The Modernization and the National Movement Room houses Silhak (Practical Learning) literature (the germination of modern thought during the late Joseon Dynasty), as well as Western astronomy and geographical literature, world maps from China, and Korean maps, giving a glance at the changes that occurred in the prevailing Joseon world view. Other items on display shed light on the Korean people’s national movement that emerged in response to foreign aggression in the late 19th century.
Permanent Exhibition
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- Exhibition
- Permanent Exhibition
- Modernization and National Movement Hall
Category Title
- The Introduction of Western Science and the Development of Silhak (Korean Practical Learning)
- The Development of Astronomy and a Geography, and a World View Change
- The Development of Korean Geography and the Promotion of Patriotism
- National Isolation Policy and the Rejection of Heterodoxy
- Foreign Aggression and the Enlightenment Movement
- Japanese Colonial Rule and the Independence Movement
Yanguihyeonramdo (Map of the World)
1603 A.D.
201.5 × 448.0cm
A world map given by Matteo Ricci, a missionary of the Society of Jesus, who was active in China. A Joseon emissary to China brought this map from a Catholic church in Beijing in 1604; the map is known to be the world's only and one copy.
Details of the Yanguihyeonramdo
Gonyeojeondo (Map of the World)
1674 A.D.
173.3 × 405.0cm
Jiguui (Globe)
19th c. A.D.
27.7 × 26.8 × 26.8cm
Korea's first globe, manufactured by Choi Han-gi, a scientific thinker of the late Joseon Dynasty. Designated as Treasure No. 883.
Yeojijeondo (Map of the World)
18th c. A.D.
85.5 × 59.0cm
A map drawn during the transition from a Sino-centric map of the world to a Western world map. China still covers most of a world characterized by a diminished Europe and Africa and the absence of the Americas.
Introduction of Western Science and Civilization
With the introduction of Western world maps to Joseon society in the early 17th century, the Korean people's world view underwent a dramatic change. Joseon's previous conception of the world derived from a world map which featured only China, Joseon, Japan, and Okinawa. This map reflected a Sino-centric approach, and was prompted by the theory of a round heaven and square earth. However, emissaries to China brought back a world map featuring a wider view of the world in the early 17th century. In 1604, the Yanguihyeonramdo (Map of the World), presented by Matteo Ricci, and the Gonyeojeondo (Map of the World), given by Ferdiand Verbiest, were brought to Korea.
With the introduction of world maps, Sino-centric thinking and universality began to their lose power. The Joseon people shed the world view that held China to be the center of the world and other nations as only peripheral to it. They accepted and developed a scientific world view that embraced knowledge of the world's roundness and heliocentric theory. Eventually, the development of astronomy and world geography broadened the Joseon people's perspective and provided the momentum needed to shake up feudalistic society.