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The Chosŏn History Society will recognize one peer-reviewed article on Korean history published in an English-language academic journal every year through the "Best English-Language Article in Korean History." Factors under consideration include the article's
The award entails a cash prize of $300 to be disbursed to the author(s) of the recognized article.
Voting begins on February 27th and will close on March 15th 2026. Please register as a CHS member by March 10th for eligibility to vote in this year's competition: Information on CHS Membership (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/annual-membership-to-chosn-history-society).
We are grateful to Jean Hyun, John Duncan, Martin Gehlmann, Songhee Lee, and Sara McAdory-Kim for serving on this year's selection committee.
Kim, Sun Joo. “The Fluid Religious Landscape of Chosŏn Korea: The Hermitage of Eternal Memory (Yŏngsa-am 永思庵) and Other Graveside Hermitages (punam 墳庵) of the Kigye Yu Lineage” in Journal of Korean Religions 15-2 (Oct 2024).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27360064
Kim’s article is by far the most rigorously researched among all the others I reviewed. She situated her topic among existing scholarship, did exhaustive research in the source materials, provided extensive annotations, and wrote clearly. There has been work done by other scholars on the overlap between Confucianism and Buddhism in the late 18th century, including King Chŏngjo interest in Buddhism and Confucian influences on Buddhist doctrines but this article does an excellent job of demonstrating how the two systems of thought and ritual were intertwined in how a prominent literati lineage remembered their ancestors. Simply put, this is not simply an examination of intellectual interest in Buddhism and Confucianism; rather it shows how both the two traditions were interwoven in an important aspect of literati life. This work, it seems to me, is certain to stimulate further research in what is now emerging as a hitherto neglected area of elite culture.
Kim’s footnotes provide much explanatory information that will be invaluable for scholars and students who have interests in Korea’s cultural traditions but have limited backgrounds in the nuances of Korean Confucian and Buddhists practices.
Kim, Hunjoo. “The Genealogy of Confucian Modernity and the Reconstruction of Confucian Traditions in Post-Liberation Korea.” Korean Studies 48, 2024, pp. 86-127. (published 2024-07-02)
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/930997
In his article, Kim Hunjoo examines the reevaluation and reconstruction of the historical role of Confucianism in South Korea since liberation in 1945. He provides a well-structured and concise overview of the discursive shifts surrounding the value of Confucianism for modernization, tracing developments from the colonial period to the late 1970s, while introducing the relevant authors and primary sources. The article draws on a wide range of materials and offers valuable insight into contemporary intellectual debates and public discourse. In doing so, Kim enriches and complicates what is often a reductive understanding of the political “rediscovery” of Confucianism in the 1970s, particularly by incorporating the influence of U.S.-based Korean Studies and modernization theory on South Korean academic and political discourse. Although the article presupposes a general familiarity with modern Korean history and the twentieth-century reinterpretation of Confucianism, the author provides concise summaries in each chapter, making his findings clear and accessible even to non-specialists. Overall, Kim convincingly demonstrates how Confucianism and modernization gradually became intertwined among certain Korean scholarship, marking a shift away from earlier wholesale rejections of the Confucian tradition. The article therefore provides an important foundation for understanding contemporary references to and debates about the role of Confucianism in South Korean public discourse.
Joung-hwan Jin. "Buddhist Artwork as Political Symbolism: With a Focus on Buddhist Artwork Created in the 920s in Later Paekche." Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies (Vol. 24, No. 2, November 2024)
The Later Three Kingdoms period (late 9th–early 10th century), a brief era of political realignment on the Korean Peninsula, has received limited scholarly attention. Dr. Jin's article fills this critical gap by demonstrating how Kyŏn Hwŏn, founder of Later Paekche (892–936), strategically deployed Buddhist art to legitimize his political authority. Through meticulous analysis of Buddhist sculptures, stūpas, and temple architecture, Dr. Jin reveals a sophisticated dualistic strategy that was simultaneously localized and historically grounded. This innovative methodology illuminates how material culture functioned as an active agent in political discourse, bridging art history, political history, and religious studies while providing new insights into state formation and identity construction during this pivotal transitional period.
Dario Minguzzi, "Mid-Tang Exchange Poetry, the Kingdom of Parhae, and the Reception of Bai Juyi in Early Heian Japan, Part 1: Parhae Envoys and the Yuan-Bai Style of Exchange Poetry," Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies 24(2), November 2024: 257-284.
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/945326/pdf
Dario Minguzzi’s article offers a well-grounded rethinking of why Bai Juyi’s poetry became exceptionally influential in early Heian Japan by centering Parhae (698-926) as a key cultural agent. Through analysis of textual circulation, close readings of exchange poems, and engagement with relevant secondary scholarship, Minguzzi shows that rhyme-matching exchange poetry in the “Yuan-Bai style” performed systematically in Heian-Parhae diplomatic contexts catalyzed a new poetic practice and literary authority in Japan. The article’s novelty, and its value for Korean Studies, lies in treating Parhae not as a passive conduit but as an active driver of cultural change and prestige.
This “Parhae-centered” approach is necessarily oblique: because surviving Parhae documentary sources are scarce, Parhae history must often be reconstructed through traces in external accounts. Even when the evidentiary base is largely Japanese, Minguzzi keeps the interpretive center of gravity on Parhae, showing how Parhae-Heian interactions shaped what later appeared to be a purely “Japanese” literary development. Although the prose can be dense, it remains accessible to non-specialists by supplying essential context, a clearly stated problem, and translated examples. Finally, though this is Part 1 of a two-part study (with Part 2 more Japan-focused), Part 1 stands on its own as a Korea-centered contribution.
