Korean textbook improvements

By Mark Peterson

Last week I wrote about some of the work I've done over the last 24 years to try to improve American textbooks ― specifically, in how they cover Korea. I think I will spend the next 24 years trying to improve Korean textbooks on how they cover ― not America ― but how they cover Korea.

Korean textbooks, on the whole, are very good. But like everything, there is room for improvement, and my career in Korean studies has highlighted several things that I think Korean textbooks can improve on.

I'm not qualified to evaluate the textbooks in their total treatment of Korean history and culture, but there are a few areas in which I have personally conducted research where I think I can offer some suggestions for improvements.

First, in the area of understanding Confucianism, there is almost no mention of Korea's transformation into a classic ― maybe the best example on the planet ― patrilineal society, better known in Korea as bugye society ― or in simple terms a male-dominated society. What is meant by the sociologists jargon "a patrilineal society" is often called "the patriarchy" and it refers to control of society and family by males. This implies subjugation of women and denial of opportunities of equality for women.

The male-dominated society is often referred to as "Confucian society" and Confucianism gets the blame for supporting men and disadvantaging women in social action, such as property ownership and inheritance rights and even rights to perform rituals.
But there is another Confucianism.

The Confucianism of the last 300 years was a kind of "perfected" Confucianism ― the most fundamentalist and orthodox practice of Confucianism of any on earth ― compared to any other time or any other place. Certainly more orthodox than ever practiced in the homeland of Confucius ― China. It is this Confucianism that is generally thought of as Korean Confucianism. It is this Confucianism that gets the "bad rap"―the criticism today.

But there was another Confucianism in Korea ― that practiced from the earliest days when Confucianism came into Korea in the Three Kingdoms Period (about the fourth century) until the orthodox reform movement of the late 17th century.

For over 1,000 years, actually 1,300 years, Korea practiced a form of Confucianism that was "compromised," "adapted," ― a Korean-style Confucianism. How was it different? Basically, the role of the oldest son; it was only after the late 17th century reform that Korea utilized the oldest son of the family as the primary official at ceremonies and as the primary heir in the household. But for over a millennium under Korean-style Confucianism, inheritances were equally distributed between all the sons and the daughters, and Confucian ceremonies were hosted in rotation between the children of the father and mother after their deaths.

Textbooks ought to cover this.

There were two forms of Confucianism practiced in Korea. The Korean-style, egalitarian Confucianism of the Three Kingdoms period, the Unified Silla period, the Goryeo period and the first three centuries of the five-century Joseon period ― 1,300 years. And then the orthodox, patrilineal, fundamentalist Confucianism of the last two centuries of the Joseon era and the transformative 20th century ― 300 years.

So, what was Korean Confucianism? It depends on the era you are looking at.

And what do the Korean textbooks say?

I am calling on the Korean textbook establishment to make clear that there was an orthodox Confucian transformation in the late 17th century. It is a knowable fact. It should be in the textbooks. But it is not.

In the orthodoxy movement Confucianism in Korea came in line with the teachings of Confucius in the ritual texts (the Chou Li [Jurye] and the Li Ji [Yeji]) which came out of Confucius' time and society, a society that was "patrilineal" ― with an emphasis on the oldest son.

In the transformation to orthodox Confucianism, daughters lost their inheritance rights and were omitted from the ceremonies. This impacted marriage practices ― there was no longer the option of marrying and living at the wife's home, but now, all marriages became patrilocal ― at the husband's home. This impacted the organization of the villages with the appearance of the "lineage village" where all the men are related to each other. And this all shows up in the style and content of genealogical books (jokbo) that were published.

These social changes are all documentable. These facts are all knowable.

But the textbooks ignore it. Confucianism, unjustly, is treated as a monolith over all time, and the fundamentalist reform that had such large impact on Korea remains obscure and students and society are kept in the dark.

It is time for the textbooks writers to wake up and include the story of Korean Confucianism in the textbooks.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.