Barnes, Gina L. State Formation in Korea: Historical Archaeological Perspectives. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001.
A summary of archaeological and historical scholarship on the early states in Korea from Old Chosŏn through the Three Kingdoms period. More for the serious student of early Korea than the general reader.
Bishop, Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbors. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1897.
The intelligent observations of the wife of a late-nineteenth-century British diplomat, entertaining but also useful for her insights into Korea in the last days of the old order.
Buswell, Robert E. Jr. Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.
Translations and analysis of the writings of the important Koryŏ Buddhist monk. Contains a lengthy introduction to Chinul’s life and thought as well as background information on Buddhism in premodern Korea. Aimed at a fairly high scholarly level.
Buzo, Adrian, and Tony Prince, trans. Kyunyo-Jon: the Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth Century Korean Monk. Sidney: Wild Peony Press, 1994.
A translation of the eleventh-century biography of a tenth-century Koryŏ Buddhist monk of the Hwaŏm school of Buddhism. It has a short text with lengthy scholarly annotations and appendices. A rare glimpse into Korean Buddhist hagiography with a useful nineteen-page introduction. Contains translations of the eleven hyannga poems for which this work is chiefly famous.
Ch’oe Pu. Ch’oe Pu’s Diary: A Record of Drifting across the Sea. Translated and with an Introduction by John Meskill. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1965.
The account of a fifteenth-century Korean official who was shipwrecked off the coast of China, describing his stay in China and his return home. Provides an insight into the values and attitudes of an early Chosŏn Confucianist and his observations about China.
Ch’oe, Yong-ho. The Civil Examinations and the Social Structure in Early Yi Dynasty Korea: 1392-1600. Seoul: Korean Research Center, 1987.
A controversial study of the civil examination system that argues that the civil exams were open to commoners and even to some slaves.
De Bary, William Theodore, and Jahyun Kim Haboush, eds. The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
A collection of essays by scholars analyzing Neo-Confucianism and its impact on Korea. The fifteen essays are of a high standard but are often demanding for the nonspecialist. The introduction by De Bary, one of the foremost East Asian scholars, provides a helpful entry into the topic of Neo-Confucianism and its importance.
Deuchler, Martina. The Confucian Transformation of Korea: A Study of Society and Ideology. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992.
A detailed examination of impact of Neo-Confucian ideology on Korean society during the transition period from late Koryŏ to mid-Chosŏn. The work focuses on ancestor worship, funerary rites, succession and inheritance, the position of women, the institution of marriage, and the formation of descent groups. This major study argues that a radical social transformation occurred, driven by ideological concerns.
Duncan, John B. The Origins of the Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000.
An important work that analyzes the elite families of the Koryŏ and early Chosŏn to determine the extent of social and political continuities. The author argues that the change from Koryŏ to Chosŏn did not involve a radical change in Korea’s social structure. Clearly written with many insights into premodern Korean history.
Eckert, Carter J., Ki-bail Lee, Young Lew, Michael Robinson, and Edward W. Wagner. Korea Old and New: A History. Cambridge, MA: Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1990.
The standard English language survey text on Korean history. Especially useful as a survey of Korea since 1876.
Gardiner, Kenneth H. J. The Early History of Korea: The Historical Development of the Peninsula up to the Introduction of Buddhism in the Fourth Century C.E. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1969.
A short analysis of the early history of Korea to the fourth century C.E., based almost entirely on the textual sources. Still useful on the written sources for early Korean history but now dated by the wealth of archaeological evidence that has been uncovered in recent decades.
Griffis, William Eliot. Corea: The Hermit Nation. 9th ed. New York: AMS Press, 1971.
Originally published in 1883, the first work on Korea by an American scholar. Interesting as a summary of what was known about Korea in the West on the eve of its opening to Westerners.
Haboush, Jahyun Kim. A Heritage of Kings: One Man’s Monarchy in the Confucian World. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
An excellent study of Chosŏn period politics and society, and especially of kingship, through the study of the eighteenth-century monarch Yŏngjo. Clearly written with a wealth of insights and information.
Haboush, JaHyun Kim. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: the Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea. Translated and with an Introduction and Annotations by JaHyun Kim Haboush. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996.
The most readable translation of this fascinating work consisting of four memoirs by an eighteenth-century court lady. Contains a lengthy and informative introduction. Extremely helpful in understanding Chosŏn politics and society.
Haboush, Jahyun Kim, and Martina Deuchler, eds. Culture and the State in Late Chosŏn Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard-Hollym, 1999.
A collection of informative essays on the politics, religion, and society of late Chosŏn.
Han, Suzanne Crowder. Notes on Things Korean. Seoul/Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym International Corp, 1995.
An entertaining, nonacademic introduction to traditional Korean customs, art forms, and crafts.
Han, Woo-keun. The History of Korea. Translated by Kyung-shik Lee. Edited by Grafton W. Mintz. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974.
A survey history by an eminent Korean historian. Now dated by more recent scholarship.
