More on Korea's dual age system demise

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Mark Peterson

More on Korea's dual age system demise

Posted : 2023-07-17 16:35

Updated : 2023-07-17 16:35

By Mark Peterson

I've been thinking more about the "Korean age," "international age" issue. "Mannai" means "international age" in Korean. Another way to look at the two is to say "solar age" and "lunar age" or, more properly, one's age by the solar calendar and one's age by the lunar calendar. But I've been looking into the issue a little more, and I've found a couple of insights I'd like to share.

I've been looking at what sorts of things are considered "whole" numbers, and what is considered fractional. In other words, things are numbered starting with the whole number "one," and things are numbered starting with zero.

I thought at one point that "Korean age" was based on a Chinese numeric system that did not have a zero. And that might be true, although at some point Chinese mathematics was influenced by Arabic numerals and the number zero made its appearance. But now I think it is more than that.

I started by looking at Korean age as functioning like that of the reign years of kings. Indeed, there is no zero year. It's the "first year of King Sejong," for example. The last year of a king's reign would overlap with the first year of the new king. For example King Taejong's 18th year was King Sejong's first year. There was no "zero" year. The king's first year was the king's year one.

Perhaps this has great bearing on the foundational idea of counting one's age by whole years. There was not a zero year on the calendar ― and the king's reign date was the year of the calendar. For example, Kim Jangsaeng was born in the year Myeongjong 3 (1548) ― the third year of the reign of King Myeongjong. He died in Injo 9 (1631). There was no Myeongjong 0 or Injo 0.

There was a sort of zero in the year the king ascended the throne. It was called the "jeugwi-nyeon," the year he ascended the throne, but it was recorded as the last year of the previous king. The king's first year began with the lunar new year as year one.

What other systems begin with the number one? Pages of books. There are no books that start on page zero. Chapters of books. Olympics, annual meetings, annual award ceremonies and many other events start with the age one, the year one.

On the other hand, there are "fractional" measurements. Coordinates on a map, measurements of longitude and latitude, are fractional.

Hours of the day. We round off to whole numbers at times ― "I arrived at the restaurant at 6." But we can easily give the fraction as fractions, or as minutes. "It started at a quarter past 7." "We left at 8:45." Old Korean time of day was based on a 12-hour day ― midnight is "ja" (rat), the sun comes up around "myo" (rabbit), sun goes down around "yu" (chicken). Midday is "o" (horse) and traditional Korean time-keeping divided the day between before horse hour ― "ojeon" ― and after horse hour ― "ohu". In the old days, with time estimated on a sundial, whole hours, really, a two-hour block in modern terms, people did not refer to fractions of an hour. Whole hours were the rule ― I'll meet you for breakfast at "jin" (dragon hour). If you've ever been to a Chinese restaurant with a placemat listing the 12 critters, or know which zodiac animal you are, you've been exposed to this system.

Cooking ingredient measurements, musical notation, exchange rates, stock market reports are all in fractions, beginning with zero. Mileage. Body temperature measurement.

Sports is an interesting mix. The game is kept in whole numbers, beginning with zero-zero. But the athletes' season averages are in fractions. He got three hits in the game, but he is batting .286; he scored 24 points, but his average is 18.8; he allowed only two runs but his ERA is 3.62. Track and field is all fractions ― a new world record of 3.

I set up a survey on my YouTube channel asking my audience if they were going to abandon Korean age ― or was this "just a law" and custom would prevail. One-third said custom would win out, but two-thirds said Korean age is gone. But when I asked how many were going to abandon reckoning pregnancy as 10 months and accept the 9 month measure, it was close to 50-50.

So, with Korea's adoption of the so-called international standard, is Korea now a fully developed modern nation? Or is looking at it that way a kind of put-down, or a kind of ethno-imperialism? So much of "old-world" Korea has disappeared ― is this the last vestige? "We don't even have 'Korean age' anymore!"

Given reluctance by some to give up the tradition means that "How old are you?" is a loaded question revealing attitudes about tradition and external influence.

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