in terms of accuracy and faithfulness, is likely to improve, Song said.
He added that English translations of Korean literature significantly improved in the 1990s, but then the level stagnated, which demonstrates the absence of a systematic and long-term approach to high-quality translating.
The first-ever study of the quality of translations also led to a couple of revealing findings which contradict the conventional wisdom. For a start, some Korean translators got higher scores than non-Koreans. It was often assumed that foreign translators would produce better and more accurate translations, but the research shows that there are many distorted meanings and other mistakes when non-Korean translators have worked without any Korean partner.
The most reliable translations came from joint work, which highlights the need to have more projects involving experts from Korea and English-speaking countries.
Another unexpected finding was that many well-known Korean translators got lower scores. For instance, Ahn Jung-hyo, a novelist and translator, and Suh Jee-moon, a professor of English and a top-rated translator, received a C.
In a booklet that provides the comprehensive analyses of translated literature, all the translators are identified, which was a potentially controversial move by the KLTI and the research team, since translators reputation could be undermined by the report.
Identifying translators and also grading their work was a very hard decision because people involved in the research could take it very negatively, but we decided to go ahead with the full disclosure because we believe this will lead to more substantial translation reviews and criticism in the future, Song said.
He warned, however, that the research results reflect only the quality of the translations included in the project: What should be noted is that the ratings we gave will not affect their future applications to government-sponsored translation projects, he said.
Yoon Ji-kwan, head of the KLTI, said that translators whose work was criticized in the research will find the results embarrassing, but the research was needed to check how government money was spent to make Korean literature more internationally recognized. We expect this research to provide serious momentum for translators and critics to discuss key translation issues more deeply, Yoon said.
He added that the KLTI is working on the countrys first English anthology of Korean literature to provide a comprehensive guide to Korean studies scholars and translators, and is preparing to open a translation academy in Seoul in September.
By Yang Sung-jin
(insight@heraldm.com)
2008.07.11
Copyright 2001 ~ 2003 Herald Media INC. All rights reserved.
Contact webeditor@heraldm.com for more information
A growing number of Korean literary works are being translated into English, thanks to the governments more aggressive financial support. However, experts have often pointed out that quantity tends to override quality in those projects, leading to sloppy and inaccurate translations.
The state-run Korea Literature Translation Institute, a fledgling agency that promotes such projects and trains translators of Korean literature, revealed that about 40 percent of state-sponsored translation projects have serious problems with accuracy.
The readability of translated Korean literature has been improving at a steady pace, but we have found that many of the translations have passages which are inaccurate when placed beside the original Korean texts, said Song Seung-cheol, a professor at Hallym University, at a press conference in Seoul last week.
Under the project initiated by the KLTI, Song led a team of 10 Korean professors specializing in English literature and four foreign scholars to review major English versions of Korean literature. They reviewed 72 works that were translated from about 1910 to 1999, and rated 29 of them -- about 40 percent -- at C+ or C. Only seven works got the top rating of A.
The overall quality of translations of Korean literature into English is far from satisfactory, but, given that more efforts are being made to produce better translations, the quality, in terms of accuracy and faithfulness, is likely to improve, Song said.
He added that English translations of Korean literature significantly improved in the 1990s, but then the level stagnated, which demonstrates the absence of a systematic and long-term approach to high-quality translating.
The first-ever study of the quality of translations also led to a couple of revealing findings which contradict the conventional wisdom. For a start, some Korean translators got higher scores than non-Koreans. It was often assumed that foreign translators would produce better and more accurate translations, but the research shows that there are many distorted meanings and other mistakes when non-Korean translators have worked without any Korean partner.
The most reliable translations came from joint work, which highlights the need to have more projects involving experts from Korea and English-speaking countries.
Another unexpected finding was that many well-known Korean translators got lower scores. For instance, Ahn Jung-hyo, a novelist and translator, and Suh Jee-moon, a professor of English and a top-rated translator, received a C.
In a booklet that provides the comprehensive analyses of translated literature, all the translators are identified, which was a potentially controversial move by the KLTI and the research team, since translators reputation could be undermined by the report.
Identifying translators and also grading their work was a very hard decision because people involved in the research could take it very negatively, but we decided to go ahead with the full disclosure because we believe this will lead to more substantial translation reviews and criticism in the future, Song said.
He warned, however, that the research results reflect only the quality of the translations included in the project: What should be noted is that the ratings we gave will not affect their future applications to government-sponsored translation projects, he said.
Yoon Ji-kwan, head of the KLTI, said that translators whose work was criticized in the research will find the results embarrassing, but the research was needed to check how government money was spent to make Korean literature more internationally recognized. We expect this research to provide serious momentum for translators and critics to discuss key translation issues more deeply, Yoon said.
He added that the KLTI is working on the countrys first English anthology of Korean literature to provide a comprehensive guide to Korean studies scholars and translators, and is preparing to open a translation academy in Seoul in September.
By Yang Sung-jin
(insight@heraldm.com)
2008.07.11
Copyright 2001 ~ 2003 Herald Media INC. All rights reserved.
Contact webeditor@heraldm.com for more information
From the Korea Times
Arts and Living Section
Online: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2008/07/135_26945.html
Yoon Ji-kwan, left, director of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI), announces the results of the first stage of the evaluation project of the published English translations of Korean literature along with Song Seung-cheol, English language and literature professor of Hallym University, head of the project team, at a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday.
/ Courtesy of Korea Literature Translation Institute
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Korean literature began being translated into foreign languages in the late 19th century. More recently, the number of translations has increased since the 1980s through the support of the government.
As of 2007, more than 700 translation works have been published in English-speaking countries, bringing about a dramatic surge in quantity. But what about the quality?
The Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI) started a two-year project in 2007 to evaluate published English translations of Korean literature. In the first stage of evaluation work. 41 novels in 72 editions from 721 books that had been translated and published up to 2006 were evaluated. The second stage of the survey will focus on poetry and be completed by the end of 2008.
The institute recently released the results of the first stage of the research.
The translated works were 72 editions of 41 original Korean literature works including ``Mujong'' (1917) written by Lee Kwang-soo and ``The Unbearable Sadness of Being'' (1999) by Gong Ji-young.
``It is the first time for the state-run institute to conduct a large-scale project to evaluate the quality of the translated works published in English-speaking countries,'' Yoon Ji-kwan, director of the institute, told reporters in a press brief.
The project involves 10 Korean and four foreigner translation experts, Ivan Canadas, John Frankl, Alec Gordon and Carl Krockel.
The results of this project will be used to estimate the level and problems of Korean literature translated into English and for establishing an important database for its improvement.
The standards of the evaluation focus on loyalty to the original texts and how natural and easy to understand the pieces are. The translated works are divided into six grades ― A+, A, B+, B, C+ and C.
According to the project, only 10 percent, or seven, among the 72 translated works scored an A in high reliability. Two thirds were evaluated as non-reliable (grade B to C) translations. There were no grade A+ works.
Classifying the works by era revealed that were no grade A translations in the 1980s, five percent of work that received an A came from the 1990s, and 25 percent in the 2000s, indicating a dramatic improvement in translation quality.
But grade A and B+ (relatively reliable) translated works by era showed a stagnant trend recently with 14 percent coming from the 1980s, 48 percent the 1990s and 50 percent in the 2000s, revealing that overall quality is in the doldrums.
Song Seung-cheol, English language and literature professor of Hallym University, head of the project team, said that most of the wrong and poor translations come from not a lack of English ability but a lack of historical background knowledge or poor Korean language skills.
``Also, the quality of the translation is closely related to Korean literature critique which guides the right interpretation of the original meaning. The poor translations are partly a result from a lack of understanding of the original works,'' Song said.
He said that the overall translated sentences sound natural, are easy to understand and show a good readability in general. ``But many have a problem in remaining loyal to the original text, which fails to revive the literary beauty and meaning,'' said Song.
Song said that in some cases, the mistranslations were a result of an editor's mistake and a translator's expediency.
``We found many problems with the translations, allowing us to get a grasp of where today's translations stand. So we will enhance our role to improve the quality of the translations,'' said Yoon.
To improve the quality of the translations, Yoon said the institute will introduce an anthology of modern Korean literature including the nation's representative novels, poems and plays including North Korean literature.
Also, he said the institute will train more translators including foreign translators who are good at Korean language in an effective system while promoting the publication copyrights to export them to foreign countries.
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr
Arts and Living Section
Online: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2008/07/135_26945.html
Yoon Ji-kwan, left, director of the Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI), announces the results of the first stage of the evaluation project of the published English translations of Korean literature along with Song Seung-cheol, English language and literature professor of Hallym University, head of the project team, at a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday./ Courtesy of Korea Literature Translation Institute
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Korean literature began being translated into foreign languages in the late 19th century. More recently, the number of translations has increased since the 1980s through the support of the government.
As of 2007, more than 700 translation works have been published in English-speaking countries, bringing about a dramatic surge in quantity. But what about the quality?
The Korea Literature Translation Institute (KLTI) started a two-year project in 2007 to evaluate published English translations of Korean literature. In the first stage of evaluation work. 41 novels in 72 editions from 721 books that had been translated and published up to 2006 were evaluated. The second stage of the survey will focus on poetry and be completed by the end of 2008.
The institute recently released the results of the first stage of the research.
The translated works were 72 editions of 41 original Korean literature works including ``Mujong'' (1917) written by Lee Kwang-soo and ``The Unbearable Sadness of Being'' (1999) by Gong Ji-young.
``It is the first time for the state-run institute to conduct a large-scale project to evaluate the quality of the translated works published in English-speaking countries,'' Yoon Ji-kwan, director of the institute, told reporters in a press brief.
The project involves 10 Korean and four foreigner translation experts, Ivan Canadas, John Frankl, Alec Gordon and Carl Krockel.
The results of this project will be used to estimate the level and problems of Korean literature translated into English and for establishing an important database for its improvement.
The standards of the evaluation focus on loyalty to the original texts and how natural and easy to understand the pieces are. The translated works are divided into six grades ― A+, A, B+, B, C+ and C.
According to the project, only 10 percent, or seven, among the 72 translated works scored an A in high reliability. Two thirds were evaluated as non-reliable (grade B to C) translations. There were no grade A+ works.
Classifying the works by era revealed that were no grade A translations in the 1980s, five percent of work that received an A came from the 1990s, and 25 percent in the 2000s, indicating a dramatic improvement in translation quality.
But grade A and B+ (relatively reliable) translated works by era showed a stagnant trend recently with 14 percent coming from the 1980s, 48 percent the 1990s and 50 percent in the 2000s, revealing that overall quality is in the doldrums.
Song Seung-cheol, English language and literature professor of Hallym University, head of the project team, said that most of the wrong and poor translations come from not a lack of English ability but a lack of historical background knowledge or poor Korean language skills.
``Also, the quality of the translation is closely related to Korean literature critique which guides the right interpretation of the original meaning. The poor translations are partly a result from a lack of understanding of the original works,'' Song said.
