An Intro to the Joseon Dynasty Uigwe

"What can one expect to find in these uigwe books that will further our understanding of Joseon culture? Depending on one’s area of interest, one might retrieve information on Joseon society, politics, economics, rituals, literature, art history, musicology, culinary history, and perhaps more. Of particular interest to the art historian is the extensive description of the visual culture of the court. There is a seemingly endless amount of documentation along with numerous illustrations of ritual performances, and also of court costumes, musical instruments, ceremonial utensils, and finally of interior decoration, notably, screen paintings--all of which were made for those special events. This lecture will highlight some of these features, drawing on the lecturer’s research on several categories of the uigwe, those documenting royal weddings, the painting and copying of royal portraits, palace banquets, and finally on royal funerals and related rites." [taken from the overview of the lecture posted on the RAS website]

The Uigwe is broken down into ui or rites and gwi, tracks or models to be followed. Therefore, Professor Yi Song-mi from the Academy of Korean Studies translates the Uigwe as the Book of State Rites. The person sitting beside me was a historian who has worked on the books and he whispered that the translation should actually be "manual" of rites as the compilation is not a book per se but a manual on prescribed conduct to be performed.

Currently there are more than 4,000 volumes of uigwe. I'm not clear whether these are inclusive of all the copies made because between 4 and 9 copies were made of each book/manual and sent to its respective location. One copy was bound in silk cloth and its spine secured with a strong fancy metal binder. Between 3-8 other copies were made and sent to history archives throughout the nation. Depending on the content, even a copy was made for the crown prince's personal library to enrich his mind and tutor him in the rites of his nation.

There are various topics within the uigwe, many uigwe are dedicated to specific topics, for example, Unique Paintings of Royal Portraits or Unique Paintings of Gyeong-mo Palace, a lesser palace where a king's mother resided. Some uigwe are prescriptions on how a marriage ceremony should take place or took place for a king. But through the language used or the pictures drawn, some deeper hidden unworded sociocultural layers of the Joseon dynasty can be revealed. One point that was particularly interesting was the painting shown of a king's procession with great detail given to the horsemen and banner bearers, etc. However, the king's chair being carried was conspicuously empty, and the reason revealed was, the king can only be painted in portrait; he was like a god and therefore his likeness was only recreated in the formal setting. Ah, those interested points that give dry dusty history books flesh and life!

An (blurred) analysis of the topics in the Uigwe:



In 2007 all of the existing Uigwe were designated as Memory of the World, the world-wide designated collection of historical artifacts that represent humans fight against collective amnesia of key historical documentation.

Japanese Restaurant near the Blue House

Ah, Japanese food, especially the 회 or raw fish is absolutely divine. I love love love raw chilled tuna with rice and raw salad greens topped with a sweetened spicey red pepper sauce. And in Hyehwa-dong near where I used to teach is a fabulous raw tuna restaurant. Uh, actually saying 'raw tuna' in English makes the dish sound disgusting, so it's much better to refer to the tasty tuna in Korean (참치회) as the culture connotations mix better with the flavors of the food.

This particular Japanese restaurant had a very attractive external appearance. A small rustic looking building with paned glass, which is rather odd in Korea, and the glass panes were painted with wandering stems of 5" cherry blossoms, Japan's national flower.

Inside the decor was cozy and quaint. The small tables were of rustic build - wood pieces of various sizes and painted in various faded colors were nailed in hodge-podge designs and chairs were brown wood warm. The counter lost the rustic and gave a more modern appearance with a long glass display case enshrining the raw fish choices and delicacies to be served. My friend was particularly hungry after hiking and eating a piecemeal breakfast so ordered a menu set with noodles and a side order of raw fish. I ate up the ambiance.



Such a friendly attractive setting with good food and service! Though I'd like to recommend the restaurant, I didn't get the name. Boo, I know. However, on the wall, there was a copy of a historial map of the area, and their map indicated with a red dot their location. From the description I've given and this map, the place would be easy to find for any interested.

Behind the Blue House

My great historian friend and I had another historical experience. Usually we talk about Korean history and we both have a fascination with ancient history - the splitting of the Han and their cousin the Hun nomadic groups and how the Han (Koreans) and the Huns (Turks) are still connected by blood and historical records. We're interested in the Mongols and how they affected Korean history, and then we've had deep discussions on the presidents and the re-writing of Korean books based on political viewpoints of the times. I believe all countries do this (shocked?). And by doing so, there is created an intentional historical amnesia which the old and historically valuable documents discovered and preserved around the world seek to continue to preserve and to honor. Korea has some of these documents, the Uigwe, known as the Memory of the World. These documents help historians trace where present-day known history can be realized to be incorrect. These documents are true to their time; however, the Uigwe, Korea's contribution to the Memory of the World, is not without flaw. They are the annual published manuals of the kings ... but they are rewrote at the end of every year, loose or unwanted elements have been eliminated and only the facts chosen are included. Perhaps this can be said to be creating historical amnesia by omiting certain facts that can not be verified by later generations as all original notes and writings are put into the river to wash all words away and to disintegrate the kingly texts that were not to pass into the wrong hands.


