A History of Korea (54 page)

This takes us to the issue of the historical significance of the northern learning school, given its seeming lack of any major, immediate impact. Was it simply an interesting but ultimately inconsequential intellectual movement? As suggested above, the “what if ” questions surrounding these promising developments
of the eighteenth century are particularly bitter-sweet due to the solipsistic decay, leading ultimately to calamity, that followed in the nineteenth century (or so it seems—see
Chapter 13
). The underlying historiographical issue, though somewhat crudely put, is, did the internal development of Chos
n society have enough within itself to trigger the shift toward the modern? There appears to be a search for a reassurance, almost cathartic in tone, of the validity of Korean tradition and civilization before the nineteenth century as a way to accept the sacrifices and ultimate accomplishments of the modern experience. Over the past few decades in South Korea, as seen in historical scholarship as well as in historical fiction, television dramas, or movies, this search has been narrowed to several benchmarks for measuring the advances of the late eighteenth century, such as capitalism, Catholicism, and royal absolutism. And in this regard, even more than the northern learning advocates, the historical figures who have been featured most prominently are two with direct personal connections to Pak Chega: the great philosopher Ch
ng Yagyong, better known by his pen name of Tasan, and King Ch
ngjo.

King Ch
ngjo in fact brought Pak and Ch
ng together to work in the Royal Library. The king was an accomplished scholar in his own right. And his charge to his officials in the new Royal Library was to compile and organize a grand repository of works in order to advance scholarship and government policy, just as the Hall of Worthies had done for King Sejong the Great. Like Sejong, Ch
ngjo has enjoyed great acclaim for personifying the ideals of the sagely Confucian monarch. He was the third in a triumvirate of long-reigning, powerful, reform-oriented kings under whose rule Chos
n culture and civilization reached a peak: Sukchong (r. 1674–1720), Y
ngjo (1724–76), and Ch
ngjo (1776–1800). King Y
ngjo, the longest reigning monarch in Korean history, not only brought stability but introduced a series of state reforms, including a major update to the dynastic code, that spurred cultural and social advances. Many restrictions on hereditarily discriminated groups were eliminated under his leadership, and he is lauded for having striven, somewhat successfully, to control the factional strife among his officials. Despite these accomplishments, however, Y
ngjo also
is remembered for a tragedy in his family: in 1762 he ordered that his murderous, mentally disturbed crown prince wither away while locked in a rice chest. King Ch
ngjo, Y
ngjo’s grandson and the doomed prince’s son, had witnessed this horror as a child, and it is a wonder that the psychological scarring did not overwhelm him once he ascended to the throne in 1776. Indeed, on the sixtieth birthday of both of his parents in 1795, Ch
ngjo formally rehabilitated his father through a lavish royal outing to his father’s new grave site south of Seoul.