He said that the overall translated sentences sound natural, are easy to understand and show a good readability in general. ``But many have a problem in remaining loyal to the original text, which fails to revive the literary beauty and meaning,'' said Song.
Song said that in some cases, the mistranslations were a result of an editor's mistake and a translator's expediency.
``We found many problems with the translations, allowing us to get a grasp of where today's translations stand. So we will enhance our role to improve the quality of the translations,'' said Yoon.
To improve the quality of the translations, Yoon said the institute will introduce an anthology of modern Korean literature including the nation's representative novels, poems and plays including North Korean literature.
Also, he said the institute will train more translators including foreign translators who are good at Korean language in an effective system while promoting the publication copyrights to export them to foreign countries.
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr
Labels: editor
Fascinating conversation with The Translator on IM. He has sent me a short bit to edit and checked in to see how I was doing on it. In the course of that he referred to a piece he is working on that will shortly be passed along to me.
He started by discussing an IM conversation that the two of us had and it led to this conversation:
Every guidebook in the world somehow tries to tell the potential visitor that the cute girls in their school uniforms might be holding hands, but they aren't about to start a pillowfight, undress, and make out for you.
Similarly, the guys are quite close physically and bond tightly, but there is nothing overtly sexual about it.
But you TRANSLATE that stuff literally, and it's gonna be read a bit differently.
He started by discussing an IM conversation that the two of us had and it led to this conversation:
5:04:20 PM Translator: oh, wait a minute.Because there "are not gays" in Korea, because it is an intimacy culture in general, and because the sexes are quite separate until marriage, Korean is a physically familiar culture.
5:04:27 PM Editor: yah..
5:04:49 PM Translator: remember how we had a late night chat a while ago?
5:04:56 PM Editor: yep
5:05:03 PM Editor: fondly, of course..
5:05:08 PM Translator: exactly...
5:05:31 PM Translator: when you have some time, go over the chat history.....
5:05:36 PM Editor: ok..
5:05:42 PM Editor: what am I looking for?
5:06:00 PM Translator: we're pretty close to being a "brokeback mountain" in terms of "I miss you man" and stuff
5:06:05 PM Editor: heh..
5:06:09 PM Translator: right?
5:06:12 PM Editor: yeah..
5:06:17 PM Editor: but I'm not sleeping with you...
5:06:30 PM Editor: two tents! ;-)
5:06:33 PM Translator: now, you need to figure out when we get to cross the line and not crossing the line...
5:06:55 PM Translator: that''ll be the issue with the short story I'm translating for KLIT
5:07:01 PM Editor: your change in verb tense crosses the line!
5:07:05 PM Editor: ok.. I'll study.
5:07:11 PM Translator: :)
5:07:12 PM Editor: I am grasshopper. ;-)
5:07:38 PM Editor: as I think about that with respect to Korea..
5:07:44 PM Editor: isn't the line *farther*
5:07:52 PM Editor: as they don't believe in the ghey?
5:08:00 PM Translator: it seems all the guy to guy bonding/friendship things for Koreans turns out to be gay when translated into English
5:08:04 PM Editor: ah.. I get what you're saying..
5:08:07 PM Editor: yeah.. ok.
5:08:36 PM Translator: :)
5:08:53 PM Translator: man, i give you more homework than I do to my students...
5:08:54 PM Editor: things that Koreans routinely do, can read as gay in the West, even though they are miles from it..
5:09:02 PM Editor: got it...
5:09:14 PM Editor: so that becomes a translation issue..
5:09:15 PM Translator: this short story is so....gay
5:09:19 PM Editor: LOL
5:09:30 PM Translator: I have to picture it otherwise...
5:09:35 PM Translator: somehow
5:09:53 PM Editor: point taken and something interesting to work on..
5:10:06 PM Editor: since you'll have to leave that part in for the judges, but "neuter" it for the West..
5:10:07 PM Editor: outs..
5:10:23 PM Translator: hahaha...
Every guidebook in the world somehow tries to tell the potential visitor that the cute girls in their school uniforms might be holding hands, but they aren't about to start a pillowfight, undress, and make out for you.
Similarly, the guys are quite close physically and bond tightly, but there is nothing overtly sexual about it.
But you TRANSLATE that stuff literally, and it's gonna be read a bit differently.
Labels: editor
This thing is back.. I may have a job in Korea.. and I need a blog to just crap out the day to day stuff.. perhaps the manure heap for the other one... Also, just to mark things down as they happen. Should there ever be a book in Korea, for me or my boy, this will be the source... a diary if you will..
Cry of the Blade
Flowers bloomed in every abandoned isle. The setting sun bathed the blooming woods in golden hues, giving them the air of being puffy clouds, unchaining themselves from the main land and drifting away into the horizon. When the birds returned to the drifting isles, the setting sun retracted its reflections toward the horizon and was eventually extinguished. In the ocean, the rules were always the same and simple: far away isles were always called first into the setting sun and were rekindled and returned first from the rising sun. When the setting sun gathered up its last bit of sparking scale it scattered on the water, the ocean became black and the sound of the waves crashing themselves against cliffs tossed and turned in the darkness. The cliffs interrupted the line of sight inland. And, from over the black, quiet horizon enemy vessels approached with their wings stretched out, loaded with heaps of guns, cannons, spears and swords. I could not fathom the source of my enemy’s animosity, and the enemy probably could not sense the depth and intensity of my enmity against them. The hostility incomprehensible to either side stretched tightly across the darkened surface. Then, again, I had no vessels to carry myself and my enmity. I was released from the Seoul 의금부 on the fourth Moon of 정유년. The investigation I received was meaningless. The investigators, in reality, were not asking anything. They were after what was not there. I took pity on their words. They fitted what was not there in an intricate pattern under the most delicate touch and built an extensive vessel of a delusional framework. However, their vessel was not grounded in the nature of the ocean. Bound to the torture seat, I was facing nothing but phantoms. Beatings by the phantoms were painful and deep that they seeped into and broke my bones. I passed out many times on the boundary between the empty questions of the phantoms and the physical pain they inflicted which pushed my body to the cliff’s edge each time. After my release, I stayed at a small house outside the South Gate of Seoul. High officials sent their servants to convey their sympathy. Since I was still charged with treason, the officials sent only their servants instead. And even the servants did not stay long. I understood that solace did not exist in this world. On the way down to my new post, I tried to sweat out on heated floors the lasting backaches from the beating I received. It took me a month to reach the 권률 도원수부. That was the beginning of my service as a seaman without a rank, demoted from the position of Admiral. In the easterly breeze coming from 한산, 거제 and 고성, the stench of rotting human flesh wasunmistakable in mix with the delicate scent of freshly budding flowers. On the tail of ocean breeze that carried damp smell of the woods, the rancid odor of decomposing corpse was rampant. And on the skirts of that breeze came the musk of spring flowers of the isles. 경상 coast was literally covered with dead bodies missing either the noses or the entire heads. Chosun navy decapitated the Japanese behind the front line in a relative safety from the cannon balls and arrows hailing from sky, and the Japanese seamen cut out the noses of their enemy. The severed parts were packed in salt and presented to the respective superior offices. The body parts were the evidence of their achievement. It was simply impossible to identify one’s fellow soldiers from the enemy in that heap of parts. Hence, on the ocean, everyone who was an enemy to the other hacked off the noses and heads of his enemy, salvaging parts from the dead. Every regional governor had run away before his line of defense fell. And the enemies that penetrated into the bay climbed nearby mountains, hunted down the women who took refuge there and killed them for their noses. Refugees died simply because each of them had a nose in the middle of his or her face. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw our deck-hands fish out the corpses of fellow Chosun sailors floating on the water and cut off the heads. Some carried an extra large fodder on board just for chopping off the heads. Headless corpses were thrown right back to the water. By the number of these heads and noses, the commanding officers of either side received promotions along with recognitions from the Kings, overflowing with imposing rhetorics. The dead bodies floated down south to the coastal area of 순천 and 보성 bay and lodged themselves in the muddy beach. Often the headless corpses appeared to be wriggling with its last few breaths. I saw from close that what wriggled was not the body but maggets crawling all over it. Crabs and mussels ate their way into the trachea, and falcons nose-dived from the top of a cliff and tore off a limb. For the whole month heading south to serve as a newly enlisted seaman, I spent the nights in deserted guestrooms of local governor’s quarters. Sometimes I fell asleep next to the few servants who were yet to flee. I was completely drained each night, drenched in my own sweat. Garden zinnias bloomed splendidly in each village even though weeds covered its straw roof houses, and the villagers who had some breaths left in them killed feeble children and ate the meat. At times, surprised by the sound of the bell on my horse, ghosts stuck out their heads from under the Aster Yomena bush. The eyes shined in their hollow sockets. The horse that I switched to in 구례 died on the hill to 순천. It was a starved, mangy carthorse. Starting to limp the front leg at the base of the hill, the horse staggered and swayed all the way to the hilltop. It gave all it had. Then the horse died as it reached the peak. The death was as calm as that of a natural cause. The horse straightened out its four limbs, displaying the hooves nailed with worn-out horseshoes. With the eyes still open, it breathed no more. Those eyes gazed right at me, and I stared at me with shaggy hair reflected in the pupils. I dumped the carcass on the roadside and walked to 순천. The coastal air was sticky, and the smell of rotting mackerel was substantial. On the first day of my arrival in 순천, I went out to the coast in the direction of 여수 after registering myself at the 권률 도원수부. The ocean before me was overwhelmingly wide and far-reaching, but I had not a single boat. I saw several headless corpses in the reeds. The rotting uniform told that they were once our sailors. their heads must have reached the Royal Court via 도원수부, and registered as enemy kill by Chosun sailors. Staring at the severed sections, I mulled over my own reflection on the cornea of the dead horse. Apart from where the heads might reside, they seemed to have finished his own war of by crossing over the boundary of mortality. This endless war was only a pointless act, and this world is but a meaningless place. I heard the intense cry of the sword rising deep within me, deep inside the abyss of my existence. Cold beads of sweat rolled down my back. The pitch-black ocean simmered with phosphorous light. Apricot Blooms in the Fog The wind blowing over the ocean always swelled and ebbed like the outline of a mountain range. In winter, winds are abundant. By the wind, the radish leaves hung dry on the sunny walls for consumption rasped against the wall during the day, and the vessels moored at the piers squeaked and creaked all night. And the sound of surging waves filled the void of which the rushing winds left behind. And I heard a hallucination at the fleeting wind: sounding similar to cocoons unraveling their silk. The sound was always the same near the ocean. Perhaps the sound was not carried by the wind at all—the waves themselves might be carrying it over the horizon. At times the sound was like a cluster of grasshoppers feeding on grass, and at other times a herd of mice feasting on grains. The noise was too obvious to be a hallucination. However, when I recognized it, the sound was soon buried by crashing of the waves. And it picked itself up again on the tail of a rushing wind each time I relaxed my senses. Even when the wind died down and the moonlit ocean became as still and viscous as oil, the inexplicable noise gnawed its way over the horizon. Days, nights, and the early mornings in which I shivered in cold sweat, the sound followed me around. I would shake my head to get rid of the faceless noise, but it always came back in the blowing wind. An inlet would not be a safe place because it lacked an escape rout to back out the vessels when attacked. An inlet, in deed, was the most perilous place in which to spend nights. On those nights I withdrew my surviving men and vessels from a full day of battle to an uninhabited inlet, the haunting sound would sweep me over like an invisible storm. And it would resonate in my head, as I lie drenched in cold sweat, as the rowing of ten thousand enemy ships approaching my shores of exhaustion over the dark horizon. Yet, I knew the storming noise was not only coming from Japan, the other side of the horizon. It was also booming from the direction of the King who fled North with his Royal Court advisors to 의주, near Yalu river. 