[KS] In memoriam Li Ogg

[Daniel BOUCHEZ]

LI Ogg

        On the 28th of July, Professor LI Ogg (YI Ok) passed away in Paris,
after a long illness. Born in 1928, he had majored in history at Yonsei
University and started teaching there the history of the United States,
when, in 1955, he accepted a proposal to teach Korean at the Sorbonne in
Paris. He inaugurated the teaching of this language in France and was to
spend all his life in our country. Under the direction of Charles
Haguenauer, he then turned to the history of the Three Kingdom period, and,
more specifically, to that of Koguryo. His dissertation (doctorat d'Etat),
Recherche sur l'antiquite coreenne, Ethnie et societe de Koguryo, defended
in 1977 and published in 1980 (College de France), has been translated into
Korean and went recently through its third amended edition (Kyobo Book
Co.). Others, more qualified, could surely tell, better than I can do it
myself, why Li Ogg is to be counted among the few who brought fresh air to
the study of the origin of the Korean people. Beside his dissertation, he
has written, both in French and in Korean, no less than twenty-five
scholarly articles on the history of the Three Kingdoms, which would surely
deserve to be collected some day in one volume.

        Few people today know that Li Ogg, at first, had a hard time in
France. At the Sorbonne and at the Ecole des Langues orientales (now
I.N.A.L.C.O.), in spite of his qualification, he had been kept at a low
rank for a long time. He had to wait until 1970 to be made a
"maitre-assistant" at the Paris VII University, newly created after the
events of May 1968. He founded there a Section of Korean Studies and got
his professorship belatedly in 1983. As an historian entrusted with the
teaching of language, he worked hard to acquire a sound knowledge of
linguistics. For many years, he also held a weekly seminar (called
"conference") on the history of ancient Korea both at the 4th (History &
Philology) and at the 5th (Religion) sections of the Ecole pratique des
hautes etudes (E.P.H.E.). There was a family atmosphere in Li Ogg's
lectures and seminars, which often turned to free discussions. He was good
at attracting people and, more than anybody else, he is to be credited with
the recent rise of a new generation of French Koreanists.

        Li Ogg has been, in 1976-77, one of the founding fathers of the
Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE). During its difficult
beginnings, he has been most effective in getting for it the needed
financial support from cultural foundations in Korea and influential in
keeping a high level of scholarship in its meetings. We, who are to
continue his work without him, all feel deeply indebted to him.

                                         Daniel Bouchez



        De la part de (from) Daniel BOUCHEZ <bouchez at ext.jussieu.fr>