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Series: General Photographic File of the Department of Navy, 1943 - 1958. Record Group 80: General Records of the Department of the Navy, 1804 - 1983
“Paul Georg von Möllendorff 穆麟德 (17 February 1847 in Zehdenick, Prussia – 20 April 1901 in Ningbo, China) was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. Möllendorff is also known for having created a system for romanizing the Manchu language.” - Wikipedia page
An Agreement Between the Commander-in-Chief United Nations Command and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army and the Commander of the Chinese People’s Volunteers Concerning a Military Armistice in Korea, 07/27/1953
The Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, officially ended with this armistice signed on July 27, 1953.
At 10 a.m., in Panmunjom, scarcely acknowledging each other, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison, Jr., senior delegate, United Nations Command Delegation; North Korean Gen. Nam Il, senior delegate, Delegation of the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteers, signed 18 official copies of the tri-language Korean Armistice Agreement.
It was the end of the longest negotiated armistice in history: 158 meetings spread over two years and 17 days. That evening at 10 p.m. the truce went into effect. The Korean Armistice Agreement is somewhat exceptional in that it is purely a military document—no nation is a signatory to the agreement. Specifically the Armistice Agreement:
The armistice, while it stopped hostilities, was not a permanent peace treaty between nations.
President Eisenhower, who was keenly aware of the 1.8 million American men and women who had served in Korea and the 36,576 Americans who had died there, played a key role in bringing about a cease-fire. In announcing the agreement to the American people in a television address shortly after the signing, he said, in part,
"Soldiers, sailors and airmen of sixteen different countries have stood as partners beside us throughout these long and bitter months. In this struggle we have seen the United Nations meet the challenge of aggression—not with pathetic words of protest, but with deeds of decisive purpose. And so at long last the carnage of war is to cease and the negotiation of the conference table is to begin… . [We hope that] all nations may come to see the wisdom of composing differences in this fashion before, rather than after, there is resort to brutal and futile battle.
Now as we strive to bring about that wisdom, there is, in this moment of sober satisfaction, one thought that must discipline our emotions and steady our resolution. It is this: We have won an armistice on a single battleground—not peace in the world. We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest."
President Eisenhower concluded his announcement by quoting from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address.
via Our Documents
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy’s first black pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames.
A chopper hovered nearby. Lt. j.g. Thomas Hudner could save himself, but not his friend. With the light fading, the threat of enemy fire all around him and Brown losing consciousness, the white son of a New England grocery-store magnate made a promise to the black son of a sharecropper.
“We’ll come back for you.”
More than 60 years have passed. Hudner is now 88. But he did not forget. He is coming back. Read more.
The Seokguram Buddha, inside the South Korean Bulguksa Temple complex, Silla Dynasty, 8th century AD, 3 1/2 meters tall. This statue is an extremely highly regarded piece of Buddhist art, and thought to exemplify some of the best Buddhist sculptures in the world.
Buddha is shown in realistic form, possibly representing the Seokgamoni Buddha, the historic Buddha at the moment of enlightenment. Representations of the Four Heavenly Kings guard the corridor, each of whom watch over a cardinal direction of the world; Tamon-ten (north), Zōjō-ten (south), Kōmoku-ten (west), and Jikoku-ten (east).
Photo courtesy & taken by Richardfabi.
Korean roof tile
Korea, 8th century AD
The concept of using tiles decorated with monster masks to ward off evil spirits originated from China.
The tiles were placed in each of the four cardinal directions (north, east, south and west) on top of the roof of a building. They were used in royal buildings, those of the aristocracy, and also on Buddhist temples.
Some tiles were produced in the shape of a lion, a Buddhist guardian symbol. Buddhism had become the prevalent religion by the seventh century in Korea. Some scholars think that these tiles portray dragons, not monster masks.
Though this example is not glazed, some of these tiles were glazed with a green lead glaze.
What was Korea’s grandest city in ancient times?
This tile is from Kyongju, the capital of the Unified Silla dynasty of Korea. The city was famous for its wide streets laid out in a grid. All the houses, palaces and Buddhist temples had tiled roofs, a sign of wealth and sophistication. Decorated roof tiles started to become widespread around AD 688, when the small Korean kingdom of Silla, with help from China, conquered two other Korean kingdoms. This ushered in an age of prosperity and cultural unity in the Korean peninsula.