사각, 사각, 사각. The sound was no less than a blizzard raging from the Yalu River to the southern coast, over all the mountains and rivers in between. The storm caused our boats to crash against each other. I ordered my sleepy men to the water, and they dragged the boats ashore in the dark. At the water, I was always drained, sodden in my cold sweat. The entire fleet of Three Provinces, 경상, 전라, 충청, was obliterated in the battle of 칠천량 water, north of 거제 Island, in the summer of 정유. In the spring of the same year, I was arrested at 한산 통제영. The battle near 가덕 just before my arrest was slack in tension and routine in engagement procedure. It was apparent that the enemy lacked the will to fight. The fight was more of a weeding process in the fields than a battle on the water. When I withdrew my vessels from the 가덕 water to the main port of 한산 통제영 the already awaiting 의금부 도사 tied me up at the pier. The rope was rough and tight, digging into my arms and ribs. According to the 의금부 도사, the charges against me was that I, the 삼도수군통제사, harbored a contempt for the Royal Court, deceived the King, and disobeyed the direct order to mobilize the vessels to destroy the enemy. I transferred to my successor 원균 all the documents and administrative authority over the fleet, men, provisions, guns, gun powder, personal arms and prisoners. It seemed that all 원균 wanted was to have 의금부 도사 take me away in the cage-cart sooner than later. He stamped on the transfer paper without even counting the number or checking the condition of what was now under his responsibility. I had been stationed in 한산 통제영 since the summer of 계사년, the second year of 임진왜란. The men and equipment I signed over to 원균 was the entirety of what I secured over three and a half years in 한산 통제영, which amassed over 80 percent of the whole Chosun Navy armaments. This 80 percent was buried in the sea of 칠천량. This 80 percent was scattered on the water as burning logs and dead bodies that lacked the noses or heads. The battle lasted only one night and one day. I heard later that one thousand enemy vessels spread out and approached in a radial formation in the 칠천량 battle. And 원균 faced the enemy in the open sea with his exhausted men at hand, who rowed the whole day from 한산 통제영 to 제주 Island waters. Without any rest, 원균 gathered his vessels in a single line formation and plunged himself into the middle of the radial. I predicted this. 원균 was a man of uncontrollable animosity which no one, including himself, could appease. He wished that all battles were for him and him only. He believed that there was something to gain in the aftermath of a combat. I used to give him the heads my men collected to lull his temper, albeit only briefly. His volcano-like animosity and insatiable anger committed his vessels and men directly into the radial formation in a single file. His armor forsaken, 원균 escaped into the mountains of 거제 island. He even lost his sword.He was eventually slain by an enemy soldier while resting his obese body in a tree shade, panting from all the futile running he did. 전라 우수사 이억기 died, and충청 수사 최호 perished also at the sea-battle with their ships. When the cage-cart was leaving 통제영, rowers and officers kneeled on the cart path and wept. And 원균 whipped them to open the way. 원균 barked: —Stop crying. The enemy will hear. 원균 loaded dried skates and seaweed on top of the cage. They were gifts to important officials in the Capital. —It will be a long way.—I pray fortune on your battles. The farewell between 원균 and I could not have been any drier. The oxen that pulled my cage-cart walked North for nine days and nights straight. At each mealtime the escorting soldiers searched for a village that had smoke rising from the chimney. When they did, they robbed the villagers of what there was to eat and what little they had saved for later because there was no guarantee of finding another village that had enough to eat. The 의금부 도사 constantly hastened for Seoul, and the oxen had to pull even at nights. The Royal Court probably could wait not a moment longer for my death. Bound and immobile on board, I trundled along with the cart. The crime of harboring contempt for the Royal Court, the crime of disobeying the direct order for immediate mobilization…I had but affinity to the world. And death was as unmistakable as a cliff. I only wanted the torture and interrogation leading to death would not be too lengthy. I had longed that I would die drowned in my lethargy only after I kill all those that needed to die, so that the world could function, as it should all by itself. The roads coiled around mountain ranges, the end hidden from sight. But at the end of the unseen road ahead were the King, the Royal Court and the 사직. My war would terminate by my death. Despite my realization of the indubitable death to come, the sound of my enemy rowing over the horizon still rang in my ears. As the cage-cart crossed Han River via 마포나루 into Seoul, I shook my head hard to drive out the noise from my head. Spring rain drizzled over Seoul, and the Apricots bloomed in the fog. Into the World Again I heard from 도원수 권률 the news that all the Chosun Naval Alliance Fleets were annihilated on the water of 칠천량. 한산 통제영 was shattered. The enemy’s flags were fluttering in all the nearby ports and isles of 통제영. The enemy marched inland and stationed themselves in every strategic inlet. The nights were filled with their songs, voiced by the enemy in their drunken stupor. The refugees who had returned to their hometown in those few months of lull were scattered once again. I did not know where they were. The summer was approaching its end, and the rice patties were still green. The enemy would reap the harvest in autumn. The enemy prayed that the supernatural power of Buddha would guide them in battle. Flags featuring the words 나무묘법연화경 were raised high on the enemy vessels. 나무묘법연화경 covered the ocean and crowded the shores. Since the year 임진, when the war began, copies of 법화 Sutra or 연화 Sutra were found at times in the captain’s quarters of destroyed enemy vessels. …in the coming world you shall achieve the Buddhahood. Then your land shall be filled with innocent and virtuous Bodhisattvas, and the virtuous men and women shall wear the clothes of Buddha and sit on the throne of Buddha. Ananda, you shall understand this: Buddha does not abandon the sentient beings… Some enemy vessels set up a Buddhist altar in their quarters, and others had monks on board. My men often decapitated the captured enemy monks and tossed the body into the water. The monks received the blade while chanting, hands clasped in prayers. The mouths that recited the sutra one moment spewed out blood the next. I did not have enough provision to feed the captives. My men tore the 나무묘법연화경 flags and tied the wounds with it. The silky fabric was perfect for dressing the wounds. Others made clothes out of the flags. Some oarsmen had parts of the brush strokes of 나무묘법연화경 on their backs. I heard that the enemy fleet stormed over the ocean with the 나무묘법연화경 flags wavering on the tall masts. The front line broke down uncontrollably and mixed with the rear. It was not possible for our forces to converge or diverge. 도원수 권률 must have known about his impossible position. His precarious position was there to stay. 도원수 권률 held no war intelligence on affairs of the water. The most definite fate spread over the coastal waters and inland as the most obscure rumor. 도원수 권률 did not assign me to a post or station immediately. Even after I reported to 한산 통제영 as an enlisted, I was on hold without a deadline. He perhaps wanted me never to board a ship again. I roamed the ravaged ports of coastal regions, the abandoned villages in 지리산, as well as the burnt houses along 섬진강. The regional government buildings inland were in its recovery, but the villages remained ghostly. Not even a dog wandered through them, and grass grew in the trashed wells. Not a thing of use was left behind, least of all able-bodied men. I stayed in a tattered dwelling of a petty official in 진주. It was a surprise for me that 도원수 권률 called on me to that shabby house in 진주. He sent first his aid to notify me that the 도원수 would be visiting me on his trip to inspect the defense line of 진주. The 진주 fortress fell in the summer of계사년. 김천일, 최경회, 황명보, 이종인 as well as 5,000 civilians fell along with the fortress in that battle. Nothing that could move survived the massacre. Since then, what ruins remained in 진주 was neglected as such. There was no defense line in 진주 for the 도원수 to inspect. His excuse for visiting 진주 was implausible. 도원수 권률 turned up with his officers and the enlisted. His horse looked well-fed and groomed. Light shattered in many colors on its slick mane. The 도원수 did not enter the room but sat on the raised wooden floor that led to the inner quarters. The subordinates stood before him in formation with their swords, spears, and flag in line. I came out to the wooden floor and bowed deeply. —이순신, do you mind if I address you by your name only? He cleverly, and sharply, reminded me of my current status. His voice roared even in his age of 60. —Since I am of no rank… I did not intend to finish the sentence. I met him face to face in 한산 통제영 at the start of병신년winter, three months prior to my arrest. He came to 통제영 to see me. He told me of what intelligence the Royal Court had obtained. According to it, the navy of 가토 기요사마 was to cross the ocean and attack 부산, and I was to wait for the enemy on the open sea, intercept them by surprise and present the head of 가토 before the Royal Court. He said that such was the strategy of the Royal Court and the direct order of the 도원수. I made no reply, but a request, asking him to grant consideration on the opinion of the commanding officer on site. He returned in haste, and I did not mobilize my fleet. I could not trust the intelligence that the Royal Court obtained from the moles. The enemy was amassing a huge amount of provision in the ports and islands near 부산 waters. To move through those islands meant exposing the sides and rear to a likely ambush. Moreover, the waves were high and rough in winter. It was a suicide mission to wait for the enemy, which might or might not show, for days in strategic formation in the heaving waves. The Royal Court desired the head of 가토 more than the success of the operation itself. 가토 led the van of enemy soldiers in the year of 임진. His troops broke through the wall of 부산 in half a day. He decorated his carts, gay enough for a spring day picnic, and charged North. Captured Chosun refugees were forced to shoulder the carts. Chased by 가토, the King fled all the way to 의주. The King was thirst for the political symbolism attached to 가토's head. The King would kill for a chance to offer the head of 가토 on the altar before the ancestral plaques and pour ceremonial drinks to let all know of his potency. But I could not exchange my men’s lives with his political symbolism. What handful of men and fleet I had was everything Chosun could offer to fight the war. I sighed for my inability to provide the toy the King wanted. I could understand the King, but did not move my fleets. I was immediately indicted. 권률 indicted me. And the civilian officials from Defense Ministry obsessively detailed out the arraignment. I found out who indicted and arraigned me only after the interrogation started in 서울 의금부. I was ignorant to politics, but I was not ashamed of my ignorance. And the very 권률 called on me again to this unfrequented remnants of a fortress. Sitting on the raised wooden floor, 권률 spoke of the news that the Chosun Navy fleets were annihilated on the 칠천량 water only two days ago. He told the news as if he was reciting a soliloquy, his eyes staring far away. He emphasized the word “annihilation.” I only listened to his words since the word meant that it was of no use to inquire about the details. —You should forget what happened in 서울 의금부. Such is the way of a true soldier. 권률 was a man of dignity and will beyond ordinary. As the Field Martial and the Supreme Commander of Chosun Army, he won his battles at 임진강, 용인, 수원, 이천 and 남한산성. He hid the bloodthirstiness of a man who had been to hell and back many times deep inside his guts. And I sensed what he hid with my own bloodthirstiness. He took on the war with his might and the political power he wielded. He called in 원균, who had cold feet before committing his fleet into their demise, and flogged him 50 times onto the water of 칠천량. He was the only man who could tie the 50-some years old 삼도수군통제사 on the post and flog him into submission. 권률 was almost a beast, old and blinded. He opened his mouth again after a long pause. —Do you have any plans? I felt a ball of fire rising from deep within, a ball of wretchedness and woe that could not be cried out. Plans, oh heavens, the strategies! I wished to die in the torture chamber in 의금부. In this world of no plans, my tenacious breaths lingered on, and here I was searching again for the plans. I barely got myself to reply. —The plans, if there was any, should exist near the ocean. I would advise you only after I finish inspecting the coastal regions.—Thank you. Please proceed immediately. 권률 returned with his men. It took two days for them to travel from his post to 진주. The 칠천량battle was over two days ago. 권률 must have hurried after me as soon as he heard the news of the loss. Was it his plan, to find me when his options were exhausted? After he left, I ordered a servant to sharpen my blade. The bluish sword shimmered in the hue and the pattern of the clouds above, and it smelled of cold steel. I always had a difficulty distinguishing whether a sword was cold or hot in its nature. I took a deep breath of the blade, inhaling the smell of freshly sharpened steel deep into my lungs. The sword seemed to tell me that I needed to stay alive in this world of no plans until I could be free of the worldly attachment. The next morning, I left 진주 with the servant to carry my sword. The servant’s name was 막쇠. My plan was to travel through the coastal regions of 하동, 남해 and 여수. Before I left, the local petty official whose room I briefly occupied packed for us some millet, salt and dried fish.
