[KS] Chemulp’o / Inch’ŏn -- quick question

Kirk Larsen kwlarsen67 at gmail.com
Tue Sep 9 16:23:48 EDT 2014


Dear Frank, *et al*,

Martina Deuchler writes the following about Frank's question: "Chemulp'o
was situated in the embouchure of the Han River directly opposite Wŏlmido
(Roze Island). A few miles to the southeast lay the old prefectural town of
Inch'ŏn, the administration of which was transferred to the port of
Chemulp'o when it was officially opened to foreign trade on January 1,
1883. Chemulp'o then became known as the modern Inch'ŏn" (*Confucian
Gentlemen and Barbarian Envoys*, 178).

This squares with my understanding of how things transpired. Of course the
fact that many foreign writers and observers continued to use the terms
Inch'ŏn and Chemulp'o interchangeably for years afterward did little to
resolve the confusion over the names.

The "open port" system lasted until 1910 and some aspects of it for even a
few years afterward. See my *Tradition, Treaties, and Trade* pp280-281 for
a few details on this; and see Son Chŏng-mok's *Hanb;guk kaehanggi tosi
kwajŏng yŏn'gu*, pp427-35 for much more detail.

Hope this helps!

Kirk Larsen

On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreanstudies.com>
wrote:

> Hello again:
>
> Sine there was no response yet -- after looking more into this
> (relationship of Chemulp'o 濟物浦 and Inch'ŏn 仁川), my understand is
> at this point as follows:
>
> 1. Inch'ŏn is the older place name.
> 2. Chemulp'o as such was a newly invented name (whose Chinese
> characters already point to trading) for the newly build harbor, one of
> the three open ports, which was at the same time the settlement for
> foreigners. (See below map from 1895).
> 3. Chemulp'o disappeared as a political and administrative unit when
> the 'open port' system disappered. (Was that in 1905, or only in 1910?)
>
> My understanding thus far is that it would therefore be misleading to
> say that Chemulp'o is the old name of Inch'ŏn.
>
> If I got something wrong, or if you have other comments, kindly post.
> THANK YOU.
>
> Frank
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------
> Frank Hoffmann
> http://koreanstudies.com
>



-- 
Kirk W. Larsen
Department of History
Director, Academic Programs and Research
David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies
2151 JFSB
BYU
Provo, UT 84602-6707
(801) 422-3445
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