Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea

Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea

Ancient to Contemporary Times

In: Hawai'i Studies on Korea

Edited by: Charlotte Horlyck, Michael J. Pettid and Min Sun Kim

University of Hawaii Press | 2014

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824840150

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Contents

About this book

Death and the activities and beliefs surrounding it can teach us much about the ideals and cultures of the living. While biologically death is an end to physical life, this break is not quite so apparent in its mental and spiritual aspects. Indeed, the influence of the dead over the living is sometimes much greater than before death. This volume takes a multidisciplinary approach in an effort to provide a fuller understanding of both historic and contemporary practices linked with death in Korea.

Contributors from Korea and the West incorporate the approaches of archaeology, history, literature, religion, and anthropology in addressing a number of topics organized around issues of the body, disposal of remains, ancestor worship and rites, and the afterlife. The first two chapters explore the ways in which bodies of the dying and the dead were dealt with from the Greater Silla Kingdom (668–935) to the mid-twentieth century. Grave construction and goods, cemeteries, and memorial monuments in the Koryŏ (918–1392) and the twentieth century are then discussed, followed by a consideration of ancestral rites and worship, which have formed an inseparable part of Korean mortuary customs since premodern times. Chapters address the need to appease the dead both in shamanic and Confucians contexts. The final section of the book examines the treatment of the dead and how the state of death has been perceived. Ghost stories provide important insight into how death was interpreted by common people in the Koryŏ and Chosŏn (1392–1910) while nonconformist narratives of death such as the seventeenth-century romantic novel Kuunmong point to a clear conflict between Buddhist thought and practice and official Neo-Confucian doctrine. Keeping with unendorsed views on death, the final chapter explores how death and the afterlife were understood by early Korean Catholics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea fills a significant gap in studies on Korean society and culture as well as on East Asian mortuary practices. By approaching its topic from a variety of disciplines and extending its historical reach to cover both premodern and modern Korea, it is an important resource for scholars and students in a variety of fields.

Author information

HorlyckCharlotte:

Charlotte Horlyck is lecturer in Korean art history in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Michael J. Pettid is professor of premodern Korean studies in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he also is director of the Translation Research and Instruction Program.PettidMichael J.:

Michael J. Pettid is professor of premodern Korean studies in the department of Asian and Asian American studies at Binghamton University. The State University of New York, where he also is director of the Translation Research and Instruction Program.

Reviews

The contributions to the volume are all of high quality and it presents several new insights. . . . a stimulating investigation of an area of human life that is of undeniable salience.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Acknowledgments Free access PDF PDF	vii
Note on Names, Terms, and Titles Free access PDF PDF	ix
Chronology Free access PDF PDF	xi
1. Considerations on Death in the Korean Context Michael J. Pettid and Charlotte Horlyck Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
Part I. The Body
2. Death and Burial in Medieval Korea: The Buddhist Legacy Sem Vermeersch Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	21
3. Making Death “Modern”: Reevaluating the Patient’s Body, Transforming Medical Practice, and Reforming Public Health at Seoul National University Hospital, 1957–1977 John P. DiMoia Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	57
Part II. Disposal
4. Ways of Burial in Koryŏ Times Charlotte Horlyck Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	83
5. Death as a Nationalist Text: Reading the National Cemetery of South Korea Guy Podoler Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	112
Part III. Ancestral Worship and Rites
6. Shamanic Rites for the Dead in Chosŏn Korea Michael J. Pettid Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	137
7. The Familiar Dead: The Creation of an Intimate Afterlife in Early Chosŏn Korea Milan Hejtmanek Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	155
Part IV. Afterlife
8. Ghostly Encounters: Perceptions of Death and the Afterlife in Koryŏ and Early Chosŏn Michael J. Pettid Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	171
9 Buddhism and Death In Kim Man-Jung’s a Nine Cloud Dream: From Fact to Fiction, and Nowhere Back Again Gregory N. Evon Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	190
10. Dying for Heaven: Persecution, Martyrdom, and Family in the Early Korean Catholic Church Franklin Rausch Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	213
Bibliography Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	237
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	257
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	259

Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in Korea

Ancient to Contemporary Times

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