Flowers bloomed in every abandoned isle. The setting sun bathed the blooming woods in golden hues, giving them the air of being puffy clouds, unchaining themselves from the main land and drifting away into the horizon. When the birds returned to the drifting isles, the setting sun retracted its reflections toward the horizon and was eventually extinguished. In the ocean, the rules were always the same and simple: far away isles were always called first into the setting sun and were rekindled and returned first from the rising sun. When the setting sun gathered up its last bit of sparking scale it scattered on the water, the ocean became black and the sound of the waves crashing themselves against cliffs tossed and turned in the darkness. The cliffs interrupted the line of sight inland. And, from over the black, quiet horizon enemy vessels approached with their wings stretched out, loaded with heaps of guns, cannons, spears and swords. I could not fathom the source of my enemy’s animosity, and the enemy probably could not sense the depth and intensity of my enmity against them. The hostility incomprehensible to either side stretched tightly across the darkened surface. Then, again, I had no vessels to carry myself and my enmity. I was released from the Seoul 의금부 on the fourth Moon of 정유년. The investigation I received was meaningless. The investigators, in reality, were not asking anything. They were after what was not there. I took pity on their words. They fitted what was not there in an intricate pattern under the most delicate touch and built an extensive vessel of a delusional framework. However, their vessel was not grounded in the nature of the ocean. Bound to the torture seat, I was facing nothing but phantoms. Beatings by the phantoms were painful and deep that they seeped into and broke my bones. I passed out many times on the boundary between the empty questions of the phantoms and the physical pain they inflicted which pushed my body to the cliff’s edge each time. After my release, I stayed at a small house outside the South Gate of Seoul. High officials sent their servants to convey their sympathy. Since I was still charged with treason, the officials sent only their servants instead. And even the servants did not stay long. I understood that solace did not exist in this world. On the way down to my new post, I tried to sweat out on heated floors the lasting backaches from the beating I received. It took me a month to reach the 권률 도원수부. That was the beginning of my service as a seaman without a rank, demoted from the position of Admiral. In the easterly breeze coming from 한산, 거제 and 고성, the stench of rotting human flesh wasunmistakable in mix with the delicate scent of freshly budding flowers. On the tail of ocean breeze that carried damp smell of the woods, the rancid odor of decomposing corpse was rampant. And on the skirts of that breeze came the musk of spring flowers of the isles. 경상 coast was literally covered with dead bodies missing either the noses or the entire heads. Chosun navy decapitated the Japanese behind the front line in a relative safety from the cannon balls and arrows hailing from sky, and the Japanese seamen cut out the noses of their enemy. The severed parts were packed in salt and presented to the respective superior offices. The body parts were the evidence of their achievement. It was simply impossible to identify one’s fellow soldiers from the enemy in that heap of parts. Hence, on the ocean, everyone who was an enemy to the other hacked off the noses and heads of his enemy, salvaging parts from the dead. Every regional governor had run away before his line of defense fell. And the enemies that penetrated into the bay climbed nearby mountains, hunted down the women who took refuge there and killed them for their noses. Refugees died simply because each of them had a nose in the middle of his or her face. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw our deck-hands fish out the corpses of fellow Chosun sailors floating on the water and cut off the heads. Some carried an extra large fodder on board just for chopping off the heads. Headless corpses were thrown right back to the water. By the number of these heads and noses, the commanding officers of either side received promotions along with recognitions from the Kings, overflowing with imposing rhetorics. The dead bodies floated down south to the coastal area of 순천 and 보성 bay and lodged themselves in the muddy beach. Often the headless corpses appeared to be wriggling with its last few breaths. I saw from close that what wriggled was not the body but maggets crawling all over it. Crabs and mussels ate their way into the trachea, and falcons nose-dived from the top of a cliff and tore off a limb. For the whole month heading south to serve as a newly enlisted seaman, I spent the nights in deserted guestrooms of local governor’s quarters. Sometimes I fell asleep next to the few servants who were yet to flee. I was completely drained each night, drenched in my own sweat. Garden zinnias bloomed splendidly in each village even though weeds covered its straw roof houses, and the villagers who had some breaths left in them killed feeble children and ate the meat. At times, surprised by the sound of the bell on my horse, ghosts stuck out their heads from under the Aster Yomena bush. The eyes shined in their hollow sockets. The horse that I switched to in 구례 died on the hill to 순천. It was a starved, mangy carthorse. Starting to limp the front leg at the base of the hill, the horse staggered and swayed all the way to the hilltop. It gave all it had. Then the horse died as it reached the peak. The death was as calm as that of a natural cause. The horse straightened out its four limbs, displaying the hooves nailed with worn-out horseshoes. With the eyes still open, it breathed no more. Those eyes gazed right at me, and I stared at me with shaggy hair reflected in the pupils. I dumped the carcass on the roadside and walked to 순천. The coastal air was sticky, and the smell of rotting mackerel was substantial. On the first day of my arrival in 순천, I went out to the coast in the direction of 여수 after registering myself at the 권률 도원수부. The ocean before me was overwhelmingly wide and far-reaching, but I had not a single boat. I saw several headless corpses in the reeds. The rotting uniform told that they were once our sailors. their heads must have reached the Royal Court via 도원수부, and registered as enemy kill by Chosun sailors. Staring at the severed sections, I mulled over my own reflection on the cornea of the dead horse. Apart from where the heads might reside, they seemed to have finished his own war of by crossing over the boundary of mortality. This endless war was only a pointless act, and this world is but a meaningless place. I heard the intense cry of the sword rising deep within me, deep inside the abyss of my existence. Cold beads of sweat rolled down my back. The pitch-black ocean simmered with phosphorous light. Apricot Blooms in the Fog The wind blowing over the ocean always swelled and ebbed like the outline of a mountain range. In winter, winds are abundant. By the wind, the radish leaves hung dry on the sunny walls for consumption rasped against the wall during the day, and the vessels moored at the piers squeaked and creaked all night. And the sound of surging waves filled the void of which the rushing winds left behind. And I heard a hallucination at the fleeting wind: sounding similar to cocoons unraveling their silk. The sound was always the same near the ocean. Perhaps the sound was not carried by the wind at all—the waves themselves might be carrying it over the horizon. At times the sound was like a cluster of grasshoppers feeding on grass, and at other times a herd of mice feasting on grains. The noise was too obvious to be a hallucination. However, when I recognized it, the sound was soon buried by crashing of the waves. And it picked itself up again on the tail of a rushing wind each time I relaxed my senses. Even when the wind died down and the moonlit ocean became as still and viscous as oil, the inexplicable noise gnawed its way over the horizon. Days, nights, and the early mornings in which I shivered in cold sweat, the sound followed me around. I would shake my head to get rid of the faceless noise, but it always came back in the blowing wind. An inlet would not be a safe place because it lacked an escape rout to back out the vessels when attacked. An inlet, in deed, was the most perilous place in which to spend nights. On those nights I withdrew my surviving men and vessels from a full day of battle to an uninhabited inlet, the haunting sound would sweep me over like an invisible storm. And it would resonate in my head, as I lie drenched in cold sweat, as the rowing of ten thousand enemy ships approaching my shores of exhaustion over the dark horizon. Yet, I knew the storming noise was not only coming from Japan, the other side of the horizon. It was also booming from the direction of the King who fled North with his Royal Court advisors to 의주, near Yalu river. 사각, 사각, 사각. The sound was no less than a blizzard raging from the Yalu River to the southern coast, over all the mountains and rivers in between. The storm caused our boats to crash against each other. I ordered my sleepy men to the water, and they dragged the boats ashore in the dark. At the water, I was always drained, sodden in my cold sweat. The entire fleet of Three Provinces, 경상, 전라, 충청, was obliterated in the battle of 칠천량 water, north of 거제 Island, in the summer of 정유. In the spring of the same year, I was arrested at 한산 통제영. The battle near 가덕 just before my arrest was slack in tension and routine in engagement procedure. It was apparent that the enemy lacked the will to fight. The fight was more of a weeding process in the fields than a battle on the water. When I withdrew my vessels from the 가덕 water to the main port of 한산 통제영 the already awaiting 의금부 도사 tied me up at the pier. The rope was rough and tight, digging into my arms and ribs. According to the 의금부 도사, the charges against me was that I, the 삼도수군통제사, harbored a contempt for the Royal Court, deceived the King, and disobeyed the direct order to mobilize the vessels to destroy the enemy. I transferred to my successor 원균 all the documents and administrative authority over the fleet, men, provisions, guns, gun powder, personal arms and prisoners. It seemed that all 원균 wanted was to have 의금부 도사 take me away in the cage-cart sooner than later. He stamped on the transfer paper without even counting the number or checking the condition of what was now under his responsibility. I had been stationed in 한산 통제영 since the summer of 계사년, the second year of 임진왜란. The men and equipment I signed over to 원균 was the entirety of what I secured over three and a half years in 한산 통제영, which amassed over 80 percent of the whole Chosun Navy armaments. This 80 percent was buried in the sea of 칠천량. This 80 percent was scattered on the water as burning logs and dead bodies that lacked the noses or heads. The battle lasted only one night and one day. I heard later that one thousand enemy vessels spread out and approached in a radial formation in the 칠천량 battle. And 원균 faced the enemy in the open sea with his exhausted men at hand, who rowed the whole day from 한산 통제영 to 제주 Island waters. Without any rest, 원균 gathered his vessels in a single line formation and plunged himself into the middle of the radial. I predicted this. 