Anyway, my friend and I had our historical walk on this crisp, brisk winter day on Bugaksan. We started at Hyehwa Station and hiked over the mountain, ending up at Police Commisioner Choi Gyushik's Statue and from there walked past Cheongwadae, the Blue House, to Gyeongbokkung. Basically, we circled the Blue House but of course were not allowed anywhere near it. And particularly on the mountain trail guards were posted so that we could not even take pictures. Thankfully we had just passed beyond the point where pictures were not allowed when I detected some brown movement on the trail below us. And shocker of shockers! In this city of nearly 15 million people stacked on top of each other with roads and busy thoroughways crammed with traffic, there before our very eyes were 7 deer!



The movement I had detected was from 4 deer as they walked gracefully below. As I looked closer and had already taken some pictures to prove I wasn't hallucinating, I detected 3 more sitting placidly in the shade and looking very much like the brown shubbery around them. You bet I was excited! In all my years of hiking in Korea, I've only seen two special kinds of wildlife: 11 deer on Halla Mountain in Cheju Island when another friend and I were hiking a trail over the mountain and were caught in a snowstorm. And the other time with the same friend I was in Sobaek Mountain and there was a light rain and lo and behold an Asian raccoon crossed the trail right in front of us! And I didn't get pictures of either those events so ... wow!

After hiking the 3.3 kilometer segment of the formerly 18 km wall (at present only 10 km remain as roads were built through the city), we ended up at Police Commissioner Choe Gyushik's Statue. Police Chief Choi Gyu-sik was killed on January 21, 1968 when he and his men defended Cheongwadae (Blue House) from North Korean infiltrators. He was posthumously promoted to Superintendant General and awarded the Order of Taegeuk Military Merit. Officer Jung Jong-su who assisted him was also killed in gun battle against the North Korean commandos, and he was posthumously promoted to Assistant Inspector Officer and awarded the Hwarang Order of Military Merit.

As the sign reads explaining the area: "A tombstone has been erected on the site where the two police officers died while resisting the infiltration by armed North Korean troops. On the Jahamun Pass overlooking the road to cheonwadae, stand the Bronze Statue and the Memorial Monument erected in memory of two outstanding patriots." We came, we saw, we witnessed the memorial wreaths with memorial ribbons of black and white, and in one year if we were to return to this site, we will again see the memorial wreaths and ribbons for every year the same police force offices present their flower arrangements to pay honor to the dead and their heroic deeds for the living.

Dried Fish Lady (건어물녀)

건어물녀 or "dried fish lady" was, and to some extent still is, a briefly fashionable term for a lady who is neat, beautiful and capable at work but after work is dirty, drinks beer (as opposed to some more refined drink), eats dried fish (perhaps a shortcut to cooking), stays at home and has no date.

The origin of the term comes from the Japanese comic book The Light of Hotaroo published around 2003. The comic book was about a young girl who was successful, fashionable and clever at work but at home was slovenly wearing the same comfortable trainees day after day, nibbled on dried fish when hungry, and was lazy and inactive. She fell in love, however, and tried to change to become more acceptable to the man, but in the end she realized that she was just a "dried fish lady" at heart and so stopped trying to make the changes because she accepted herself for who she was; the man did not and they broke up. So the connotations of dried fish lady also include work as being more important than love while also having the tendency of being antisocial.


Another popular contemporary slang for a successful woman is "gold miss". Yet, while both the Dried Fish Lady and the Gold Miss both remain single and dedicated to their work, the similarities stop there. A Gold Miss is the Korean or Asian concept of the West's "career woman".

Historically due to the strong influence of the Confucian society, marriage was very important as a woman was dependent on the three men in her life (first her father, then her husband, finally her eldest son), and in Confucianism the family was of utmost importance as procreation was important for the continuation of the ancestral line and offspring would continue the procreation while performing ancestral services to the parents and grandparents up to the fourth generation. Unmarried women in the strong Confucian era were looked down upon, were a shame to the family and were dependent on their fathers or elder brother. However, in the past decade or two women have entered the work force and many have remained single, dedicated to their work which is becoming accepted as the clutches of Confucianism have exceedingly weakened from the influx of western influences. So now Gold Misses are appearing in society. They are successful, independent women with money of their own and are usually in their 30s and 40s. They enjoy spending their money to look fashionable and to maintain their health, and so unlike the Dried Fish Ladies who stay at home, Gold Misses are outgoing and actively involved outside their homes, meeting a wide variety of people. Basically, they take pride in who they are at work, associating with people and in their neatly arranged homes.


With the relaxed standards of the previously strong Confucian society, females of any age now can be independent, and so office ladies, even students, who prefer staying at home in comfortable clothes and without inviting people over can get labeled as 건어물녀. So, to find out if you are a Dried Fish Lady, take the self-diagnostic test. Answering three or all four of the questions with the affirmative means that you are a 건어물녀.

Dried fish lady self-diagnostic test:

(1) Do you wear the same trainees at home every day?
(2) After work/school do you quickly remove your make-up when getting home?
(3) Do you like to stay at home after work/school?
(4) Are your text messages short and very simple?

