|
Post by ajk on Jan 2, 2013 23:06:06 GMT -5
I asked a Korean studies professor about this a few years ago, and the one book that he could recommend to me was connected to a newer book called Korea Old and New: a History, which covers the older stuff and more contemporary history as well. The older historical stuff in that book is based on a book called A New History of Korea by Ki-baik Lee, which was written in Korean and later translated by a couple of Americans. I bought the Lee book and I like it a lot. The prof said he thought it was a little dry and too heavy in names and details, but that hasn't seemed like a problem at all. And it has some good maps that have helped me as I've watched these shows, and also it charts the lineages of all of the monarchs of the various Korean kingdoms.
That's the only general history that I'm familiar with. Maybe other people know of something new that I don't?...
You can get some great stuff specific to the Imjin War: two books of Yi Soon-Shin's diaries, and the prime minister's diary, all translated into English, plus an excellent book about the war written by a historian named Samuel Hawley. After watching IYSS I enjoyed that book thoroughly.
But overall, there's surprisingly little out there, even still today. That's what's so great about the chunks that truth has posted here for us; the oldest source material that isn't available in English yet.
I know there are some academics and other people working on more formal translations of the early stuff and you can find it online in various places, but of course that's not the same as a readable, coherent history book.
|
|
|
Post by MTR on Jan 2, 2013 23:38:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Jan 3, 2013 0:46:27 GMT -5
My apologies, DYC--you get partial credit for my buying that book. Completely forgot. Also should have mentioned that Shultz book; haven't read it yet but it deals with the time period of Age of Warriors. And like the Lee book, it's not expensive.
Thanks for bumping the info.
|
|
|
Post by TheBo on Jan 3, 2013 11:20:24 GMT -5
You guys are immeasurable. LOL. I have this book: Handbook of KoreaNotice the price: $58.50. On September 9, 2010, I purchased this from a used bookseller (on Amazon) and paid: $20.58 I have found this book to be a good starting point and overview, but it really doesn't go into the detail I'm looking for most of the time. So, a more accurate statement might be: Good books on Korean history have been translated into English over the years, but not as many as one might think. Also, many are quite scholarly (we will not say "dry"). They might be out of print and expensive to obtain. However, they should be available at lending libraries and university libraries, so if you have access, look there.Whaddaya think? Too wordy by half, for me. If anyone has some suggestions, please do. BTW, you are helping me with a review here. Kamsamnidah.
|
|
|
Post by MTR on Jan 4, 2013 0:05:36 GMT -5
I think you hit it on the head BO with that statement . Despite his many errors or obvious bias Hulbert is still the best ,The more recent editions have tons of cliff notes by other authors who make corrections to his text .He really goes off on Cheon Chu and Kimmy Sue to the point the subject obviously raised his blood pressure and Goongyae seemed to have upset him as well . Despite both volumes being pretty hefty it is surprisingly an easy read and very informative and chatty and crammed with info missing from recent histories .Like most older books it is easiest to get it through inter library loan . James Scarth Gale is really good as well and yet again library visit required .
AKJ the Shultz book is really bad ,It is dry and most of it seems to be about peasants,currency and monks and very little about the various historical characters . Henthorne is so much better on this subject ,Though again i had to use inter library loan to get to read it ,but it was well worth the effort .
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Jan 4, 2013 17:24:08 GMT -5
Oh I don't mind dry at all, DYC--the Lee book was characterized as dry and I liked it a lot. I do plan to buy it for when I watch AOW (one way or another I will watch that series in 2013) but I'll make the effort to get the other book too. Thanks for the advice.
|
|
|
Post by wonhwa on Jan 4, 2013 22:48:40 GMT -5
You can access the Hulbert text for free on line at archive.org. The link for volume 1 is archive.org/details/centralstatesout00gorduoft (it says it's a history of South Australia, but it's a mistake in the link). You can either read it on-line or download it to a Kindle or other e-reader. Volume 2 is available as well at archive.org/details/historyofkorea02hulbuoft. Whoever scanned the text didn't bother to go back and clean up the formatting, so it's not the best quality copy, but if you're willing to overlook some bizarre typographical errors, I've found it a pretty good read so far.
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Jan 5, 2013 0:20:49 GMT -5
wonhwa, thanks for joining here and thanks for the great tip on that book! archive.org is a great site--I've found some really useful old data there for research projects, and some restored old music recordings. But it never occurred to me to look for something like the Hulbert book there. Will definitely check it out.
|
|
|
Post by MTR on Jan 5, 2013 0:34:36 GMT -5
|
|
HungV
Senior Addict
Posts: 258
|
Post by HungV on Aug 14, 2013 6:51:02 GMT -5
Great news again, I finally found the book Samguk Yusa translated into Vietnamese language in a large bookstore in the city center, the price is affordable and I'll surely take it some days soon.