Henthorn, William E. A History of Korea. New York: The Free Press, 1971.
A narrative survey of Korean history to the nineteenth century. Somewhat outdated as a result of recent research and literature on premodern Korea.
Hong (Lady). Memoirs of a Korean Queen. Translated and edited by Choe-wall Yang-hi. London: KPI, 1985.
A serviceable translation of the memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng.
Hoyt, James. Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1971.
An English translation of the fifteenth-century didactic cycle of poems concerning the establishment of the Yi dynasty. This was the first work to be written in the new alphabet, han’gŭl. The Korean text is placed next to the English translation. Well annotated with an informative introduction.
Hulbert, Homer. The Passing of Korea. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1969.
Originally published in 1906, an opinionated description of Korea at the end of the Chosŏn by a Christian missionary who admired much of the culture.
Illyŏn. Samguk yusa. Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea. Translated by Tae-Hung Ha and Grafton K. Mintz. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1972.
Uneven translation but does provides a look at this rich depository of myth, legends, and history from thirteenth-century Korea.
Janelli, Roger L., and Dawnhee Yim Janelli. Ancestor Worship in Korean Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982.
A study of an important aspect of Korean culture by two anthropologists.
Jeon, Sang-woon. Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.
A comprehensive survey of science and technology in Korea mostly from the Cho-sŏn period. Includes astronomy, shipbuilding, pottery, metallurgy, printing, papermaking, gunpowder, and weapons technology.
Kalton, Michael. The Four-Seven Debate: An Annotated Translation of the Most Famous Controversy in Korean Neo-Confucian Thought. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994.
A translation of an exchange of letters between two sixteenth-century philosophers, Yi Hwang (T’oegye) and Ki Taesung (Kobong). Introduction provides a clear analysis of Neo-Confucian thought in Korea.
Kendall, Laurel. Shamans, Housewives, and Other Restless Spirits. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.
A work by an American anthropologist on the religious rituals and activities of Korean women. Although her study deals with modern Korea, it provides a good introduction to shamanism and traditional “folk” religion.
Kendall, Laurel, and Mark Peterson, eds. Korean Women: View from the Inner Room. New Haven, CT.: East Rock Press, 1983.
Ten essays by anthropologists and historians dealing with Korean women in a Confucian society. Several of the essays are concerned with the Chosŏn period while others deal with women in the twentieth century. Most essays are readable and insightful.
Kim, Key-hiuk. The Last Phase of the East Asian World Order: Korea, Japan, and the Chinese Empire, 1860-1882. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
Although this book deals largely with events after 1860, the first chapter provides a good survey of the East Asian world order in late Chosŏn times and Korea’s place in it.
Kim, Kichung. Classical Korean Literature. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996.
A series of essays that provide an excellent introduction to the literature of Korea before the late nineteenth century.
Kim-Renard, Young-Key, ed. King Sejong the Great: the Light of Fifteenth Century Korea. Washington, DC: George Washington University, International Circle of Korean Linguistics, 1992.
Fourteen short illustrated essays on aspects of Korean culture during the time of or associated with King Sejong. Topics include rites, Confucianism, han’gul, innovations in printing, the arts, ceramics, science and technology, and medicine.
Lancaster, Lewis, and Chai-Shin Yu eds. Introduction of Buddhism to Korea: New Cultural Patterns. (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1986)
A collection of articles dealing with the introduction of Buddhism in Korea and its subsequent spread from there to Japan.
Ledyard, Gari. The Dutch Come to Korea. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, 1971.
A translation and commentary of the seventeenth-century account of Korea by the shipwrecked Dutch merchant Hamel.
Lee, Ki-baik. A New History of Korea. Translated by Edward W. Wagner with Edward J. Shultz. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
A translation from what has probably been the most widely used college textbook on Korean history in South Korea by one of that country’s most eminent historians. Mainly focuses on pre-nineteenth-century Korea. It contains a large number of names and terms that may overwhelm a non-Korean being introduced to Korean history. Perhaps most useful as a reference work.
Lee, Peter H., ed. Anthology of Korean Literature: From Early Times to the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981.
Translated with useful introductions by a leading scholar and translator of Korean literature. This anthology provides more than one hundred and fifty short poems, songs, and excerpts from biographies and prose tales, essays, and myths. Presents a good overall introduction to premodern Korean literature.
Lee, Peter H., ed. A History of Korean Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Combining a narrative history with criticism, this work offers a learned introduction to Korean literature by leading scholars. Approximately two-thirds of the essays are devoted to premodern literature.
Lee, Peter H., trans. Lives of Eminent Korean Monks: The Haedong Kosung Chon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.
An annotated translation of the extant chapters of this collection of short biographies of famous monks first compiled by the monk Kakhun in 1215. Contains brief accounts of eighteen Korean and foreign monks from the Three Kingdoms period. A fascinating glimpse into Korean Buddhism in this period with a helpful introduction by the author.
