[KS] By train from Seoul to Incheon--what's in a name?

Sunjoo Kim sunjookim1 at hotmail.com
Wed Jan 25 10:15:43 EST 2006


My quick search through e-kyujanggak database by "kyOngin" in hanja produces 
130 hits. Not all of them concern KyOngin railroad, but a lot of them do. 
The earliest reference to KyOngin ch'Oldo is 1896. I will copy-pase two 
examples here. I hope the llinks work.

ÌÈìÒÊàôÑÖØùêÔÒ - a kind of contract to build railroad between Choson and US 
in 1986
http://e-kyujanggak.snu.ac.kr/MOK/MOK_NODEVIEW.jsp?setid=49516&pos=0&type=MOK&ptype=list&subtype=sm&cn=GK23179_00

This short quotation is from IlsOngnok. You can even view the original text 
from the following link.
Ù¤ÒÜßÂÍïÝ»úð÷ý ×Ý釆æÐÊøÔ½ÌÈìÒôÑÔ³ÞÀÙâ (1896 ³â 6 ¿ù 7 ÀÏ)
http://e-kyujanggak.snu.ac.kr/YDG/ILS_CONTVIEW.jsp?setid=49525&pos=1&ptype=class&subtype=ils&lclass=year&mclass=1800&year=1896&month=6&day=7

As for the usage of "kyOng" in premodern Korea, it is abundant as Joshua 
gave us examples. If I may add:

Sejong sillok chiriji [The veritable records of King Sejong, geographic 
survey].  - used "KyOngdo HansOng-bu ÌÈÔ´ùÓàòݤ" referring to the capital.

Sinjúng Tongguk yóji súngnam [Augmented survey of the 
geography of Korea]. Compiled and revised by Yi Haeng et al. in 1530. -- 
used "KyOngdo ÌÈÔ´" referring to the capital.

I find terms like "wang (king) + gyOng (capital)" and "KyOngsOng" in the 
KoryOsa [History of KoryO].

As for "Seoul," in ðÈàØò¢×âá³ò¤ Chosón chiri soji (Chao-xian di li 
xiao zhi in Chinese), it says something like:

¡°Seoul¡± is itself a pure Korean word indicating the capital. The classical 
Chinese for Seoul is ¡°Ï¢åÚá§éÔ×¹.¡± (note:Ï¢åÚ is one character not two 
characters Ï¢ and åÚ)

For your reference, this book is the classical Chinese translation from the 
Japanese edition of the Chôsen hachi iki shi (ðÈàØø¢æ´ò¤, 1882?), 
whose original text was the T¡¯aegniji, written in classical Chinese by Yi 
Chung-hwan (1690–1756) in 1751. It was published in Qing China in 
1885. This particular passage might have been added on by the Japanese 
translator/compiler.



Sun Joo Kim
Associate Professor of Korean History
EALC, Harvard University
2 Divinity Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617)495-7539
Fax: 617)496-6040
e-mail: sjkim at fas.harvard.edu




----Original Message Follows----
From: sumnom at u.washington.edu
Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Subject: Re: [KS] By train from Seoul to Incheon--what's in a name?
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:58:22 -0800 (PST)


One can find references to the capital as Kyongsong well before the colonial 
period. Take for example the Kyongsong Suchuk Togam, the temporary agency 
assigned the task of moving the capital from Kaesong to Hansong. You can 
find reference to this in the Taejo sillok 2.8.sinmyo, for starters. In the 
readings that I encounter, primarily from the 1880s and 1890s, kyong is not 
at all an uncommon word used to denote the city we now call Seoul.

Another interesting phrase is "kyonggaksa," meaning all government offices 
in Seoul. If you look up "kyong" in the Hanguk hanchao sajon, as I am doing 
now, you can find many Choson period uses in reference to Seoul.

In the case of the Kyong'in line, "kyong" simply means "capital."

Why do you think that "kyong'in" is contrived?