원균 was a man of uncontrollable animosity which no one, including himself, could appease. He wished that all battles were for him and him only. He believed that there was something to gain in the aftermath of a combat. I used to give him the heads my men collected to lull his temper, albeit only briefly. His volcano-like animosity and insatiable anger committed his vessels and men directly into the radial formation in a single file. His armor forsaken, 원균 escaped into the mountains of 거제 island. He even lost his sword.He was eventually slain by an enemy soldier while resting his obese body in a tree shade, panting from all the futile running he did. 전라 우수사 이억기 died, and충청 수사 최호 perished also at the sea-battle with their ships. When the cage-cart was leaving 통제영, rowers and officers kneeled on the cart path and wept. And 원균 whipped them to open the way. 원균 barked: —Stop crying. The enemy will hear. 원균 loaded dried skates and seaweed on top of the cage. They were gifts to important officials in the Capital. —It will be a long way.—I pray fortune on your battles. The farewell between 원균 and I could not have been any drier. The oxen that pulled my cage-cart walked North for nine days and nights straight. At each mealtime the escorting soldiers searched for a village that had smoke rising from the chimney. When they did, they robbed the villagers of what there was to eat and what little they had saved for later because there was no guarantee of finding another village that had enough to eat. The 의금부 도사 constantly hastened for Seoul, and the oxen had to pull even at nights. The Royal Court probably could wait not a moment longer for my death. Bound and immobile on board, I trundled along with the cart. The crime of harboring contempt for the Royal Court, the crime of disobeying the direct order for immediate mobilization…I had but affinity to the world. And death was as unmistakable as a cliff. I only wanted the torture and interrogation leading to death would not be too lengthy. I had longed that I would die drowned in my lethargy only after I kill all those that needed to die, so that the world could function, as it should all by itself. The roads coiled around mountain ranges, the end hidden from sight. But at the end of the unseen road ahead were the King, the Royal Court and the 사직. My war would terminate by my death. Despite my realization of the indubitable death to come, the sound of my enemy rowing over the horizon still rang in my ears. As the cage-cart crossed Han River via 마포나루 into Seoul, I shook my head hard to drive out the noise from my head. Spring rain drizzled over Seoul, and the Apricots bloomed in the fog. Into the World Again I heard from 도원수 권률 the news that all the Chosun Naval Alliance Fleets were annihilated on the water of 칠천량. 한산 통제영 was shattered. The enemy’s flags were fluttering in all the nearby ports and isles of 통제영. The enemy marched inland and stationed themselves in every strategic inlet. The nights were filled with their songs, voiced by the enemy in their drunken stupor. The refugees who had returned to their hometown in those few months of lull were scattered once again. I did not know where they were. The summer was approaching its end, and the rice patties were still green. The enemy would reap the harvest in autumn. The enemy prayed that the supernatural power of Buddha would guide them in battle. Flags featuring the words 나무묘법연화경 were raised high on the enemy vessels. 나무묘법연화경 covered the ocean and crowded the shores. Since the year 임진, when the war began, copies of 법화 Sutra or 연화 Sutra were found at times in the captain’s quarters of destroyed enemy vessels. …in the coming world you shall achieve the Buddhahood. Then your land shall be filled with innocent and virtuous Bodhisattvas, and the virtuous men and women shall wear the clothes of Buddha and sit on the throne of Buddha. Ananda, you shall understand this: Buddha does not abandon the sentient beings… Some enemy vessels set up a Buddhist altar in their quarters, and others had monks on board. My men often decapitated the captured enemy monks and tossed the body into the water. The monks received the blade while chanting, hands clasped in prayers. The mouths that recited the sutra one moment spewed out blood the next. I did not have enough provision to feed the captives. My men tore the 나무묘법연화경 flags and tied the wounds with it. The silky fabric was perfect for dressing the wounds. Others made clothes out of the flags. Some oarsmen had parts of the brush strokes of 나무묘법연화경 on their backs. I heard that the enemy fleet stormed over the ocean with the 나무묘법연화경 flags wavering on the tall masts. The front line broke down uncontrollably and mixed with the rear. It was not possible for our forces to converge or diverge. 도원수 권률 must have known about his impossible position. His precarious position was there to stay. 도원수 권률 held no war intelligence on affairs of the water. The most definite fate spread over the coastal waters and inland as the most obscure rumor. 도원수 권률 did not assign me to a post or station immediately. Even after I reported to 한산 통제영 as an enlisted, I was on hold without a deadline. He perhaps wanted me never to board a ship again. I roamed the ravaged ports of coastal regions, the abandoned villages in 지리산, as well as the burnt houses along 섬진강. The regional government buildings inland were in its recovery, but the villages remained ghostly. Not even a dog wandered through them, and grass grew in the trashed wells. Not a thing of use was left behind, least of all able-bodied men. I stayed in a tattered dwelling of a petty official in 진주. It was a surprise for me that 도원수 권률 called on me to that shabby house in 진주. He sent first his aid to notify me that the 도원수 would be visiting me on his trip to inspect the defense line of 진주. The 진주 fortress fell in the summer of계사년. 김천일, 최경회, 황명보, 이종인 as well as 5,000 civilians fell along with the fortress in that battle. Nothing that could move survived the massacre. Since then, what ruins remained in 진주 was neglected as such. There was no defense line in 진주 for the 도원수 to inspect. His excuse for visiting 진주 was implausible. 도원수 권률 turned up with his officers and the enlisted. His horse looked well-fed and groomed. Light shattered in many colors on its slick mane. The 도원수 did not enter the room but sat on the raised wooden floor that led to the inner quarters. The subordinates stood before him in formation with their swords, spears, and flag in line. I came out to the wooden floor and bowed deeply. —이순신, do you mind if I address you by your name only? He cleverly, and sharply, reminded me of my current status. His voice roared even in his age of 60. —Since I am of no rank… I did not intend to finish the sentence. I met him face to face in 한산 통제영 at the start of병신년winter, three months prior to my arrest. He came to 통제영 to see me. He told me of what intelligence the Royal Court had obtained. According to it, the navy of 가토 기요사마 was to cross the ocean and attack 부산, and I was to wait for the enemy on the open sea, intercept them by surprise and present the head of 가토 before the Royal Court. He said that such was the strategy of the Royal Court and the direct order of the 도원수. I made no reply, but a request, asking him to grant consideration on the opinion of the commanding officer on site. He returned in haste, and I did not mobilize my fleet. I could not trust the intelligence that the Royal Court obtained from the moles. The enemy was amassing a huge amount of provision in the ports and islands near 부산 waters. To move through those islands meant exposing the sides and rear to a likely ambush. Moreover, the waves were high and rough in winter. It was a suicide mission to wait for the enemy, which might or might not show, for days in strategic formation in the heaving waves. The Royal Court desired the head of 가토 more than the success of the operation itself. 가토 led the van of enemy soldiers in the year of 임진. His troops broke through the wall of 부산 in half a day. He decorated his carts, gay enough for a spring day picnic, and charged North. Captured Chosun refugees were forced to shoulder the carts. Chased by 가토, the King fled all the way to 의주. The King was thirst for the political symbolism attached to 가토's head. The King would kill for a chance to offer the head of 가토 on the altar before the ancestral plaques and pour ceremonial drinks to let all know of his potency. But I could not exchange my men’s lives with his political symbolism. What handful of men and fleet I had was everything Chosun could offer to fight the war. I sighed for my inability to provide the toy the King wanted. I could understand the King, but did not move my fleets. I was immediately indicted. 권률 indicted me. And the civilian officials from Defense Ministry obsessively detailed out the arraignment. I found out who indicted and arraigned me only after the interrogation started in 서울 의금부. I was ignorant to politics, but I was not ashamed of my ignorance. And the very 권률 called on me again to this unfrequented remnants of a fortress. Sitting on the raised wooden floor, 권률 spoke of the news that the Chosun Navy fleets were annihilated on the 칠천량 water only two days ago. He told the news as if he was reciting a soliloquy, his eyes staring far away. He emphasized the word “annihilation.” I only listened to his words since the word meant that it was of no use to inquire about the details. —You should forget what happened in 서울 의금부. Such is the way of a true soldier. 권률 was a man of dignity and will beyond ordinary. As the Field Martial and the Supreme Commander of Chosun Army, he won his battles at 임진강, 용인, 수원, 이천 and 남한산성. He hid the bloodthirstiness of a man who had been to hell and back many times deep inside his guts. And I sensed what he hid with my own bloodthirstiness. He took on the war with his might and the political power he wielded. He called in 원균, who had cold feet before committing his fleet into their demise, and flogged him 50 times onto the water of 칠천량. He was the only man who could tie the 50-some years old 삼도수군통제사 on the post and flog him into submission. 권률 was almost a beast, old and blinded. He opened his mouth again after a long pause. —Do you have any plans? I felt a ball of fire rising from deep within, a ball of wretchedness and woe that could not be cried out. Plans, oh heavens, the strategies! I wished to die in the torture chamber in 의금부. In this world of no plans, my tenacious breaths lingered on, and here I was searching again for the plans. I barely got myself to reply. —The plans, if there was any, should exist near the ocean. I would advise you only after I finish inspecting the coastal regions.—Thank you. Please proceed immediately. 권률 returned with his men. It took two days for them to travel from his post to 진주. The 칠천량battle was over two days ago. 권률 must have hurried after me as soon as he heard the news of the loss. Was it his plan, to find me when his options were exhausted? After he left, I ordered a servant to sharpen my blade. The bluish sword shimmered in the hue and the pattern of the clouds above, and it smelled of cold steel. I always had a difficulty distinguishing whether a sword was cold or hot in its nature. I took a deep breath of the blade, inhaling the smell of freshly sharpened steel deep into my lungs. The sword seemed to tell me that I needed to stay alive in this world of no plans until I could be free of the worldly attachment. The next morning, I left 진주 with the servant to carry my sword. The servant’s name was 막쇠. My plan was to travel through the coastal regions of 하동, 남해 and 여수. Before I left, the local petty official whose room I briefly occupied packed for us some millet, salt and dried fish.
"The Origins of the Korean War (Volume I): Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes 1945-1947" is a very dense book, covering only two years between the end of World War II and the start of the path to the Korean war. Oh.. it covers this in a scant 444 pages that don't include the additional 100 or so pages of notes and then a few more pages of bibliography and index.