Lee, Peter H., and William Theodore De Bary, eds. Sources of Korean Traditions. Vol. 1, From Early Times Through the Sixteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997; and Choe, Yong-ho and William Theodore De Bary, eds. Sources of Korean Traditions. Vol. 2, From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.
An indispensable collection of primary sources on Korean history, edited and translated by some of the leading scholars of premodern Korea.
Lee, Sang-Oak, and Duk Soo Park. Perspectives on Korea. (Sidney: Wild Peony Press, 1998).
A collection of scholarly essays, some providing good insights into premodern Korea.
Lewis, James B. Frontier Contact between Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
A study of the contacts and perceptions Koreans and Japanese had of each other from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Aimed at the specialist, it provides detailed information of the Waegwan near Pusan.
Pai, Hyung Il. Constructing “Korean” Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State-Formation Theories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Mainly concerned with the use of archaeology, ancient myths, and texts by twentieth-century Korean historians and writers to create various versions of national identity. It is useful for understanding the historiographical issues surrounding early Korean history as well as better understanding the sources that our historical knowledge is based on. Much useful material on the Tan’gun myth.
Palais, James B. Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
An examination of the reforms of the Taewŏn’gun in the 1860s and early 1870s that provides considerable information on the political, social, and economic problems of the late Chosŏn. Some of this study has been superseded by the author’s later work, Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty (see below).
Palais, James B. Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
This massive study of over one thousand pages uses the writings and concerns of the seventeenth-century scholar Yu Hyŏng-wŏn to examine a variety of political, economic, and social issues debated among the educated elite during the Chosŏn period. A bit unwieldy as a narrative text, this work by one of the leading American scholars of Korea contains a wealth of information and insights on premodern Korea.
Palais, James B. Views on Korean Social History. Seoul: Institute for Modern Korean Studies, 1998.
Two essays given by James Palais in 1997 at the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University. Deals with some controversial issues in Korean history.
Peterson, Mark A. Korean Adoption and Inheritance: Case Studies in the Creation of a Classic Confucian Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.
Examines adoption and inheritance documents from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries for evidence of social change during Chosŏn Korea.
Portal, Jane. Korea: Art and Archaeology. London: British Museum, 2000.
Chronological account of the art and archaeology of Korea from the Neolithic period to the twentieth century, primarily focusing on premodern art traditions. Covers a wide sampling of art forms including folk art as well as the art of the elite. Well illustrated with an informative commentary, this book provides a good introduction to Korea’s rich artistic heritage.
Pratt, Keith. Korean Painting. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.
A survey of Korean painting from the fourth-century tomb paintings to the twentieth century.
Pratt, Keith, and Richard Rutt. Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999.
A compact but comprehensive dictionary of names, terms, and topics dealing with Korean history and culture. A handy reference work.
Ro, Young-chan. The Korean Neo-Confucianism of Yi Yulgok. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988.
A somewhat technical study of the important sixteenth-century Korean philosopher.
Setton, Mark. Chŏng Yagyong: Korea’s Challenge to Orthodox Neo-Confucianism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997.
Study of one of late Chosŏn’s most important and original thinkers. Contains a clear, insightful explanation of his thought and the Qing and Tokugawa influences on it.
Shaw, William. Legal Norms in a Confucian State. Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Center for Korean Studies, 1981.
A well informed study of legal theory and practice in Yi dynasty Korea, based primarily on the Siminrok a late-eighteenth-century collection of judicial reviews of difficult criminal cases. Contains one hundred of these short reviews of legal hearings.
Shultz, Edward J. Generals and Scholars: Military Rule in Medieval Korea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.
An important study of the often neglected period of military rule in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by a leading specialist.
Toby, Ronald P. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
An important study of Japanese foreign relations during its “seclusion period” (sakoku) from the early seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, much of it focusing on Japanese-Korean relations.
Stephen Turnbull. Samurai Invasion, Japan’s Korean War, 1592-98. London: Cassell & Co., 2002.
Well-illustrated account of the sixteenth-century Japanese invasion of Korea, aimed at the general reader.
Wagner, Edward W. Literati Purges: Political conflict in Early Yi Korea. Cambridge, MA: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1974.
A detailed study of the four literati purges in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Contains an outline of the institutional structure of the early Chosŏn.
Yi Chung-hwan. Yi Chung-Hwan’s T’aengniji: the Korean Classic for Choosing Settlements. Translated with an Introduction by Inshil Choe Yoon. Sydney: University of Sydney East Asian Series Number 12, 1998.
A translation of the influential eighteenth-century text on geomancy. The original text was written to help the yangban find a desirable place to live.
Yi T’oegye, and Michael C. Kalton. To Become a Sage: the Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
An examination of the diagrams drawn by the sixteenth-century Korean philosopher to illustrate his Neo-Confucian concepts.
Yi Sun-shin. Nanjung Ilgi: War Diary of Admiral Yi Sun-shin. Translated by Ha Tae-hung. Edited by Sohn Pow-key. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1977.
A translation of the war diary of this now venerated sixteenth-century admiral.