[KS] By train from Seoul to Incheon--and Jemulpo, too.

Wed Jan 25 22:17:15 EST 2006

Dear KS list members:

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for all your replies, both on- and 
off-list.  After the Yusin constitution and kisaeng, this makes at least the 
third time this month that the small spring of an idle question has gushed 
into an overflowing river of specialized knowledge!

If I can draw together everyone's replies, it would appear that:

(1) Seoul has a long-established use as a vernacular name for the capital 
(for this, I must give pride of place to Sun Joo Kim for his citation of the 
1885 _Chao-xian Di Li Xiao Zhi_, with an honorable mention to Professor 
Ledyard).

(2) This vernacular use is also attested to by early Western use of the word 
(R. Provine, J. Margolis).

(3) The isolated character "kyo^ng" appears in some geographical sources, 
again in reference to Seoul.  (Courtesy of an off-list source.  I do recall 
seeing the character so used myself on an old map (possibly Kim Cho^ngho 
(Kosanja)'s Tongyo^do?), but I cannot verify that now.)

(4) As another person mentioned off-list, the written use of "kyo^ng" alone 
(not combined into a two-character word) and the vernacular "Seoul" might 
have been mutually complementary.  As Robert Ramsey suggested in June 2005 
(http://koreaweb.ws/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws/2005-June/004883.html), 
the _hun_ (definitional) readings of at least some hancha might be taken not 
so much to be definitional glosses as to be the modern-day legacy of 
once-used alternative readings of the characters they denote.

(5) Two-character words built on "kyo^ng" (Kyo^ngdo, Kyo^ngso^ng, 
Wanggyo^ng) abound during and prior to the Choso^n Dynasty, in specific 
reference to Seoul (J. Van Lieu, S.J. Kim, and another off-list source).

(6) More specifically, Kyo^ngso^ng had centuries-old currency as a widely 
used, unofficial (or at best quasi-official) name for 
Hanyang/Hanso^ng/Seoul.

(7) Finally, when it came time to choose names for the Hanso^ng-Inch'o^n and 
Hanso^ng-Pusan railway concessions in the late 1890s, for whatever reason, 
"kyo^ng" (signifying either the widely attested "Kyo^ngso^ng" or possibly 
the hanmun equivalent of the vernacular "Seoul"/"capital" (or perhaps 
felicitously, both!)) was chosen to designate the northern end in the two 
lines' names (Kyo^ng'in by 1896, and Kyo^ngbu by 1898--M.S. Son, S.J. Kim, 
and P. Shepherd).

This clears up a lot, although it still leaves unresolved the original 
question--which Min Suh Son re-raised--of exactly why "Kyo^ng(so^ng)" was 
chosen over "Hanso^ng" for the naming of the railway lines under 
discussion...or why when the terminus in Seoul proper was finally built, it 
was named "Kyo^ngso^ngyo^k" (or "Kyo^ngso^ng Cho^nggo^jang"?).

The simplest hypothesis would seem to be that "Kyo^ngso^ng" (written or also 
spoken) or "Seoul" (spoken)/"Kyo^ng" (written) were in much wider use in 
reference to the capital than the name Hanso^ng.  This is plausible, given 
that written officialdom and both written and spoken vernacular usage seem 
to have diverged in many areas.  (As was pointed out both on- and off-list 
last summer, this was especially true in, for example, Choso^n-dynasty 
dating practices (that's calendrical dating, not the other kind!).)

I suppose a much less plausible hypothesis would be that this was an attempt 
at independence-era de-Sinification, because purely by accident, the first 
character in "Hanso^ng" happens to be the same as that which designates the 
Chinese Han dynasties--this is easily dismissed, however, as it wouldn't 
explain the retention of Hanso^ng for the official name of the city 
itself....  (Then again, it might well account for the renaming of the city 
itself after 1910.)

Anyhow, this entire issue leaves apart the etymology and older uses of the 
word "so^ul" or its antecedents, as Gari Ledyard and one off-list source 
have mentioned.  Indeed, the use of "so^ul" as a common noun denoting _any_ 
capital is no doubt long established.  It would appear that the use of Seoul 
(and Kyo^ngso^ng, Kyo^ngdo, etc.) to refer to _the_ capital (and not merely 
_any_ capital) would be a case of a word's being at once both a common and 
proper noun--like Namdaemun or Kangnam, which, depending on the context, may 
be taken to mean either specific places in Seoul (or elsewhere?), or any 
run-of-the-mill, generic great south gate or south riverbank (according to 
Korean dictionaries).