But reading it was interesting because I had heard Cumings (Mr. Author) described as a "left wing" historian. And I must admit that in some venues he seems entirely silly and a borderline commie apologist - his writing on North Korea seem positively idiotic. Yet as I read this history I see him as even-handedly assessing the goals of all interested parties. While he doesn't at all apologize for decisions the United States made, and clearly deliniates where they led, he also explains the strategic reason for which each one was taken. Cumings extends this approach to all players. On page 143, for instance, he explains the bind the United States was in with respect to governance. He quotes US intelligence noting that Koreans wanted the Japanese out, but that the Japanese had so crippled Korea that there was a lack of appropriate (by Western standards) employees for high-level jobs. Cumings doesn't routinely suggest that resulting approaches (in this case the US hanging on to Japanese administrators) were wrong.. in fact he seems resigned to the fact that they were inevitable.
He has similarly good analyses of things like the US landing in Korea and how it appeared to Koreans when the US allowed the Japanese to line the streets with their troops to greet us.
All of these specific historical pieces are placed in the context of changes in the international political climate (from Roosevelt's optomistic internationalism to post-war parsing up of states) and Cumings is always careful to try to show how the "on the ground" responses appeared to Koreans.
Is this left wing history? It might be as I look at arguments over Iraq. Anyone who gives credit to the beliefs of "locals" is viewed with suspicion. Only hegemonic goals (though arguments may rage over how hegemony should be administered) are granted importance and locals are only valued to the extent their goals are commensurate with the hegemonic ones.
Now I am depressed.
Why?
Because I just wrote an analysis in the language of a Political Science Major.. the only graduate who works below the English Major in the land of supersizing that order.
Siiiiiigh...
But reading it was interesting because I had heard Cumings (Mr. Author) described as a "left wing" historian. And I must admit that in some venues he seems entirely silly and a borderline commie apologist - his writing on North Korea seem positively idiotic. Yet as I read this history I see him as even-handedly assessing the goals of all interested parties. While he doesn't at all apologize for decisions the United States made, and clearly deliniates where they led, he also explains the strategic reason for which each one was taken. Cumings extends this approach to all players. On page 143, for instance, he explains the bind the United States was in with respect to governance. He quotes US intelligence noting that Koreans wanted the Japanese out, but that the Japanese had so crippled Korea that there was a lack of appropriate (by Western standards) employees for high-level jobs. Cumings doesn't routinely suggest that resulting approaches (in this case the US hanging on to Japanese administrators) were wrong.. in fact he seems resigned to the fact that they were inevitable.
He has similarly good analyses of things like the US landing in Korea and how it appeared to Koreans when the US allowed the Japanese to line the streets with their troops to greet us.
All of these specific historical pieces are placed in the context of changes in the international political climate (from Roosevelt's optomistic internationalism to post-war parsing up of states) and Cumings is always careful to try to show how the "on the ground" responses appeared to Koreans.
Is this left wing history? It might be as I look at arguments over Iraq. Anyone who gives credit to the beliefs of "locals" is viewed with suspicion. Only hegemonic goals (though arguments may rage over how hegemony should be administered) are granted importance and locals are only valued to the extent their goals are commensurate with the hegemonic ones.
Now I am depressed.
Why?
Because I just wrote an analysis in the language of a Political Science Major.. the only graduate who works below the English Major in the land of supersizing that order.
Siiiiiigh...
Lost and Estragon Forever: Waiting for the Year of the Ox
Published Tuesday, January 31, 2006 by rwellor.
And noting that maybe it is difficult for foreign writers to understand any country they survey ("Breen's Syndrome")
Bernard Henry-Levi has just written a book (sort of) attempting to (kind of) retrace (but not exactly) De Tocqueville's steps way back in 1835/40 (it included a sequel, you see). And although he is apparently a quite clever man he just can't make anything seem to fit together.
Here is a lovely quote from the usually benificent (though crankier as he ages) Garrison Keillor:
I suppose an outsider does see systemic contradictions more clearly, but must they all prattle on about it?
Bernard Henry-Levi has just written a book (sort of) attempting to (kind of) retrace (but not exactly) De Tocqueville's steps way back in 1835/40 (it included a sequel, you see). And although he is apparently a quite clever man he just can't make anything seem to fit together.
Here is a lovely quote from the usually benificent (though crankier as he ages) Garrison Keillor:
And good Lord, the childlike love of paradox - America is magnificent but mad, greedy and modest, drunk with materialism and religiosity, puritan and outrageous, facing toward the future and yet obsessed with its memories. Americans' party loyalty is "very strong and very pliable, extremely tenacious and in the end somewhat empty." Existential and yet devoid of all content and direction. The partner-swapping club is both "libertine" and "conventional," "depraved" and "proper." And so the reader is fascinated and exhausted by Lévy's tedious and original thinking: "A strong bond holds America together, but a minimal one. An attachment of great force, but not fiercely resolute. A place of high - extremely high - symbolic tension, but a neutral one, a nearly empty one."Sounds just like Breen freaking out about Korea.
I suppose an outsider does see systemic contradictions more clearly, but must they all prattle on about it?
The quote below is from a review in the Seoul Herald of Michael Breen's book "Korea." I include it because it points out a misinterpretation some outsiders have when approaching Korea. In fact a problem that any outsider might have approaching any culture he or she can't understand from an inside perspective. Here's the words:
Review
Why in the world is this considered "contradictory?" It shouldn't be. Most of the specifics don't fit. First, the "contradictions" are usually completely consonant with Korean cultural belief. Second, in case where there might be contraction, there is no more contradiction than in any other culture. We all might as well save our ire for our native cultures.
One weird thing is that Koreans seem to hear the message that they are contradictory and polarized without ignoring its simplicity and silliness. This is partly why Michael Breen is so popular.
But not much in the Korean model actually is contradictory. Everyone who writes on Korea recognizes that Korea is a nation built on the Five Confucian Relationships. Breen mentions this explicitly and then goes on to forget it entirely. When Breen wonders why Koreans can be so lovely in personal relationships but still kvetches that 20 years in Korea is not enough to make one understand/get used to being bumped on the subway? He's forgetting his own previous argument.
Take a look at the Confucian Relationships:
More than that? What this really is, is an outsider finding a contradiction between what he/she thinks a country should be like (perhaps based on some experience like personal friendliness from a Korean), or even worse something the outsider truly likes about a country which fits in with the outsiders's natural prejudices (again, personal friendliness will work) and something that outsider disliked (e.g. bumping on the subway) about their experience of the country. Unwilling to fit these disparate facts into known social structures, the outsider prefers to call names.
In other words, the contradiction is in the observer, not in Koreans.
And to the extent contradictions do exist? There is the second issue of how different a perceived contradiction of this sort is from similar contradictions in other countries. By which I mean, hey, if contradictions do exist why does this suprise an observer? I think Walt Whitman was right when he asked the question,"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself I am vast, I contain multitudes." I think here, as I must, of the United States. The US is a poster-child for contradiction between belief and practice.
Hunter S. Thompson, many years ago, wrote an article ("Living in the time of Alger, Greeley, Debs" National Observer) in which he noted that the US preached the glories of rugged individualism while it was becoming increasingly difficult to live outside of the semi-benevolent umbrella of some kind of corporate sinecure.
Rugged individualists, after all, don't have retirement benefits, dental insurance, or paid holidays.
Which is all only by way of noting that every country has its contradictions. And when I look at how tightly the Korean behaviors that "contradictionists" dislike are tied to Korean normative principles? I wonder how they are called contradictions.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER FOR OX
We can continue to discuss where the normative principles came from and what they really mean (e.g. how much is imposed by the government, how much is innate, how much is based on social deformation caused by Japanese colonialism, US colonialism, whatever) but the normative principles are floating out there..
Review
Michael Breen illuminates through countless anecdotes and personal observations the weird and wonderful ways of Asia's most paradoxical, polarized country. Few Koreans, let alone foreigners, have a better understanding than Breen of how a people can be alternately warm and ruthless, shrewd and childlike, tolerant and pigheaded.I say contradiction, they say paradoxical and polarized (when referring to North and South Korea you also must say "divided"). We're in the same ballpark here. But drop the specifics and what do your really have? You have paradoxical and polarized people who alternate between warm and ruthless, shrewd and childlike, and tolerant and pigheaded. In other words, normal people. And, pretty much, in defined arenas which I will discuss in a bit.
Why in the world is this considered "contradictory?" It shouldn't be. Most of the specifics don't fit. First, the "contradictions" are usually completely consonant with Korean cultural belief. Second, in case where there might be contraction, there is no more contradiction than in any other culture. We all might as well save our ire for our native cultures.
One weird thing is that Koreans seem to hear the message that they are contradictory and polarized without ignoring its simplicity and silliness. This is partly why Michael Breen is so popular.
But not much in the Korean model actually is contradictory. Everyone who writes on Korea recognizes that Korea is a nation built on the Five Confucian Relationships. Breen mentions this explicitly and then goes on to forget it entirely. When Breen wonders why Koreans can be so lovely in personal relationships but still kvetches that 20 years in Korea is not enough to make one understand/get used to being bumped on the subway? He's forgetting his own previous argument.
Take a look at the Confucian Relationships:
Ruler to Subjectand tell me where there is anything indicating an anonymous public relationship should be anything but brutal and brief? In fact, Koreans are hewing rather directly to a moral code which implicitly excludes the public realm from importance. This isn't contradiction, rather it is social system.
Husband to Wife
Parent to Child
Older Sibling to Younger Sibling
Friend to Friend
More than that? What this really is, is an outsider finding a contradiction between what he/she thinks a country should be like (perhaps based on some experience like personal friendliness from a Korean), or even worse something the outsider truly likes about a country which fits in with the outsiders's natural prejudices (again, personal friendliness will work) and something that outsider disliked (e.g. bumping on the subway) about their experience of the country. Unwilling to fit these disparate facts into known social structures, the outsider prefers to call names.
In other words, the contradiction is in the observer, not in Koreans.
And to the extent contradictions do exist? There is the second issue of how different a perceived contradiction of this sort is from similar contradictions in other countries. By which I mean, hey, if contradictions do exist why does this suprise an observer? I think Walt Whitman was right when he asked the question,"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself I am vast, I contain multitudes." I think here, as I must, of the United States. The US is a poster-child for contradiction between belief and practice.
Hunter S. Thompson, many years ago, wrote an article ("Living in the time of Alger, Greeley, Debs" National Observer) in which he noted that the US preached the glories of rugged individualism while it was becoming increasingly difficult to live outside of the semi-benevolent umbrella of some kind of corporate sinecure.
Rugged individualists, after all, don't have retirement benefits, dental insurance, or paid holidays.
Which is all only by way of noting that every country has its contradictions. And when I look at how tightly the Korean behaviors that "contradictionists" dislike are tied to Korean normative principles? I wonder how they are called contradictions.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER FOR OX
We can continue to discuss where the normative principles came from and what they really mean (e.g. how much is imposed by the government, how much is innate, how much is based on social deformation caused by Japanese colonialism, US colonialism, whatever) but the normative principles are floating out there..
I would just note this exciting difference between North and South Korea and admit that it is triumph for the DPRK since 50% fewer travelers get lost on their subway system than do in Seoul:
Pyongyang Subway System
Seoul Subway System
Pyongyang Subway System
Seoul Subway System
Ok...let's continue on the issue of homogeneity.
