[KS] In fond memory of Dr. Gari Keith Ledyard

[Yoo Kwang-On]

I want to share a few anecdotes in fond memory of Dr. Gari Keith Ledyard:


   - After studying the Korean language for fifty years and nine years of
   the Hanmun (한문), his advice was to keep two different Korean Dictionaries
   at my arm's length.
   - He discovered that many scholars he talked to in China in the 1980s
   denied the ancient Korean history that took place in present-day
   Chinese territory.  In other words, it was apparent that China tried to
   confine Korean history only to the Korean Peninsula. Greatly alarmed, he
   relayed the information to Korean historians.  However, they did nothing.
   - During the 17th -18th century, Korea had many varieties of the World
   Atlas that ordinary people made, commonly known as 천하도(Chunhado, 天下圖, Under
   the Heaven map). But many Chinese and some Americans attributed the
   authorship to the Chinese because  "天下" (천하, Chunha, Under the Heaven),
   known as China or the Middle Kingdom, was written on these atlases.
   Although for Koreans, "chunha" is merely an adjective or modifier. To avoid
   further arguments and bring out the Atlas' uniqueness and creativity, Dr.
   Ledyard suggested we should call it "Unique Korean Chunhado."
   - While in North Korea in the 1980s, his lifelong wish was granted, his
   application to inspect the Goguryeo mural and inscription inside the Anak
   Tomb No. 3 built 357 AD, in Anak County, South Hwanghae Province was
   approved. They provided him with a car and driver. However, when he arrived
   at the Tomb, it was too late and too dark. He had to return to Pyongyang
   empty-handed. He said it was the biggest disappointment of his life.
   - He learned that North Korea had classified the Chunhado Atlas as a
   folk art item rather than an atlas.
   - He said Taekwondo emanates the same dynamic energy as the "Old Korean
   Maps."
   - One day in 2009, during an international seminar on Daedongyeojido in
   Wisconsin, a group of Korean students pestered him with questions about the
   ownership of Dokdo, an island that Korea and Japan both claim as their own.
   Dr. Ledyard reassured them with a clear-cut answer, "Possession is 90% of
   the law".


While we send him on with enormous respect, love, and fond memories, I am
sure he will look after us all from above.

Yoo Kwang-On (유광언)

The enclosed article is Dr. Gary Ledyard's interview with a Korean Daily in
Korean.
고구려 역사는 분명히 한국사의 일부분
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