Week 03: Library training and Early Korea

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report. Your “Reading Journal” component is a bit different this week:

• List the materials and the route you used to investigate the topics that you were drawn to (Thursday’s task). We likely will use this later in the semester when we have a session with Kelly Cannon.
• Explain what you learned from trawling through the journals. How is this different from previously working with course materials or sources? Or are you a seasoned historian and did you rejoice at this task? Share it all!

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: 60 mins to prepare, 75mins meeting. I will send the Zoom link shortly before the meeting (not posting it here for fear of getting Zoom-bombed!)

Please go to the course’s Library Guide and read the article that’s assigned to your team (just click on the link there). We invite you to read the article a focus on authoritativeness (Is the information/source reliable?). Keep notes, you will use them during the session.

• Team 1: Billy, Anna, Jake
• Team 2: Ryan and Jenny
• Team 3: Eva and Abe
• Team 4: Julian and Kaya
• Team 5: Serena and William

Take notes, and in the session you will get a chance to explore in more detail in your group and together.

Time estimate: 2-3hrs prep, 45-75 mins for the meeting

Basic set: everybody reads this:

• Seth, Concise History of Korea or A History of Korea: From Antiquity to Present, Chapter 1, pp. 23–25 (Korea in Global Perspective; the Tan’gun Myth) [Also as an ebook in Trexler library]
• Slides (to stop me from lecturing during class time) — comments are open!

Optional additional background: the superquick background in three pages:

• https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/world-history-cultures-states-and-societies-to-1500, pp. 149-152
  • the PDF takes some time to load, please be patient

Then pick one of the following – please read all texts in your chosen option, they fit together.

Option A: Chaoxian – Joseon (Chosŏn): The Chinese conquest

• Primary source: Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian of China. Translated by Burton Watson. Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies, No. 65. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961.
  • PDF
  • Note that this is written from the Han dynasty perspective: what impact does that have on the way the history is written?
• Textbook info: Seth, Concise History of Korea, Chapter 1, pp. 16–19 (Sources for Early Korea, Chosŏn [Joseon], The Chinese Commanderies)

Option B: Early Korean polities after the Chinese conquest

• Primary source: Lee, Peter H, William Theodore De Bary, Yŏng-ho Ch’oe, and Hugh H.W Kang, eds. Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. I: from Early Times through the Sixteenth Century, 6-17. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
  • PDF
  • Tip for fans of Gaya: read the section on “Founders of the Tribal Federations”, pp. 13ff (p.8 of the PDF)
• Textbook info:
  • Seth, Concise History of Korea, Chapter 1, pp. 19–25 (Chinese Commanderies And Their Neighbors: The Northern Peoples; The Southern Peoples; Politics of the Third Century)

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

Details to follow soon!