I will be glad to read any further replies to this thread, or any further 
insight anyone can provide into exactly why the name "Hanso^ng" appears to 
have been so unfavoured by the late 1890s, as to not even be bestowed on the 
new inner city rail terminus when it was built shortly after the turn of the 
century.

Finally--on another note--Joshua Margolis asked about Inch'o^n.  As touched 
on by Sunjoo Kim and Gari Ledyard, Inch'o^n has been in continuous existence 
as a legal entity since 1413.  Inch'on was a subdivision of Kyo^nggi 
province from 1413 to 1895, and again from 1896 to 1981.  Between 1895 and 
1896, an expanded Inch'o^n formed one of the 23 districts (_-bu_ 
(&Yacute;¢´)) into which Korea was divided (during a short-lived abolition 
of provincial governments); and since 1981, it has existed as a first-tier 
(provincial-level) municipal entity.  
(http://100.naver.com/100.php?id=719718 ; 
http://seoul600.visitseoul.net/seoul-history/sidaesa/txt/5-3-2-1.html .)  
Surely Chemulp'o has long existed as a place name, but it does not seem to 
have gained widespread currency until the locality became Inch'o^n's 
overseas trading port in or about 1883.  (See Naver link above, as well as 
http://100.naver.com/100.php?id=137494 .)

Thank you again to everyone, and my apologies to anyone whom I missed above. 
  ¿©·¯ºÐ²² °¨»çµå¸³´Ï´Ù (_Yo^ro^bunkke kamsadu^rimnida_).

Yours sincerely,
Stefan Ewing

***

>From: "Sunjoo Kim" <sunjookim1 at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
>Subject: Re: [KS] By train from Seoul to Incheon--what's in a name?
>Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 07:15:43 -0800
>
>My quick search through e-kyujanggak database by "kyOngin" in hanja 
>produces 130 hits. Not all of them concern KyOngin railroad, but a lot of 
>them do. The earliest reference to KyOngin ch'Oldo is 1896. I will 
>copy-pase two examples here. I hope the llinks work.
>
>- a kind of contract to build railroad between Choson and US in 1986
>http://e-kyujanggak.snu.ac.kr/MOK/MOK_NODEVIEW.jsp?setid=49516&pos=0&type=MOK&ptype=list&subtype=sm&cn=GK23179_00
>
>This short quotation is from IlsOngnok. You can even view the original text 
>from the following link.
>Ù¤Ý» &#37318;Ô½Ô³ (1896  6  7 )
>http://e-kyujanggak.snu.ac.kr/YDG/ILS_CONTVIEW.jsp?setid=49525&pos=1&ptype=class&subtype=ils&lclass=year&mclass=1800&year=1896&month=6&day=7
>
>As for the usage of "kyOng" in premodern Korea, it is abundant as Joshua 
>gave us examples. If I may add:
>
>Sejong sillok chiriji [The veritable records of King Sejong, geographic 
>survey].  - used "KyOngdo HansOng-bu Ô´Ý¤" referring to the capital.
>
>Sinj&uacute;ng Tongguk y&oacute;ji s&uacute;ngnam [Augmented survey of the 
>geography of Korea]. Compiled and revised by Yi Haeng et al. in 1530. -- 
>used "KyOngdo Ô´" referring to the capital.
>
>I find terms like "wang (king) + gyOng (capital)" and "KyOngsOng" in the 
>KoryOsa [History of KoryO].
>
>As for "Seoul," in  Chos&oacute;n chiri soji (Chao-xian di li xiao zhi in 
>Chinese), it says something like:
>
>Seoul is itself a pure Korean word indicating the capital. The classical 
>Chinese for Seoul is Ï¢×¹. (note:Ï¢ is one character not two characters Ï¢ 
>and )
>
>For your reference, this book is the classical Chinese translation from the 
>Japanese edition of the Ch&ocirc;sen hachi iki shi (, 1882?), whose 
>original text was the Taegniji, written in classical Chinese by Yi 
>Chung-hwan (16901756) in 1751. It was published in Qing China in 1885. This 
>particular passage might have been added on by the Japanese 
>translator/compiler.
>
>Sun Joo Kim
>Associate Professor of Korean History
>EALC, Harvard University
>2 Divinity Ave.
>Cambridge, MA 02138
>Tel: 617)495-7539
>Fax: 617)496-6040
>e-mail: sjkim at fas.harvard.edu

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