First European Description of Life in Korea // 1668 'Hamel's Journal' // Primary Source

[Music] the kingdom known to us by the name of Korea and by the natives called Jo sung and sometimes cao lu li reaches from 34 to 44 degrees of north latitude being about 150 leagues in length from north to south about 75 in breadth from east to west therefore the koreans represented in the shape of a long square like a playing card the houses of the koreans of quality are stately but those of the common sort are very mean nor are they allowed to build as they please no man can cover his house with tiles unless he have leave to do so they built with wooden posts or pillars with the interval between filled up with stone up to the first storey the rest of the structure is all dogged without and covered on the inside with white paper glued on the floors are all vaulted and in winter they make a fire underneath so that they are always as warm as a stove this video is sponsored by Magellan TV the documentary streaming service can't go outside under lockdown so if you're trapped inside like 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generally have our storehouse adjoining to their mansion house where they keep their goods and treat their friends with tobacco and rice spirits there are virtuous women among them who are allowed the liberty of seeing people and going into company and to feasts but they sit by themselves and opposite to their husbands they have scarce any more household goods that are absolutely necessary there are in the country and abundance of taverns and pleasure houses to which the Koreans resort to see women dance sing and play upon musical instruments in summer they take this recreation in cool groves under close shady trees they have no particular houses to entertain passengers and travelers but he who travels goes and sits down where night overtakes him near the palings of the first house he comes out where though it may not be a great man's house they bring him boiled rice and dressed meat enough for his supper when he goes from thence he may stop at another house and at several yet on the great road to Seoul there are houses where those that travel on public affairs have lodging and diet on the public account the Koreans are very much addicted to stealing and so apt to cheat and lie that there is no trusting them they think they have done a good action when they have over reached a man and therefore fraud is not infamous among them yet if a man can prove that he has been cheated in a bargain of houses cows or any other thing whatsoever he may be righted there will be three or four months after nonetheless they are silly and credulous and we might have made them believe anything we would because they are great lovers of strangers but chiefly the religious men the aren effeminate people and show very little courage in resolution when they are put to it at least we were told so by several credible persons who were witnesses to the havoc the Emperor of Japan made in their country when he slew their king they're not ashamed of cowardice and lament the misfortune of those that must fight they've often been repulsed with loss when they have attempted to plunder some European vessel that has been cast on their coasts being bound for Japan they abhor blood and Fly when they meet with any they are much afraid of the sick and particularly of those that have contagious dis tempest and therefore they presently remove them whether they are in the town or country and put them into little straw hovels in the middle of fields there nobody talks to them but only those that are to look after them who give notice to passengers to keep off and when the sick man has no friends to take care of him the others rather let him die than they will come near him when there is a plague in one town or village the avenues to it are shut up with a hedge of briars and brambles and they lay some on the top of the houses where there are any sick so that all people may know it they might when they are sick make use of the simples that grow in their country but the people are not acquainted with them and almost all the physicians are employed by the great ones so the poor who cannot be at that charge make use of blind men and conjurors in whom they once reposed such great confidence that they followed them everywhere across rivers and rocks and particularly into the temples of the idols where they called upon the Devils but this custom was abolished by the Kings order in the year 1662 [Music] before the Tartar subdued this kingdom it was full of luxury and debauchery the koreans whole business being eating and drinking and giving themselves up to all nudists but now that the tatars and japanese tyrannize over them they have enough to do to live when a year proves bad because of the heavy tribute they pay particularly to the Tartar who comes three times a year to receive it they believe there are but twelve kingdoms or countries in the whole world which once were all subject and paid tribute to the emperor of china but they all made themselves free since the tartar conquered China he not being able to subdue them they called the tartar TXA and rnk and our country phnom penh kook which is the name of chinese give to portugal and therefore not knowing us they give us the same name having learnt it within these fifty or sixty years since when the japanese told them to plant tobacco its dress and make use of it for till then it was unknown to them and they telling them the seat of it came from nan pang kook they often called tobacco Nam pan koi they take so much at present that the very children practice it at four or five years of age and there are very few men or women among them that do not smoke when first brought them they bought it for its weight in silver and for that reason they looked upon Nam pan kook as one of the best countries in the world their writings give us an account that there are four score and four thousand several countries but most of them to not believe it and say that if that was so every little island in the land must pass for a country it being impossible they say for the Sun to light so many in a day when we name some countries to them they laughed at us affirming that we only talked of some town or village their geographical knowledge of the coasts reaching no further than Siam by reason of the little traffic they have with strangers further than that from them they have scarce any trade but only with the Japanese and with the people of an island of Tsushima the Koreans also have some trade at Peking and in the northern parts of China but it is very