Week 04: Library Training & Three Kingdoms

Time estimate: 15-30 mins

Submit a blog post that is a 5-15 report, remember to add it to category hst259. 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. I’m always eager to find out what else you’re learning about Korean history!

Please prepare before class! Time estimate: 15-30 mins to prepare, 75mins meeting. Same Zoom link as last time, and I will send it out again shortly before the meeting (not posting it here for fear of getting Zoom-bombed!)

Please install Zotero and the connector before we meet. Use Kelly’s handy tutorial, and if need be: consult the help pages for Installation and Quick Start guide. If it really doesn’t work, we will try to get you sorted during the session, or you can visit Kelly or Jess (Denke) in the library, they are pretty good at getting people started.

Don’t worry about the group library yet. I will invite you to our course’s group library by email or Discord. We recommend not using Muhlenberg email so you’ll maintain access to the group library after graduation.

Time estimate: 30-45mins (a generous estimate I think)

Below you find links to four blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. [UPdated links coming on Tuesday.]

• Post 1:
• Post 2:
• Post 3:
• Post 4:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students, using Hypothes.is group HST259. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to nose around in the other materials you did not read in the first round.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

TIP: It’s all random, and it’s all good, so if you return to this page after commenting, you will see four different posts. As long as your comments are on four different posts in total, you’re fine! OR you can right-click and ask your browser to open the link in a new tab/window.

Time estimate: 2-3hrs prep, 75 mins for the meeting. (I admit defeat, I never manage to keep them as short as I want)

Basic set: everybody reads this:

• Seth, Concise History of Korea or A History of Korea: From Antiquity to Present, Chapter 2, “The Period of the Three Kingdoms” [Also as an ebook in Trexler library]

Then pick one of the following – there is a primary source to focus on, and I offer some additional materials for background in case you’re interested and want to dig deeper.

Option A: Buddhism

• Primary source: “Chapter 3: The Introduction of Buddhism” In Sources of Korean Tradition, edited by Peter H. Lee and Wm. Theodore De Bary, 35-56. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
  • PDF
  • I have indicated the sections to read in red brackets, but provided the full chapter if you want to use it for your research
  • Question to help you focus: What is the relationship between the state and Buddhism?
• Optional/Background: “Buddhism.” In Dictionary of World Philosophy, by A. Pablo Iannone. Routledge, 2001. https://muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/routwp/buddhism/0?institutionId=4200
  • Read this first if you are not familiar with the basic teachings of Buddhism, or need a refresher on the main ideas. Useful to understand are:
    • the four noble truths
    • the eightfold path
    • the main difference between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.
• Optional/ Secondary source: Grayson, James H. Korea – a Religious History: A Religious History, Routledge, 2002.
• ebook Trexler
• pp. 24-48 is a good introduction to Buddhism in the Three Kingdoms.

Option B: The end of Goguryeo (Koguryŏ)

• Primary source: Kim Pusik. The Koguryo Annals of the Samguk Sagi. Edited by Edward J Shultz and Hugh H. W Kang. 2nd ed. Seongnam-si: Academy of Korean Studies, 2012.
  • PDF
  • The conquest of Goguryeo (Koguryŏ in the text) by the Tang-silla alliance. This source dates from the twelfth century, but draws on earlier records.
  • Questions to help you focus: What accounts for the fall of Koguryŏ? How are the main characters represented? Which aspects of the Tang-Koguryŏ wars are left out of this record? And do you see similarities with the conquest of Joseon (Chosŏn) in week 3?
• Optional/Secondary source: Wang, Zhenping. “2. Restoring Lost Glory in Korea.” In Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia: A History of Diplomacy and War, 55-96. The World of East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013.
  • ebook Trexler
  • Pp. 79-81 run parallel with the primary source text, but the earlier pages provide loads of background information.
• Optional/Secondary source: D’Haeseleer, Tineke. “Tang Taizong in Korea: The Siege of Ansi”. In East Asian History 40 (2016): 1-17. 
  • East Asian History journal
  • In 645 the Goguryeo commander successfully defended the castle of Ansi against Tang emperor Taizong, and I traced how Korean memories of that event transformed in history and literature.

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.

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.
• Post on your site as a blog post, category HST259
• Note: you are not yet locked in, but this indicates a general direction