Table Of ContentA Korean Scholar’s
Rude Awakening in Qing China
KOREAN CLASSICS LIBRARY: HISTORICAL MATERIALS
A Korean Scholar’s
Rude Awakening in Qing China
Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning
translated and annotated by
Byonghyon Choi, Seung B. Kye, and
Timothy V. Atkinson
University of Hawai‘i Press/Honolulu
Korean Classics Library
© 2019 The Regents of the University of California
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pak, Che-ga, 1750–1815, author. | Choi, Byonghyon, translator,
writer of added commentary. | Kye, Seung B., translator, writer of added
commentary. | Atkinson, Timothy V., translator, writer of added commentary.
Title: A Korean scholar’s rude awakening in Qing China : Pak Chega’s
discourse on northern learning / translated and annotated by Byonghyon
Choi, Seung B. Kye, and Timothy V. Atkinson.
Other titles: Pukhagæui. English | Korean classics library. Historical
materials.
Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, [2019] | Series: Korean
classics library: historical materials | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018058223 | ISBN 9780824877934 (cloth ; alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: China—Description and travel—Early works to 1800. |
China—Social life and customs—18th century—Early works to 1800. |
China—Social conditions—18th century—Early works to 1800. |
Korea—Social conditions—1392-1910—Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC DS708 .P28213 2019 | DDC 951/.032—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018058223
Korean Classics Library: Historical Materials
Series Editors:
John B. Duncan, University of California, Los Angeles
Namhee Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
Robert E. Buswell, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
Series Editorial Board:
Donald Baker, University of British Columbia
Sun Joo Kim, Harvard University
James B. Lewis, University of Oxford
A. Charles Muller, Tokyo University
Young-chan Ro, George Mason University
Kenneth R. Robinson, International Christian University, Tokyo
Edward Shultz, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa
Senior Editor: Jennifer Jung-Kim, University of California, Los Angeles
This work was supported by the English Translation of 100 Korean Classics program through the
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service of the
Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2010-AAA-2102).
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Design and composition by Wanda China
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on the Translation ix
Part I
Translators’ Introduction 3
Part II
Translation
A Discourse on Northern Learning 21
Author’s Preface 21
Preface by Pak Chiwŏn 23
Preface by Sŏ Myŏngŭng 26
Inner Chapters 28
Outer Chapters 87
Memorial of 1786 125
A Discourse on Northern Learning Presented to His Majesty in
Response to a Royal Decree (1798) 133
Appendix: The Life of Pak Chega: A Chronology 169
Notes 185
Glossary 205
Bibliography 213
Index 217
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by various institutes, including the Korea Liter-
ature Translation Institute, Academy of Korean Studies, and Research In-
stitute of Korean Studies at Korea University, and we are all very grateful.
The translators are especially indebted to the authorities of the Research
Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University for this translation, as well
as to the scholars who joined us in reading and discussing the difficult
hanmun source text. We are also grateful to Donald Baker of the University
of British Columbia and Ned Shultz of the University of Hawai‘i for their
insightful advice, and to Robert Buswell, director of the Korean Classics
series of the Academy of Korean Studies, and Stephanie Chun, acquisition
editor at the University of Hawai‘i Press, for their critical guidance and
facilitation of the final publication. Lastly but most importantly, our grati-
tude goes to Stuart Kiang, the copyeditor of this text, who did a superb
job in reshaping the book and making the text more accessible to readers.
vii
Note on the Translation
An English translation of the Discourse on Northern Learning (Pukhak ŭi) is
long overdue considering its importance in the development of Korean
thought. The influence of this text is evident not only in the reformed Con-
fucianism or School of Practical Learning (Sirhak) of the late eighteenth
century, but also among intellectuals of our own time in the age of glo-
balization. Mainly dealing with advances in the material culture of Qing
China, the text is complicated, because its language reflects a now anti-
quated technology, and it is difficult to translate, because of the author’s
idiosyncratic literary style. While a few of its essays have previously ap-
peared in English, those selections in an anthology of Korean studies do
not adequately represent the breadth of the author’s contributions and
achievement.
The present translation is based on the original text of the Discourse
as edited by An Taehoe, which has been recognized as the most authori-
tative of the various versions of the text available today. An discovered
about twenty extant versions of the Pukhak ŭi, all slightly different from
each other. After carefully examining and comparing them, he translated
the text from classical Chinese into Korean and presented it in three parts,
consisting of the inner and outer chapters together with a version entitled
Chinsangbon (Memorial of 1798), written as a memorial or petition to the
throne. This arrangement produced an accurate and reliable text, but with
the addition of the Chinsangbon, which includes edited versions of some
of the essays in the inner and outer chapters, it also made for a certain re-
dundancy. Eliminating the Chinsangbon altogether, however, would have
presented more problems since many of its essays are composed of new
material found only in that version. It seemed indispensable for the integ-
rity of the source text, therefore, to present the Chingsangbon as it is.
As for the English translation, Timothy Atkinson and I initially trans-
lated the whole corpus and later combined our work with that of Seung
B. Kye, who had made an independent translation on his own. We believe
the accuracy and fluency of the present translation have benefited greatly
from this collaboration.
Byonghyon Choi
ix