chargeable because they only go thither by land and on horseback the great ones and chief merchants buy and pay for all with money but the meaner sort deal only with rice and other commodities by way of barter they know no money but their Cassy's and those pass only on the frontiers of China they pay silver by weight in little ingots like those we bring from Japan [Music] kindred are not allowed to marry within the fourth degree they make no love because they are married at eight or ten years of age and the young maids from that time live in their father-in-law's house they live in the husband's father's house till they have learned to get their living or to go on their family the day a man marries he mounts on horseback attended by his friends and having ridden around the town he stops at his bride's door where he is very well received by the kindred who take the bride and carry her to his house where the marriage is consummated without any other ceremony though a woman has born her husband many children it is in his power to put her away when he pleases and to take another but the woman has not the same privilege unless you can get it by law to say the truth they make no great account of their wives and use them little better than slaves turning them away for the least faults and sometimes on bare pretenses and then they force them to take their children whom those poor wretches are bound to maintain the nobility in all free man in general take great care of the education of their children and put them very young to learn to read and write to which that nation is much addicted they use no manner of rigor in their method of teaching but manage all by fair means giving their scholars an idea of learning and of the worth of their ancestors and telling them how honourable those are who by this means have raised themselves to great fortunes which breeds emulation and then makes them studious is wonderful to see how they improve by these means and how they expand the writings they give them to read where in all their learning consists besides this private study there is in every tower a house where the nobility according to ancient customs of which they are very tenacious take care to assemble the youth to make them read the history of the country and the condemnations of great men who have been put to death for their crimes to perfect them in their learning there are assemblies kept yearly in two or three towns of each province where the scholars appear to get employment either by the pen or by the sword the governors of towns send Abel deputies there there to examine them and choose the best qualified and according to the report to them they write to the king the aspiring to these honors is often the ruin of the candidates because of the presence they make and treats they give to gain reputation obtain votes some there are also that die by this way parents are very indulgent to their children and in return a much respected by them it is otherwise with the slaves who have a little care of their children because they know they will be taken from them as soon as they are able to work or do any business when a freeman dies his children mourn three years and during all that time they live as austerely as the religious men are not capable of any employment and if any of them is in a post he must quit it it is not permitted them to be in a passion or to fight much less to be drunk they never go without a great cane or cudgel in their hand which serves to distinguish who they are in mourning for the cane denoting the father at a stick to the mother during all this time they never wash as soon as one dies his kindred run about the streaks shrieking and tearing their hair then they take special care to bury him honorably in some part of a mountain shown them by a fortune-teller they generally bury their dead in spring and autumn as for those that die in summer they put them into a thatched Hut raised upon four stakes or they leave them till the rice harvest is over they have conjurer's diviners or soothsayers who assure them whether the dead are at rest or not and whether the place where they are buried is proper for them in which point they are so superstitious that it often happens that they will remove them two or three times when a father is four school years of age he declares himself incapable of managing his estate and resigns it up to his children who maintain their father and always pay him a great deal of respect when the eldest has taken possession of the estate he builds a house at the public expense for his father and mother where he lodges and maintains them the king told us it was not the customs of Korea to suffer strangers to depart the kingdom that we must resolve to end our days in his dominions that he would provide us with all necessaries then he ordered us do such things before him as we were best skilled in as singing dancing and leaping after our mana next he caused us to have meat given us which was well enough after their manner and gave each of us two pieces of cloth to clothe us after their fashion the next day we were all sent before the general of their forces who would add weatr II to tell us that the King had put us into his life guards and that as such he would allow us seventy catties of rice a month every one of us had a paper given him in which we were set down his name his age his country which professionally to follow perform what now he was all than their character sealed with the king's Great Seal in the generals which is nothing but the print of a hot iron together with this commission they delivered to each a musket powder and ball with orders to give a volley before the general every 1st and 4th day of the month to be always ready to march into the field with him whether the king went or upon any other account most of the great men being fond of novelty invited us to dine at their homes to see us exercise after our manner and to make us shoot and dance but above all their wives and children were eager to see us because the meaner sort of the island of quell part had spread abroad a rumour that we were monstrous and that when we drank we were forced to tuck up our noses behind our ears these absurd tales were the cause that the better sort of people at soul were amazed to see us better shape than the people of their own country [Music] you

Channel: Voices of the Past

Views: 259,885

Keywords: China on Rome, Joseon, Korea, South Korea, History, Ancient History, Primary Source, Asian history, China, Exploration, Age of exploration, First contact

Id: Ju4OMkY5Haw

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 28 2020