I do not find it easy to take my first step forward in exploring the politics of public opinion, an old topic in ChosÅn political history, which is a new terrain for my research. Perhaps, for this reason, much time elapsed as I wrote this book. What made me take an interest in the subject was an invitation to present a paper for the Twentieth Winter Conference of the Society for Asian Historical Studies, held in February 2001 and addressing the general theme of âpublic opinion and politicsâ (yÅron kwa chÅngchâi). My paper on this theme was titled âLate ChosÅn Politics and Public Opinion: Continuity and Break in Politics of Public Opinionâ (ChosÅn hugi Åi chÅngchâi wa yÅron: kongnon chÅngchâi Åi chisok kwa tanjÅl). At the time, media studies had produced a substantial body of scholarship. Also, as it happened, in 1997, the South Korean academic journal Critical Review of History (YÅksa pipâyÅng) had published the thematic issue âPublic Opinion and Politics in the ChosÅn Periodâ (ChosÅn sidae Åi yÅron kwa chÅngchâi). Relying on these resources, I organized my thoughts, incorporating what had I learned through research into ChosÅn history and also including contents that are part of the common knowledge of Korean historians.
This book brings together my insights thanks to a grant I received in 2009 from Seoul National University under its long-term project to support foundational research in Korean studies. While examining relevant sources at every opportunity, I had done little writing for ten years, thinking the book would somehow write itself. Ultimately, having this become a funded book project made me shift gears. My initial thinking that perhaps a new framework would be feasible if I were to build on a new scholarship proved wrong, as I found tackling the bookâs subject nearly impossible. For the 2012 Korean Historical Association meeting (ChÅnâguk yÅksahak taehoe), the Association for Korean Historical Studies (YÅksa hakhoe) organized presentations that addressed the theme, expressed in the meeting title: âArenas for Communication and Public Opinion in Korean Historyâ (Hanâguksa sok Åi sotâong kwa kongnon Åi chang). Not only were these papers helpful but also, since then, new works in social science and philosophy that have come out also provided help and stimulus. An in-depth examination of these recent studies was challenging, and a timely historiographical review by Kim KyÅngnae (2012) lightened my burden. Additionally, for understanding early ChosÅn, I owe much to Song UngsÅpâs Ph.D. dissertation, âThe Formation of Public Opinion Politics in the Reign of ChosÅn SÅngjongâ (ChosÅn SÅngjongdae kongnon chÅngchâi Åi hyÅngsÅng; 2011). Among the sources on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century local councils, I revisited many I had examined for my own Ph.D. dissertation.8 Thanks to them, I was able to construct a viable framework for this book.
Much discussion on the public sphere has stimulated an interest in ChosÅn politics of public opinion in history, philosophy, and sociology. Another contributing factor may have been South Koreaâs stark sociopolitical reality, out of which there seems to be no escape route. Seen from the standpoint of such concerns, the appeal of ChosÅn politics of public opinion as a research topicâat least initiallyâwas undeniable. The idea that many ChosÅn dynasty individuals who spoke of principles imperishable for âmyriadâ generations could pursue an ideal Confucian society and take pride as guardians of its public opinion seemed wondrous, never mind the reality full of problems and difficulties. Even though the ChosÅn politics of public opinion centered around the shared views of the Sarim (Rusticated Literati) may have elicited a degree of pride among some historians, othersâ doubts about whether those who spoke of public opinion properly upheld its principle have grown strong during the course of my research and writing.9 King ChÅngjo (r. 1776â1800) sought a breakthrough amid the prevailing attitude in officialdom that keeping oneâs mouth shut was best, but he could not go against the trend of his time. Upon his death, the consort family oligarchy all too familiar to ChosÅn historians commenced. Examining only the court politics may make the period appear devoid of public opinion, producing endemic âpopular uprisingsâ (millan). Did the politics of public opinion indeed end in late ChosÅn?
This book begins with an assessment that such a perspective from above is problematic. From the standpoint of scholarship in social history that has significantly accumulated since the 1980s, it is clear that in local society, a new arena of public opinion was unfolding dynamically in opposition to the existing politics of public opinion, while the two phenomena mutually influenced each other. In the provinces, the new arena comprised local councils and peopleâs assemblies that elites and non-elites jointly implemented in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although commonly labeled a yangban society, ChosÅn Korea was a dynamic, multipolar society featuring a cast of three actors: the king, the yangban as the ruling elite, and the ordinary people economically sustaining them. Accordingly, the late ChosÅn period has a claim in Korean history as the era when the politics of public opinion did not cease but instead unfolded in a new form. It may not be a stretch to suggest that such a foundation made feasible the declaration of a democratic republic in 1919 without a great conflict among competing visions for building a modern Korean nation-state.
Finally, I want to thank the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University, for its solid support for this book, and the Seoul National University Press for approving this bookâs publication.
Kim Ingeol
Below Mount Gwanak
July 31, 2020
Kim InâgÅl, âChosÅn hugi hyangchâon sahoe pyÅndong e kwanhan yÅnâgu: 18, 19 segi âhyangkwÅnâ tamdangchâÅng Åi pyÅnhwa rÅl chungsim Åroâ [A study of change in late ChosÅn local society: the transformation of the âlocal powerâ stratum in the 18th and 19th centuries] (Ph.D. diss., Seoul National University, 1991).
Translatorâs note: In the mid-fifteenth century, a new generation of aristocrats more committed than other yangban to Neo-Confucian moral norms began forming a political force, the Sarim. At the time, the leading political players were the Hunâgu (Meritorious Old Elite), who had become powerful as merit subjects (kongsin) for helping King Sejo (r. 1455â68) usurp the throne, and had amassed land and slaves, and continued to reorganize the government according to Official State Learning (kwanhak), the study of a government-sanctioned curriculum. By contrast, the Sarim emphasized local autonomy and statecraft of the Kingly Way (wangdo), which they saw as based on morality and moral principles (Åiri). Hailing primarily from yangban families of the capital region or KyÅngsang, the Sarim challenged the central political position of the Hunâgu through remonstrance.