Korean history, particularly the recent history, has much to do with the idea of homogeneity, possibly relating to why there aren't so many independent Korean voices in American academia. I wanted to avoid the history issue altogether, but found that this is a "no can do" matter. The reason for the change of heart is that I believe know or not knowing the past can influence one's conclusion. Even if the conclusion may look the same from an outsider's point of view, the depth of the answer reached would differ. Hence, here begins a short trip into the long history of Korea, relevant to homogeniety, the misunderstood.
Korean history is full of resistance and factionalism, hardly an ideal picture of homogenic society. For instance, Koguryo (BC 1000~AD 668) was a constant threat to China, even to the Chin Dynasty which unified China for the first time. Kokuryo was one of the main reason Emperor Chin had to build the Great Wall so close to Beijing, only one hour distance the city by car--Kokuryo's sphere of influence would not allow the Chinese to construct its major line of defence any farther than the current location. When Shilla unified the Korean peninsula, Shilla had to exert its utmost power to keep its people at bay from waging a war against China to reclaim Koguryo's territory beyond the Korean peninsula. The movement continued to Koryo (918~1392) and Balhae (713~1117). Against the Mongols, many Koryo kings secretly had planned a war, which often became their own demise. Balhae was able to reclaim a part of the old territory and spread into today's Sakhalin, Russia. However, Koryo brought down Balhae's glory after 30 separate wars. Even when Koryo became Chosun (1392~1910), the people's desire to regain its old territory continued. Some may say that Korea's history has mostly been volatile to say the least. Homogeneity in Korean history has less to do with being docile or complacent.
Then, things began taking a different turn since the Hideyoshi war, Japan's invasion to Korea. Imginweron, as Koreans call it, which occured from 1592~1598, was devastating (I translated parts of a modern novel based on this war which I may post here someday, provided that the posting would not violate the copyright of the author). The Korean king, during the time, had to flee to the north of North Korea and into the Chinese territory. Some war historians claim that this was a strategic move, just like the Russians retreated endlessly, burning down everything along the way, so that the German soldiers would be depleted of their supply soon. Nevertheless, fleeing to China was a national disgrace--especially when the King had even sent two diplomats to Japan to detect if there were any signs of war preparation in Hideyoshi side. One diplomat said there were plenty of signs of impending danger, and the other said there was none. The King chose to believe the latter. Hence, the King screwed up.
In order to dodge the blame and keep his throne, the King began netting a tight control over its people. He blamed that the was occurred because the public moral/ethics was at fault. Korea had always been known as the Eastern Nation of Moral. And because Korea's moral standing had fallen, even the island-dwelling midgets thought that it could invade, and did, Korea. Along with the aristocrats who made the booboo, the Korean King blamed the women, the relatively weaker social class of Chosun, the primary cause of the deterioration of Korea's moral standing. The top dogs who were really at fault had to invent lies after lies to keep their wealth and position. And the idea of homogeneity to reclaim the old glory had turn inward in the shape of "homogeneity," or the game of let's-eliminate-the-dissidents (I have another piece of translation which would show how the concept still lingers on). Hence an era of the end of independent voice started.
The Korean people, of course, didn't just sit around and swallowed the lies. There were violent upheavals. But all of them ended fruitlessly. Chosun, as a nation, battled to keep down the people's voices, concentrating the main portion of its power on oppressing domestic revolts. This led Korea to lose its edge and stay in the mud of stagnation. Korean kingship and government system rotted. Japan, which opened its doors to Western world earlier, became once more a formidable power to Korea. In 1910, Korea ended up signing over its soverignty and diplomatic power to Japan, another huge disgrace on a national level. And Japan immediately signed over the once Balhae territory to Soviet Union with the promise that the Soviet Union would not attack Japan as Japan invaded Chine via Korea.
With its government's spine as sturdy as that of a jelly fish, Korean people rose again. Interim Korean governments were established in Shanghai and in the United States. Many people lost their lives in assasination attempts (many succeded), and in their work to overthrow Japanese control. Then there were many, usually from the aristocrat class and the lowest and oppressed class, that worked for Japan for their own lives. They were downright traitors, and they were the ones in power, just like the King and nobles during the Hideyoshi war. When Korea regained its independence from the help of UN Forces and United States military power, the US and Soviet Union divided the Korea into halves. The US took the South Korea.
The US, in its ill-fated logic and unfamiliarity of Koreans in general, hired Korean people to help the US rule over Korea. And the US thought that those who had been in power during the Japanese regime probably had a more working knowledge of how Korea was run and to be run. And the traitors unexpectedly assumed the power again. Korean people did not stand still and just took this. However, when Korean War broke, none of this mattered.
After the Korean War, those traitors who amassed the wealth relcaimed their land and fortune. And American government wanted the traitors (or the pesky Santa's evil helpers) to be happy and cooperative. The language barrier probably had a lot to do with the situations, too. Americans just did not know what they were doing. And from 1953 and on, oppression by the traitors to keep holding onto power continued. Lies after lies were fabricated to support their comfortable lives. And Amercan military power made sure to let other Koreans know that the US proudly supported their helpers. After the Japanese regime, Korean ended up serving the same traitors in power, in partnership withAmerican regime.....alas!
Then through a brief history of Korea since the war, each President succeded the throne by coup d'Etat, amassed enormous personal wealth and incarcerated for it. Then in 1980, Kwangju massacre occured under the tacit consent by the American government, and etc..... Only in the last 10 to 15 years or so has Korean people seen peaceful hand-over of the throne. Even then, extortion and embezzelment continued since those who were doing it were the same traitors, or their offsprings, from the Japanese-American regime (the Presidents might have been changed, but not the Congressmen). And the traitors' favorite slogan during the last 50 years or so was homogeneity: We are Koreans, we are one people who endured many invasions, we need to stick together, let's not make noise to split our attention from what we need the most...our survival.
And, guess what happened to so-called an independent or consciencious voice of Korea?
Acting out, or raising one's indepent voice is considered as rocking the boat. Spliters are never welcome. Hierarchy is the rule everyone must obey.
Many Koreans consider that Confucionism truly blossomed in Korea. In fact, Confucionism has been twisted over the last 400 years in Korea to become a handy tool to rule over Korea and Koreans, namely homogeneity or, as I see it, anti-heterogeneity out of fear and lies.
So...here is the question to pop. Is homogeniety really the cause of the silence among Asian American scholars? The Answer is YES, as whatever-the-scholar's-name-was pointed out. However, what YOU consider "homogeniety" may differ from the "homogeniety" Korean understands through the stories, upbringings, and school education they have experienced....
The better question that what's posed above would be How to break the chain of Homogeneity among Korean American scholars? Who's going to stand out first?
Korean history, particularly the recent history, has much to do with the idea of homogeneity, possibly relating to why there aren't so many independent Korean voices in American academia. I wanted to avoid the history issue altogether, but found that this is a "no can do" matter. The reason for the change of heart is that I believe know or not knowing the past can influence one's conclusion. Even if the conclusion may look the same from an outsider's point of view, the depth of the answer reached would differ. Hence, here begins a short trip into the long history of Korea, relevant to homogeniety, the misunderstood.
Korean history is full of resistance and factionalism, hardly an ideal picture of homogenic society. For instance, Koguryo (BC 1000~AD 668) was a constant threat to China, even to the Chin Dynasty which unified China for the first time. Kokuryo was one of the main reason Emperor Chin had to build the Great Wall so close to Beijing, only one hour distance the city by car--Kokuryo's sphere of influence would not allow the Chinese to construct its major line of defence any farther than the current location. When Shilla unified the Korean peninsula, Shilla had to exert its utmost power to keep its people at bay from waging a war against China to reclaim Koguryo's territory beyond the Korean peninsula. The movement continued to Koryo (918~1392) and Balhae (713~1117). Against the Mongols, many Koryo kings secretly had planned a war, which often became their own demise. Balhae was able to reclaim a part of the old territory and spread into today's Sakhalin, Russia. However, Koryo brought down Balhae's glory after 30 separate wars. Even when Koryo became Chosun (1392~1910), the people's desire to regain its old territory continued. Some may say that Korea's history has mostly been volatile to say the least. Homogeneity in Korean history has less to do with being docile or complacent.
Then, things began taking a different turn since the Hideyoshi war, Japan's invasion to Korea. Imginweron, as Koreans call it, which occured from 1592~1598, was devastating (I translated parts of a modern novel based on this war which I may post here someday, provided that the posting would not violate the copyright of the author). The Korean king, during the time, had to flee to the north of North Korea and into the Chinese territory. Some war historians claim that this was a strategic move, just like the Russians retreated endlessly, burning down everything along the way, so that the German soldiers would be depleted of their supply soon. Nevertheless, fleeing to China was a national disgrace--especially when the King had even sent two diplomats to Japan to detect if there were any signs of war preparation in Hideyoshi side. One diplomat said there were plenty of signs of impending danger, and the other said there was none. The King chose to believe the latter. Hence, the King screwed up.
In order to dodge the blame and keep his throne, the King began netting a tight control over its people. He blamed that the was occurred because the public moral/ethics was at fault. Korea had always been known as the Eastern Nation of Moral. And because Korea's moral standing had fallen, even the island-dwelling midgets thought that it could invade, and did, Korea. Along with the aristocrats who made the booboo, the Korean King blamed the women, the relatively weaker social class of Chosun, the primary cause of the deterioration of Korea's moral standing. The top dogs who were really at fault had to invent lies after lies to keep their wealth and position. And the idea of homogeneity to reclaim the old glory had turn inward in the shape of "homogeneity," or the game of let's-eliminate-the-dissidents (I have another piece of translation which would show how the concept still lingers on). Hence an era of the end of independent voice started.
The Korean people, of course, didn't just sit around and swallowed the lies. There were violent upheavals. But all of them ended fruitlessly. Chosun, as a nation, battled to keep down the people's voices, concentrating the main portion of its power on oppressing domestic revolts. This led Korea to lose its edge and stay in the mud of stagnation. Korean kingship and government system rotted. Japan, which opened its doors to Western world earlier, became once more a formidable power to Korea. In 1910, Korea ended up signing over its soverignty and diplomatic power to Japan, another huge disgrace on a national level. And Japan immediately signed over the once Balhae territory to Soviet Union with the promise that the Soviet Union would not attack Japan as Japan invaded Chine via Korea.
With its government's spine as sturdy as that of a jelly fish, Korean people rose again. Interim Korean governments were established in Shanghai and in the United States. Many people lost their lives in assasination attempts (many succeded), and in their work to overthrow Japanese control. Then there were many, usually from the aristocrat class and the lowest and oppressed class, that worked for Japan for their own lives. They were downright traitors, and they were the ones in power, just like the King and nobles during the Hideyoshi war. When Korea regained its independence from the help of UN Forces and United States military power, the US and Soviet Union divided the Korea into halves. The US took the South Korea.