Joshua Van Lieu

On Tue, 24 Jan 2006, Stefan Ewing wrote:

>Dear KS list members:
>
>All right, it's my turn to ask a vexing question.  The question and its 
>motivation are arcane and necessarily long, so my apologies in advance, and 
>please feel free to skip this posting entirely.
>
>(For consistency's sake, I'm using McCune-Reischauer for almost all place 
>names in this article, both historical and modern.  Some names go by 
>different renditions today.)
>
>Korea's first railway line was built during the era of foreign concessions, 
>at the close of the 19th century.  In 1899, a line was opened connecting 
>Noryangjin (across the river from the city gates of Hanso^ng--modern-day 
>Seoul) with Chemulp'o in Inch'o^n, the forerunner of today's Kyo^ngin Line. 
>  (The Noryangjin-Kuro stretch is now part of the Kyo^ngbu Line to Pusan, a 
>6-track artery served by everything from the high-speed KTX to lowly, 
>packed-to-the-handrails local Line 1 subway trains.)
>
>Historical articles on the early development of Korean railways invariably 
>refer to the original 1896 line as the Kyo^nginso^n (so^n = Line; 
>http://www.korail.go.kr/2003/100th/year/index1.html) or Kyo^ngin Ch'o^lto 
>(Railway; http://webzine.korail.go.kr/20050402/00250.html).  If the line 
>was in fact so named in 1896--which is not at all clear--this would 
>indicate that the characters in the line's name were chosen because the 
>line connects the capital (so^ul kyo^ng) with Inch'o^n (o^jil in).  The 
>Kyo^ngbu (to Pusan, opened 1905) and Kyo^ngu^i Lines (to Sinu^iju, 1906) 
>appear to have been named on a similar pattern.
>
>The sticking point is that, up until 1910, Seoul's name was Hanso^ng, and 
>thereafter changed by or under the Japanese authorities to Kyo^ngso^ng. 
>Long-time Korean practice before and since has been to name many provinces, 
>transportation routes, or events by joining together one character from 
>each of the two place names involved: thus, Ch'ungch'o^ng-do 
>(Ch'ungju-Ch'o^ngju); the Kyo^ngjo^n (Kyo^ngsang-Cho^lla) railway line; the 
>Kuma (Taegu-Masan) Expressway; and relevant to the recent discussion, the 
>Puma (Pusan-Masan) Uprising(s) (?--cannot find their mention now).  Why, 
>then, was the original railway called not, say, the Hanin 
>(Hanso^ng-Inch'o^n) Ch'o^lto, but the somewhat contrived Kyo^ngin Ch'o^lto?
>
>That Seoul was not officially named as such until one year after liberation 
>in 1946 does not preclude the possibility that the word "so^ul" ("capital") 
>was used colloquially to refer to the city prior to that time.  When 
>streetcars first came to the capital in 1898, the operating 
>company--Hanso^ng Cho^ngi Hoesa--was referred to in English as the "Seoul 
>Electric Co." 
>(http://www.seoul.go.kr/life/life/culture/history_book/picture_seoul2/7/1203339_3020.html 
>, 7th photo from top; note Han'gu^l rendition of company's name as 
>"Hansyo^ng Tyo^ngu^i Hoesa").  Could the character "kyo^ng" have had some 
>currency as a written noun, equivalent to the colloquial name "Seoul"?
>
>It is also possible that the original railway had a different name and that 
>the modern name--Kyo^ngin--has only been applied to the line 
>retrospectively by later writers.  Under this scenario, the Kyo^ngin Line 
>and its pre-1910 younger sisters--the Kyo^ngbu and Kyo^ngu^i Lines to Pusan 
>and Sinu^iju respectively--would have been so renamed some time after the 
>Japanese annexation.  In that case, the first character in each line's new 
>name would presumably have come from the "kyo^ng" in "Kyo^ngso^ng" (the 
>Japanese "Keijo"), Seoul's new name--the same character, but with a 
>different story behind it.
>
>To summarize, my question, then, is this: Was the name "Kyo^ngin" chosen 
>(over, say, "Hanin"), because the character kyo^ng denotes "capital," the 
>Korean equivalent--Seoul/So^ul--being the colloquial name for Hanso^ng?  
>Are there attestations in other (non-rail-related) sources to the use of 
>"kyo^ng" (or "Seoul") to refer to the capital during the Choso^n Dynasty?  
>Or is this a commentary on non-scholarly historiography, with modern 
>writers retrospectively applying an anachronistic name to the railway, the 
>original name lost in the mists of time?  Or between the railway's 
>concession holder--James R. Morse--and the Koreans with whom he worked, was 
>this highly idiosyncractic name the simple result?
>
>I hope someone, somewhere on this list can provide some sort of 
>satisfactory answer.  It would appear that whatever the answer, there's an 
>interesting story waiting to emerge!
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Stefan Ewing
>
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