From the publisher’s website: Buddhism in medieval Korea is characterized as “State Protection Buddhism,” a religion whose primary purpose was to rally support (supernatural and popular) for and legitimate the state. In this view, the state used Buddhism to engender compliance with its goals. A closer look, however, reveals that Buddhism was a canvas on … [Read More]
Booklist: Goryeo Kingdom (page 2)
The Book of Korean Poetry: Songs of Shilla and Koryo
From the publisher’s website: “Here at last in one English-language volume is the heart and soul of the Korean lyric tradition, brought to sensuous life by a poet who is our finest all-around translator of Korean literature.”—Bruce Fulton, Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation, University of British Columbia Korea’s history is divided … [Read More]
The Land of Scholars: Two Thousand Years of Korean Confucianism
This book discusses the historical development of Korean Confucianism in terms of its social functions. It also examines the types of transfiguration Confucianism underwent and the role it played in each period of Korean history. The Land of Scholars spans from the Three Kingdoms period in 18 BC to the Joseon dynasty in 1910. The … [Read More]
Currents and Countercurrents: Korean Influences on the East Asian Buddhist Traditions
From the publisher’s website: Soon after the inception of Buddhism in the sixth or fifth century B.C.E., the Buddha ordered his small band of monks to wander forth for the welfare and weal of the many, a command that initiated one of the greatest missionary movements in world religious history. But this account of a … [Read More]
The Origins of the Choson Dynasty
From the publisher’s website: Scholars have long held that Korea’s Choson dynasty (1392-1910) was established by a new socioeconomic class of scholar-officials of local-landlord origins who overthrew the capital-based aristocracy of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392). The Origins of the Choson Dynasty refutes that view, showing that a key feature of the dynastic transition was continuity in the … [Read More]
Generals and Scholars: Military Rule in Medieval Korea
Generals and Scholars is the first work in English to examine fully military rule during the Koryo. Although it lasted for only a century, the period was one of dynamic change–a time of institutional development, social transformation, and the reassertion of the civil service examination and Confucian ideology coupled with the flowering of Son (Zen) Buddhism. … [Read More]
Korea: Art and Archaeology
This illustrated book, the first authoritative general introduction to the distinctive culture of this country to be published in English, traces its development chronologically from the Neolithic period (c. 6000 BC) right up to the present day. Korea, published in association with the opening of a major new permanent Korean Gallery in the British Museum, … [Read More]
Buddhism in Koryo: A Royal Religion
In this volume, we catch glimpses of Buddhism in the Koryo period at its height. It was a time when the religion made significant contributions to the development of Korean culture. Art and literature flourished under the support of the central government. Monasteries of great beauty were constructed, and the monastic community was productive in … [Read More]