Week 05: Goryeo

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Friday’s class, and anything you may already have read in addition, e.g. for your Pressbooks Chapter project

Remember to also add any tasks that are on your to-do list (not those scheduled for the whole class, but for you individually, e.g. sorting out a blog-related issue), and any open questions or issues you want to flag up for follow-up with me. These weekly reports are extremely useful for me to get an insight in how you’re working, what you make of the course and the materials, and how I can best support your learning and adjust the course.

TIP: for anything you’re not comfortable putting in a blog where others can read it, you can just drop me a message on discord OR post anonymously on the Padlet!

Please prepare before class! Time estimate: 2-3hrs to prepare, 75mins meeting.

• Slides (to help you jump from the end of the Three Kingdoms to the Mongol Invasions)
• Textbook: Seth, Michael J. A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present. 3rd ed. Blue Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
  • PDF of chapter 5

• Primary source (in translation) Ledyard, Gari. “Two Mongol Documents from the Koryŏ Sa.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 83, no. 2 (1963): 225–39.
  • PDF
    • I have annotated the PDF because I fear it may be a bit confusing or overwhelming otherwise. It’s not as bad as it looks.
    • The Mongols are a bit pushy. When you place these documents on the timeline of events described in Michael Seth’s textbook, where are we in the story? How do things evolve from here on?
    • Use the document “How to read a text” to dig deeper into these short documents. Bring your answers (or questions to the questions) to class, we will puzzle through them together.

Optional, interesting primary source:

• Xu, Jing. A Chinese Traveler in Medieval Korea: Xu Jing’s Illustrated Account of the Xuanhe Embassy to Koryŏ. Translated by Sem Vermeersch. Korean Classics Library. Historical Materials. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2016.
  • ebook Trexler
  • This text, known in Korean as the Goryeo Dogyeong (Koryŏ Togyong 고료 도경) is an important document describing Koryŏ. Xu Jing was a member of an official mission from Song (960-1279) to Koryŏ, and in 1124 he wrote this work. It contains many small segments describing different aspects of Goryeo politics, state, society and culture.
  • This dates from before the Mongol invasions, and is useful to understand how Goryeo treated Song envoys rather differently!

Time estimate: 75 mins for the meeting

Tim Clarke and Tina Hertel join us to talk about Open Education Resources. Bring your questions and curiosity to class!

Time estimate: 60 mins (depending on previous work, may be less)

Submit the first step for the final project: pitch the basic idea, and give reasons why you are interested in this particular topic.

• Dig a bit deeper than “North Korea, because it’s fascinating” (It is, I agree)
• What in the course so far has guided you to this topic?
• What in the readings or the exploration exercises has sparked your curiosity?
  • This can help me with reframing your idea if we don’t have good sources available, for instance!
• Half-baked ideas welcome. Quarter-baked and ingredients only? Sure, I’ll help you out! But give me your ingredients or I can’t help you bake.
• Aim for 300-500 words. Add any sources you have already looked at if not yet mentioned in your 5-15 reports.
• Post on your site as a blog post, category HST259
• Note: you are not yet locked in, but this indicates a general direction

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” comprises the texts you read for Wednesday’s class, and anything you may already have read in addition, e.g. for your Pressbooks Chapter project

Details to follow soon!