[KS] Korean Commons?

[James C Schopf]

I took 'commons' to mean resources owned in common or shared among community members, as in the system of feudal commons in Europe.  The Zhou Dynasty well-field system designated a central plot of land in the village as commons.  This system was upheld as a model by Confucian scholars like Mencius, and some neo-Confucian scholars like Zhang Zai in the Song Dynasty.  I'm not an expert in Korean neo-Confucianism, but it wouldn't surprise me if some Korean neo-confucian scholars in the Chosun Dynasty didn't also advocate establishment of a well field system.     
 
 

> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:25:30 -0400
> From: gkl1 at columbia.edu
> To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: Re: [KS] Korean Commons?
> 
> Looking at my desk dictionary, "commons" appears to be a social and/or
> political term referring to the non-aristocratic social class and
> political institutions related to to it. In British public schools and
> colleges it is the term for what in the U.S. would be call a dining
> hall. I'm not sure how that would fit in with the Paektu taegan.
> 
> On the other hand, a definition applying to anatomical matters for the
> word "common" reads as follows: "denoting a trunk from which two or
> more arteries, veins, or nerves are given off," as in "the common
> carotid arteries." THAT would appear to be an extremely apt description
> of the Paektu taegan. But to use that in the plural for a single 
> organic system, might be problematic since nothing is more singular 
> than the taegan.
> 
> Gari Ledyard
> 
> 
> Quoting John Eperjesi <john.eperjesi at gmail.com>:
> 
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > Is there a Korean concept that is equivalent to "commons?"
> >
> > I am interested in thinking about mountains and the Baekdu-daegan as a
> > commons. From the perspective of "San-shin" or Korean mountain worship, it
> > would appear that mountains are a kind of spiritual commons.
> >
> > Would it be wrong to use the concept of the commons, which has a very
> > specific history in England, to read Korean practices? The struggle for
> > the commons has become a global rhetoric that addresses many different
> > geographical and historical situations.
> >
> > Any help on this would be much appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > John
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20120831/c191d040/attachment.html>