The US, in its ill-fated logic and unfamiliarity of Koreans in general, hired Korean people to help the US rule over Korea. And the US thought that those who had been in power during the Japanese regime probably had a more working knowledge of how Korea was run and to be run. And the traitors unexpectedly assumed the power again. Korean people did not stand still and just took this. However, when Korean War broke, none of this mattered.
After the Korean War, those traitors who amassed the wealth relcaimed their land and fortune. And American government wanted the traitors (or the pesky Santa's evil helpers) to be happy and cooperative. The language barrier probably had a lot to do with the situations, too. Americans just did not know what they were doing. And from 1953 and on, oppression by the traitors to keep holding onto power continued. Lies after lies were fabricated to support their comfortable lives. And Amercan military power made sure to let other Koreans know that the US proudly supported their helpers. After the Japanese regime, Korean ended up serving the same traitors in power, in partnership withAmerican regime.....alas!
Then through a brief history of Korea since the war, each President succeded the throne by coup d'Etat, amassed enormous personal wealth and incarcerated for it. Then in 1980, Kwangju massacre occured under the tacit consent by the American government, and etc..... Only in the last 10 to 15 years or so has Korean people seen peaceful hand-over of the throne. Even then, extortion and embezzelment continued since those who were doing it were the same traitors, or their offsprings, from the Japanese-American regime (the Presidents might have been changed, but not the Congressmen). And the traitors' favorite slogan during the last 50 years or so was homogeneity: We are Koreans, we are one people who endured many invasions, we need to stick together, let's not make noise to split our attention from what we need the most...our survival.
And, guess what happened to so-called an independent or consciencious voice of Korea?
Acting out, or raising one's indepent voice is considered as rocking the boat. Spliters are never welcome. Hierarchy is the rule everyone must obey.
Many Koreans consider that Confucionism truly blossomed in Korea. In fact, Confucionism has been twisted over the last 400 years in Korea to become a handy tool to rule over Korea and Koreans, namely homogeneity or, as I see it, anti-heterogeneity out of fear and lies.
So...here is the question to pop. Is homogeniety really the cause of the silence among Asian American scholars? The Answer is YES, as whatever-the-scholar's-name-was pointed out. However, what YOU consider "homogeniety" may differ from the "homogeniety" Korean understands through the stories, upbringings, and school education they have experienced....
The better question that what's posed above would be How to break the chain of Homogeneity among Korean American scholars? Who's going to stand out first?
Mr. Crackerman sez....
Since Mr. Ox is AWOL I will post silliness....
The Korean Supreme Court sucks sour yogurt:
Entire silly thing here...
Since Mr. Ox is AWOL I will post silliness....
The Korean Supreme Court sucks sour yogurt:
The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling convicting a dairy executive for an obscene event. The court upheld a lower court fine of 5 million won ($5,000) for the executive.Killjoy Korean Supreme Court! I have no idea if this says anything at all about Korea worth saying. But I had to say it.
It also upheld fines of between 500,000 won ($500) and 2 million won ($2,000) on three models for staging a nude performance with the yogurt at a crowded Seoul art gallery in 2003, Yonhap said. The models, caked in wheat flour, used spray devices to squirt each other with yogurt, which washed off the flour to expose their bodies, Yonhap reported.
Entire silly thing here...
Mr. Crackerman Sez,
Ox,
Digging around on the intarwebs I came across a piece for your consideration. I like this piece for two reasons. First, it explains (or tries to) why there are few, if any, Korean intellectuals standing up and making noise (like, say, attacking Breen for his inherently anti-Korean prejudice). Second, it could be a useful point of view for you to look at your style of argument and discourse. That is to ask, how Korean you must be when you can't/won't wield the mighty sword of snark? ;-)
If this guy's arguments are accurate they help explain the weird perception I have that there is no Korean or Korean American solidy and significantly debating any matters of weight about Korea - it wouldn't be homogenous to do so. Anyway, here is a shortened version of the article and a link to the real deal:
Yang gets a bit off there at the end.. his analogy to African-Americans is murky to me and his "perhaps Koreans have low public ambition" is not an explanation, rather it is a description (I mean, why would Koreans have lower public ambition? If it is true doesn't it come from somwhere?)
Anyway, grist for two mills.. one about the hole in the discourse, the other about Korean (and your) unwillingness to fill it.
Coming next? Those racist Koreans!
Ox,
Digging around on the intarwebs I came across a piece for your consideration. I like this piece for two reasons. First, it explains (or tries to) why there are few, if any, Korean intellectuals standing up and making noise (like, say, attacking Breen for his inherently anti-Korean prejudice). Second, it could be a useful point of view for you to look at your style of argument and discourse. That is to ask, how Korean you must be when you can't/won't wield the mighty sword of snark? ;-)
If this guy's arguments are accurate they help explain the weird perception I have that there is no Korean or Korean American solidy and significantly debating any matters of weight about Korea - it wouldn't be homogenous to do so. Anyway, here is a shortened version of the article and a link to the real deal:
The Dearth of Korean-American Public Intellectuals
Kichoon Yang
Dean, College of Natural Sciences
Professor of Mathematics
University of Northern Iowa
Korean-Americans are abundant in academe, yet the invisibility of Korean-American scholars as public intellectuals in media and politics is also a well-observed fact. This is a lamentable state of affairs - for both Korean-Americans and non-Korean-Americans - in that an unequal participation by any one ethnic group in public discourse skews the public policy making process, and can lead to social fragmentation. The question I would like to pose is,"Why the dearth of public intellectuals among Korean-Americans in this country?"
An utter lack of Korean-American intellectuals in the national media and politics is in contrast to the increasing and large (relative to their population size) number of Korean-American scientists and other professionals. Also, the dearth of Korean-American university administrators parallels that of Korean-American public intellectuals elsewhere.
One obvious explanation to the above question is that the qualities of a public intellectual are not consistent with the traditional oriental notions of a "virtuous" person: Taoist, Confucian, Buddhist, and Hindu nomenclature equate avoidance of conflict with virtue, and infuse the quality of aloofness in their descriptions of wisdom. This somewhat pedestrian explanation, in my view, is in part true, and it offers an easy-to-understand cultural explanation at the risk of stereo-typifying Korean and other Asian cultures. Homogeneity sometimes translates into a bifurcative public behavior, a sense of ambivalence, towards the role of confrontation in public discourse: many individuals tend to avoid open confrontations, and at the same time groups of individuals often would actively seek confrontations - student street demonstrations may be an example here. This dichotomy in the minds of many Koreans regarding the role of confrontation in public discourse is an interesting cultural phenomenon.
Skilled and experienced public intellectuals often use confrontation as a ploy to bring to public's attention an issue that might otherwise go unnoticed - there is no need to mention the plethora of social issues and their champions, where such use of confrontation is evident in the national media. One can legitimately argue that the social agenda in this country is often driven by a relatively small number of outspoken public figures, among which a fair number are intellectuals.
There are several possible explanations for the general lack of Korean-American public intellectuals: There is the usual cultural explanation mentioned earlier. Or perhaps, simply more time is needed. Also, it is interesting to contrast, or draw an analogy with, the situation African-Americans have faced, and still face to a large extent, in professional sports. It would be interesting to see to what extent the analogy - predominance of African-American professional athletes coupled with a lack of African-Americans at the managerial ranks and a relatively high and growing presence of Korean-American scholars and professionals coupled with a lack of Korean-American public figures - is valid. It is conceivable that (I have no data to support this) the level of "public" ambition and aspirations among Korean-American scholars and professionals is relatively low; if so, it would provide a benign explanation for the phenomenon, which is not to say that such state of affairs is desirable.
Yang gets a bit off there at the end.. his analogy to African-Americans is murky to me and his "perhaps Koreans have low public ambition" is not an explanation, rather it is a description (I mean, why would Koreans have lower public ambition? If it is true doesn't it come from somwhere?)
Anyway, grist for two mills.. one about the hole in the discourse, the other about Korean (and your) unwillingness to fill it.
Coming next? Those racist Koreans!
Now that I have come back from Korea, which causes me to smoke less, since I am partly relieved from all the stress of having one too many parents in a perilously auspicious occassion, my phlegm seems to have subsided a bit for now. Hence, perhaps, my hands may be a bit freer from clutching ;) the tissues--one made of pulp and the other my former white cells.
I definitely am a Korean by birth, Korean-American by residence, and American by education (or institutionalization, in a twist between "The Wall" and "Shawshank Redemption"). Cough...cough...
I know Mr. Crackerman, or 철수 as I call him, brought much intentional humour into his experience in Korea, which may reveal more truth than summation of facts alone.
I intend to match his brilliance in seeing Korea and Koreans from an Alien perspective (or Korean perspective depending on the circumstance) and bring befitting commentaries onto this weblog. That, of course, may cause me more stress, which will make me smoke more and eventually drown me in excessive phlem......Oh well.
I definitely am a Korean by birth, Korean-American by residence, and American by education (or institutionalization, in a twist between "The Wall" and "Shawshank Redemption"). Cough...cough...
I know Mr. Crackerman, or 철수 as I call him, brought much intentional humour into his experience in Korea, which may reveal more truth than summation of facts alone.
I intend to match his brilliance in seeing Korea and Koreans from an Alien perspective (or Korean perspective depending on the circumstance) and bring befitting commentaries onto this weblog. That, of course, may cause me more stress, which will make me smoke more and eventually drown me in excessive phlem......Oh well.
Mr. Crackerman sez...
Well, here we have the start of some..... thing......
I have plenty to say now, no doubt, but will certainly run out of steam. And Mr. Ox is as phlegmatic and retiring (though equally as broad-shouldered and swivel-hipped) as his namesake. So who know what comes from that quarter?
The notion here, I suppose, is to discuss Korea, Koreans, Korean-Americans and Americans through a primarily critical (in the literary, not attacking sense) lense. I would like this website to eventually grow to include complete forums and IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! ;-).
But I have the megalomania that comes from being an Anglo in the land of Empire.
For the moment I leave it at that as I have just put all this .... "stuff".... up and must send some info to Mr. Ox.
Well, here we have the start of some..... thing......
I have plenty to say now, no doubt, but will certainly run out of steam. And Mr. Ox is as phlegmatic and retiring (though equally as broad-shouldered and swivel-hipped) as his namesake. So who know what comes from that quarter?
The notion here, I suppose, is to discuss Korea, Koreans, Korean-Americans and Americans through a primarily critical (in the literary, not attacking sense) lense. I would like this website to eventually grow to include complete forums and IMPORTANT DISCUSSION! ;-).
But I have the megalomania that comes from being an Anglo in the land of Empire.
For the moment I leave it at that as I have just put all this .... "stuff".... up and must send some info to Mr. Ox.
About Us
- We are Mr. Ox and Mr. Crackerman
- From around the way
Last posts
- Another from Korea Times
- Lliterature Translation has a long way to go.
- Gay across cultures..
- Back in Business, I suppose
- Mr. Ox posts some translation..
- Reading Cummings...
- Lost and Estragon Forever: Waiting for the Year of...
- Contradictions? (Bored of Waiting)
- Continuing to Wait for Ox (I see one in the queue)...
- Homogeneity, continued