[KS] Joseon-era official terms

[Kirk Larsen]

An additional resource that may further complicate things (but is
nonetheless interesting and useful) is the "Korean History
Thesaurus<http://thesaurus.history.go.kr/index.html>"
(http://thesaurus.history.go.kr/index.html) provided by our good friends at
the 국사편찬위원회. Rather than give the single definitive English-language gloss
for a term, if often reveals the myriad ways in which a certain term has
been rendered in English.

The entry for 공조판서(工曹判書), for example, includes the following as
possibilities:

Grand Minister of Works
Minister of Commerce
Minister of Construction
Minister of the Board of Works
Minister of Works
(as well as "Ta Ssu-k'ung").

Cheers,

Kirk Larsen

2010/12/30 BakerDon <ubcdbaker at hotmail.com>

>  The most convenient way to find the standard translations for the titles
> of institutions and positions in pre-modern Korea is the glossary available
> on-line from the Academy of Korean Studies. The url is:
> http://www.aks.ac.kr/glossary/default.asp
>
> However, sometimes some of their translations are not the standard
> translations. For the standard translations, you should look at the glossary
> prepared by Edward Wagner for his *The Literati Purges: Political Conflict
> in Early Yi Korea* (1974) and the glossary James Palais attached to his
> study of Yu Hyongwon, *Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions*. A
> third source would be the glossary to the recently published English
> translation of Tasan's Mongmin simseo, under the name *Admonitions on
> Governing the People.*
>
> 공조판서 is usually translated as Chief Minister of the Ministry of Public
> Works, though the AKS glossary gives the somewhat anachronistic translation
> Minister of Commerce
>
> 의금부 is usually translated as the State Tribunal, though that glossary says
> Correctional Tribunal
>
> 포도부 is not in the AKS glossary.  捕盜廳 is, and it is translated as Capital
> Police. So I suspect that 포도부 is the local police station. That means 捕盜部將
> should be translated as police chief.  However, in some contexts it refers
> to the prison, and therefore 捕盜部將 would be the warden of the prison.
> Calling him the Commander for the Arrest of Bandits is too literal.
>
> This is all of the top off my head, since I am far away from my home
> library today (I'm in South Carolina, visiting family, and there isn't much
> on Korea in the libraries here!)
>
>
> Don Baker
> Professor
> Department of Asian Studies
> University of British Columbia
> Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Z2
> don.baker at ubc.ca
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:07:45 -0800
> From: djtorrey at yahoo.com
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: [KS] Joseon-era official terms
>
>
> Dear Members:
>
> I'm trying to determine the English for the terms listed below. Charles
> Hucker's Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China gives some, but
> not all, and I'm also wondering if the translations would be different for
> the Korean context. I'm also listing my tentative translations. If they are
> incorrect, or if you know of better alternatives, please respond. Many
> thanks in advance.
>
> Deberniere Torrey
>
>
> 공조판서 gong jo pan seo (工曹判書): Minister of the Works Section
>
> 의금부 ui geum bu (義禁府): Justice and Prohibition Office (or Bureau)
> (For this one, I've also seen Royal Prohibition Bureau; State Tribunal; and
> Royal Inspector's Office.)
>
> 포도부/ 포도부장 po do bu / po do bu jang (捕盜部/ 捕盜部將) Office for the Arrest of
> Bandits / Commander for the Arrest of Bandits. (This is what Hucker gives.)
>
>
>
>


-- 
Kirk W. Larsen
Department of History
2151 JFSB
BYU
Provo, UT 84602-6707
(801) 422-3445
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