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Aug 16, 2013 22:02:09 GMT -5
Glad you could find the thing. Had no idea it had been translated into enough languages that they got to Vietnamese. When you get it and read it, let us know what you thought of it.
|
|
HungV
Senior Addict
Posts: 258
|
Post by HungV on Oct 8, 2013 8:39:50 GMT -5
Oh I'm sorry for the very late reply. Since I entered university, I stopped sticking to the computer so to fully concentrate on my self-study section and enjoy my reading habit. This is the back and front cover (the letters in red is Sam-Guk-Yu-Sa) of the book published in Vietnam. I've got the book and finished it already. Ignoring some of the untrue historical facts, in my opinion, this book is good as it has lots of folk tales, mysterious stories and legends about the forming of the ancient kingdoms of Korea, their architectures and various cultures - which has been my most favorite reading and studying topic. In my country, there are many books like Samguk yusa that I've been enjoying since my childhood, that's why I'd like to read stories about other countries too. Also, I've been hoping the publisher will do the Samguk Sagi as well.
|
|
|
Post by TheBo on Oct 8, 2013 10:53:31 GMT -5
HungV, this question has no connection to this thread at all, but you have special knowledge that I am seeking. The lettering on that book looks closer to Western lettering than to Chinese, Korean or Japanese. (I do see the Hangul there, I'm not talking about that.) What is the language on the back cover called in English, is that Hmong? Do you have any idea what the basis of the written language is? I thought there was a previous written language that had mostly died out, and the reason I think that is because of the (female) poet Ho Xuan Huong who was, I understand, writing in Nom (may have that middle letter wrong, I can't find it online and don't have it in front of me), instead of writing in Mandarin which was being used for writing poetry at the time. It's been a long time since I read about her, so I can't recall the details, but I thought that Nom was an attempt at a written Vietnamese language specific to Vietnam, just like Hangul is a successful and still used written language specific to the Korean language and not based on Chinese figures (like Hanja is). So is this written language I see here what replaced Nom, or were there many others but this style won out? In fact, the more I look at it, this written text looks an awful lot like Greek. What do you think? I hope I haven't explained so much that I became impossible to understand. I would so much appreciate anything you can tell me about the script used in Vietnam and/or the language in general. I'm not expecting you to be a great scholar or anything, just wondering what you might know about it. Bo
|
|
HungV
Senior Addict
Posts: 258
|
Post by HungV on Oct 13, 2013 23:13:00 GMT -5
Hello Bo! The Nom (Nôm, the "o" has a cone-like hat on it) in writing system in Vietnam was invented around 14th century (nearly the same time as the development of Han-gul in Korea) described as "system of modified and invented characters modeled loosely on Chinese characters." Nom, and Chinese (called Han-ja in Korean) remained in use until the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration wanted to break free from Chinese culture and fostered Western culture and knowledge, made Alexander de Rhodes's alphabet (based on his Vietnamese - Portugese - Latinese dictionary compiled in 17th century) official (the Latin alphabet), which was the first origin of the later "Vietnamese alphabet". However, in 18th century, Pigneau de Baine compiled another dictionary with the same name that innovated Rhodes' work and it looked closer to the writing system we use nowadays. By the late 20th century, the revise "Vietnamese alphabet" (formally "national (Vietnamese) language") was universally used to write Vietnamese, formed the basis of the Vietnamese writting system that has been used, and developed till now (that is the style written in the back cover and inside the book). * Here is the closer look to what written in the back cover (brief introduction to the book, its value and importance, and the reason why the publisher chooses to translate it.) Moreover, Vietnamese also adopted lots of words from other languages, especially French/English (radio, video, TV, carrot...), and Chinese (Sino-Vietnamese or Han-Viet style). Also, Vietnamese is a tonic language, because its diacritic creates various forms of pronunciation). Nowadays, literacy in the previous Chinese/Nom character-based writing systems for Vietnamese is not completely died out, yet limited to a small number of scholars, specialists, language/culture researchers or historians. The letters in red is totally not Greek, but Western characters written in calligraphy in style of brush; it's okay to me, but still, it might look weird and difficult to read.Nonetheless, they aren't unique Vietnamese but Han-Viet style. H'Mong language is not widely used throughout the country, it's only the internal use of H'mong tribe living in Northern Vietnam.
|
|
|
Post by TheBo on Oct 15, 2013 9:12:08 GMT -5
Thanks so much! These are questions I've had for some time, I finally got someone by the ear who can help me! (LOL)
BTW, I didn't mean the red letters looked like Greek, I meant the lettering in the sample you are showing me in your reply, the ones on the back (not the spine or the front) of the book. But if, as I understand you, the lettering is also based in Latin, that would make sense to me, since Greek was widely used in the Roman Empire. It sounds to me that the modern Vietnamese language can be compared to English, in that it takes its sources from a great variety of languages. Again, thank you so much.
PS - "...(radio, video, TV, carrot...)" Um, carrot? I'm having trouble with that one, what are we talking about there?
|
|