Encounter: A Novel of Nineteenth-Century Korea(5 Voices from Asia)

This historical novel, Encounter (Mannam), by Hahn Moo-Sook, one of Asia's most honored writers, is a story of the resilience in the Korean spirit. It is told through the experiences of Tasan, a high-ranking official and foremost Neo-Confucian scholar at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Because of Tasan's fascination with Western learning, then synonymous with Catholicism, he is exiled to a remote province for 18 years. In banishment he meets people from various social and religious backgrounds—Buddhist monks, peasants, shamans—whom he would not otherwise have met. The events of Tasan's life are effectively used to depict the confluence of Buddhist, Neo-Confucian, Taoist, and shamanistic beliefs in traditional Korea. A subplot involves three young sisters, the daughters of a prominent Catholic aristocrat, and affords the reader vivid glimpses into Yi-dynasty women's lives, particularly those of palace ladies, scholars' wives, tavern keepers, shamans, and slaves. In contrast to the long-held Confucian stereotype of female subservience, this story illustrates the richness of women's contribution to Korean culture and tradition. Encounter's detailed narrative provides a broad and informed view of nineteenth-century Korea, making it a highly useful book for courses on Korean literature and society. It will also be an engaging read for lovers of historical fiction.

Table of Contents:
Foreword: Saints, Sages, and the Novelist's Art by Don Baker Principal Characters in Encounter 1. "Admonition on the Transitory" 2. Betrayal 3· Partings 4· Shaman's Daughter 5· True Principles of Catholicism 6. Sowing 7· Pondering 8. The Winter Solstice Mission: Journey to Peking g. Embrace 10. Encounter MAPS A Yi dynasty map of Korea Korea in the Yi dynasty Seoul in the nineteenth century  

About the Author :
Hahn Moo-Sook (1918-1993) was a South Korean writer. She received many prestigious awards, including the Republic of Korea Samil Culture Award (1989) and the Korean Academy of Arts Prize for Literature (1991). Ok Young Kim Chang was born in Seoul, Korea, and received the Korean Culture and Arts Foundation's Best New Translator Award. She now lives in Connecticut. Don Baker is Assistant Professor of Korean Studies at the University of British Columbia. He has written widely on Korean religions.

Review :
"As history, this book is the product of deep and meticulous research into various aspects of nineteenth-century life, customs, and values, ranging from the intellectual to the vulgar. In addition to her presentation of Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, Catholicism, court and political life, and social structure, Hahn Moo-Sook also gives us real, detailed, and believable descriptions of wayside taverns, shamans and their performances, slaves and their lives, the rigors of travel without modern conveyances, sickness and death, clothing, food, and ignorant bigotry. We are given the strong feeling that we are witnessing a true cross-section of traditional Korea-and not just the aristocratic lifestyle to which most histories restrict themselves since popular culture is not so well documented. If an enterprising teacher were to build a semester's course on the Korea of Encounter—with good collateral reading, visual resources, and stimulating discussion—a classroom of students could emerge from a semester's voyage with a unique understanding of traditional Korean life." "A must-read tour-de-force for anyone with interest in Korean history or literature. Tasan was a highly regarded Confucian scholar, who chose a life of poverty for scholarship, and to find out more about Catholicism, which had just entered Korea via the Jesuits in China (a Bible was brought from Beijing during one of Korea’s regular tributary visits to its suzerain leader). Less than a Xian testament, this exceptional narrative reveals a precise picture of 18th and 19th century Korean life, politics, class, a deeply thoughtful and informed internal struggle, and how Confucian and Xian ideals, when realized, are compatible."