This presentation was given by Ha Bo-yoon and Kim Soo-rin. When concluding their presentation, they posed the four-question self-diagnosis test for the 28-member class to find out for fun if any in the class had "dried fish lady syndrome". Surprisingly, four of the ladies in the classroom laughingly raised their hands for at least three of the four questions, surprising themselves with the outcome and REALLY surprising the two speakers, who commented on the outcome by saying that though the four were self-diagnosed as "dried fish ladies", there were other considerations not mentioned so the ladies were not to take this seriously.


Japan has introduced other terms for people with similar introverted behavior, hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり), an extremely anti-social person who basically stays in his/her apartment or room all the time and refuses to go out. See hikikomori in Wikipedia for more on the seriousness of this problem in Japan. Korea has borrowed the term from Japan because the anti-social problem is becoming more and more apparent here also.

[The point of this presentation was to associate a food with some kind of cultural behavior, and here a cultural behavior is evoked by a food term. Other food terms in Korea which apply to cultural behavior are 둰장 여, or doenjang girl, meaning a girl races after western expensive products, consumes the overly pricey prestige Starbucks coffee and is consumed with makeup and looking too good while taking pictures of herself in fashionable settings - see more here. This term, used since 2000 or so, is a Korean coinage from adding "girl" to one of Korea's more common and basic sauces to imply more than the common or basic.

One other food term (introduced in this presentation and which I haven't heard in use yet) is "herbivore men", 草食系男子 (Sōshokukei-danshi), coined in Japan in 2006 and refers to men who are passive in dating and careful to follow a vegetarian diet. Korea is a big meat-eating country and so this phenomenon isn't readily apparent yet, but like other popular Japanese-isms, this concept too will soon take-off in Korea.

The 63 Building

Saturday night in Seoul - cold, breathy evening and looking for something to do ... inside, away from the chill outside. But where to go and what to do? My Russian friend had the brainstorm, "Let's go to the 63 Building!" Now, while I've been to the 63 Building several times, usually to see a show at the IMAX, I've never ventured to the top floor. And so there we went.

Surprisingly with the night being so chill, and of course the 63 Building isn't located in the heart of vibrant pulsating Seoul but is in the business district, there was hardly anyone around. We happily entered the building to warm up and then dawdled over to the ticketing counter for our "venture to the top". There were multiple package deals which included the acquarium, the IMAX, and I forget what all. We only bought tickets for ₩11,000 to the top floor and art gallery, because we got the ₩1,000 foreigner's discount. I'd never heard of a foreigner's discount but can easily see that it's a promotional tool for "foreigner's" to visit what are deemed in Korea as Hot-Spots and "places everyone should know about while visiting Seoul". Hmmm, it's the expats who get out and about, but we're always deemed as being foreigners and thus here short term. Anyway, semantics.

When the 63 Building was completed in 1985, it was the highest building outside of North America, and therefore, was (and still is to some extent) an object of great pride in Korea. Since 2010, the building is no longer in the top 100 tallest buildings of the world but with it's impressive height amongst the dwarf building around and its golden-sided panels, it stands proudly tall and regal overlooking the sensually curving Han River. [picture source]

The top floor contains a gallery of modern art by a handful of artists. Most of the people - principally families and couples - were not interested in the garish colored pictures, the swirls and kaleidoscopes of colors, and the stark black-and-whites. The majority were interested in the view, lovers were interested in sitting entwined in each other's arms gazing and whispering using a tool as a lover's pallette, and the youth were fascinated by the glass floor in one corner where a person could "step out" with nothing visibly below except ... a long crashing descending space to the pavement with toy cars ant-ing along below. I stepped out into the "nether space" but I certainly didn't linger. It was somewhat upsetting psychologically, especially when some young kids started jumping up and down violently right next to me. Ah, the invinsibility of youth!

A wishing wall was in the corridor just before the cafe. The wall held hearts with messages, and those messages were in a wide range of languages. They were messages not of young romantic love like the fence on Han Mountain with locks for lovers to "lock their love" via the symbolism of locks. Many of the messages I read were of more mature people who promised to continue their love relationship for yet another XX years, pledges of their hearts again or of their desire for some intangible thing to be realized. The majority that I read were from a mature audience, in touch with reality and focused on pledges and promises for a brighter future. Wishes involving material things seemed few and far between. Quite interesting! I did wonder, however, if when the wall became too cluttered, if some of the messages were clandestinely removed to free up space. There was only this corner for messages so freeing up space does make practical sense.

The rise was one minute and ears popped or felt pressure. Amazing speed! The descent another 1 minute with ears popping and again equalizing to ground pressure. What a pricey but interesting 1 hour. And then as we exited the elevator, my friend laughed and said, "Ah, they are so smart! The funnel all guests through their food court, haha, that's so smart! Now let's eat!" And we did what everyone does in Korea, the 1-cha 2-cha thing - the first round on an outing, the second rount, but we had no third round. We went back to my house and had tea and more talk on the warm ondol floor.