[KS] cultural object circulation in the late Choson Dynasty query

[Javier Cha]

This is a great question. I've long been interested in this topic
also, but I haven't had the chance to excavate the sources. I
apologize for responding with a string of speculations myself, but I
thought I should share what little I know in case something proves to
be useful.

One promising source is apparently Iun chi section 怡雲志 of Imwon
kyongje chi 林園經濟志 by So Yugu (1764-1845) but I haven't looked at it
myself yet. And the various yadam, chapchi, manp'il (what Sinologists
call the biji genre), especially those of Noron authorship, should
have some relevant anecdotes.

I think it might be helpful to distinguish connoisseurship and
antiquarianism in discussing the 18th century. The former would entail
the collection of precious objects for their contemporary value (rare
books, paintings, treasures acquired domestically or imported from
China) and the latter would have more to do with collecting for the
sake of curiosity about the past (or the guwen notion of "love of
antiquity"). No doubt, of course, there is a substantial overlap
between the two.

The subject expert to contact would be Shin Jiwon at Berkeley, who is
currently completing a book on late Choson culture of collecting.
Sinae Park, a PhD candidate at UBC, has read many yadam stories for
her dissertation research. Finally, it might also be useful to check
out Ronald Egan's _The Problem of Beauty_ for the Northern Song
inspiration (this is my hypothesis) for the late Choson connoiseurship
culture.

Javier


On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:42 PM, Andre Schmid <andre.schmid at utoronto.ca> wrote:
> A few of us in Toronto were discussing the circulation of cultural objects
> in the late Choson dynasty when the following question arose: If you were a
> family of means in the 18th century, where might you use your money to
> purchase a celadon from the Koryo dynasty? Was this even possible? Our
> discussion of this topic was based on pure conjecture and not supported by
> any specific empirical or textual knowledge (easy to do!), so I thought I
> would post a query to see if anyone had any specific textual sources from
> this period that would shed light on our question.  Thanks in advance for
> your suggestions and ideas.
>
> Andre Schmid
> University of Toronto
>