Confucian Reform in Chosŏn Korea: Yu Hyŏngwŏn’s Pan’gye Surok (Volume I)

Pan’gye surok (or ＂Pan’gye’s Random Jottings＂) was written by the Korean scholar and social critic Yu Hyŏngwŏn(1622-1673), who proposed to reform the Joseon dynasty and realise an ideal Confucian society. It was recognised as a leading work of political science by Yu’s contemporaries and continues to be a key text in understanding the intellectual culture of the late Joseon period.

Yu describes the problems of the political and social realities of 17th Century Korea, reporting on his attempts to solve these problems using a Confucian philosophical approach. In doing so, he establishes most of the key terminology relating to politics and society in Korea in the late Joseon. His writings were used as a model for reforms within Korea over the following centuries, inspiring social pioneers like Yi Ik and Chŏng Yakyong. Pan’gye surok demonstrates how Confucian thought spread outside China and how it was modified to fit the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Providing both the first English translation of the full Pan’gyesurok text as well as glossaries, notes and research papers on the importance of the text, this four volume set is an essential resource for international scholars of Korean and East Asian history.

Woosung Bae, editor, is Professor in the Department of Korean History at the University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea, and Visiting Scholar at Korea Institute, Harvard University (January 2009 to January 2010). He is also the author of Chosŏn and Chunghwa: The World and Civilization That Chosŏn Dreamt and Imagined, Tolbegae, 2014.

Changsu Kim, author, is Professor in the Department of History at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea.

Timothy Vincent Atkinson, translator, is Professor at Seoul University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea, who worked on the translation: A Korean Scholar’s Rude Awakening in Qing China: Pak Chega’s Discourse on Northern Learning (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2019).

Yoonjeong Shim, translator, has a Ph.D. in Korean history and co-translated The Veritable Records of King Sejong 1 (Gwacheon, Gyeonggi: National Institute of Korean History, 2016).

Kenneth R. Robinson, copy editor, is a former Senior Associate Professor at International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan (Division of Social Sciences). He has co-translated with JaHyun Kim Haboush A Korean War Captive in Japan, 1597-1600: The Writings of Kang Hang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).