An extremely large burial(?) has been excavated at the Chojeon-dong site in Jinju and it dates to the Mumun (aka Bronze) Period, c. 1500-300 BC. It appears very much like a burial but lacks an actual interment space. Perhaps it disappeared during site formation processes? However it appears much like a cobble platform-style megalithic burial, only much larger in scale. In the Korean Yonhap story, archaeologists from the Dongseo Cultural Properties Institute state that they estimate the feature dates to the 4th to 5th centuries BC. This is a little on the conservative side. We tend to see this and other large-scale platform-style megalithic burials dating to as early as the 6th century BC based on our interpretation of the material cultural record and AMS radiocarbon dates. Chojeon-dong is a large site at which many phases of excavation have taken place since the late Noughties. As a side note, we should mention that this is the same site at which the first joint international archaeological excavations in more than 40 years took place in May and June 2011. The partners were the Dongseo Cultural Properties Institute, Harvard University Early Korea Project, and University of Michigan Department of Anthropology. Korean (more detail, photos): http://bit.ly/XUkuI4 English (very brief): http://bit.ly/VhMOqS
Ji’an, China: Koguryŏ (Goguryeo, c. 300-668CE) stele discovered http://bit.ly/WJkVSX
Prince Sado was born in 1735, and was married nine years later. It is said that his father, the king of Korea, began hating his son when Sado was very young. Sado had a son of his own when he was seventeen. After the birth of his son, Sado became sick with the measles. He recovered from his illness, but it seemed to have triggered a deep-seated insanity that lurked within the prince. The king became even more disgusted with his son. The king was said to have washed out his mouth, cleaned his ears and changed his clothes whenever Sado talked to him.
Prince Sado’s insanity first presented itself as nightmares and delusions. These episodes were soon followed by violent attacks. By 1757, Sado was physically abusing his servants, and raping any woman who denied him. Sado murdered and raped on a whim. He even took to stalking his own sister.
The king eventually tired of the terror his son inflicted. The king ordered Sado into a rice chest, and the prince complied. The king then had the rice chest nailed shut. Sado spent eight days in it before he finally died. Perhaps the king’s hatred contributed to Sado’s insanity. Either way, the cruel prince died a cruel death and, in the king’s eyes, justice was served.
To Won’s Father June 1, 1586 You always said, “Dear, let’s live together until our hair turns gray and die on the same day.” How could you pass away without me? Who should I and our little boy listen to and how should we live? How could you go ahead of me? How did you bring your heart to me and how did I bring my heart to you? Whenever we lay down together you always told me, “Dear, do other people cherish and love each other like we do? Are they really like us?” How could you leave all that behind and go ahead of me? I just cannot live without you. I just want to go to you. Please take me to where you are. My feelings toward you I cannot forget in this world and my sorrow knows no limit. Where would I put my heart in now and how can I live with the child missing you? Please look at this letter and tell me in detail in my dreams. Because I want to listen to your saying in detail in my dreams I write this letter and put it in. Look closely and talk to me. When I give birth to the child in me, who should it call father? Can anyone fathom how I feel? There is no tragedy like this under the sky. You are just in another place, and not in such a deep grief as I am. There is no limit and end to my sorrows that I write roughly. Please look closely at this letter and come to me in my dreams and show yourself in detail and tell me. I believe I can see you in my dreams. Come to me secretly and show yourself. There is no limit to what I want to say and I stop here.
A mummified child in Korea whose organs were relatively well preserved has produced the oldest full viral genome description. A liver biopsy of the mummy revealed a unique hepatitis B virus (HBV) known as a genotype C2 sequence, which is said to be common in Southeast Asia.
The first discovery of hepatitis in a Korean mummy came in 2007. The new work provided more detailed analysis.
The research, announced today, was detailed in the May 21 edition of the scientific journal Hepatology.
Carbon 14 tests of the clothing of the mummy suggests that the boy lived around the 16th century during the Korean Joseon Dynasty. The viral DNA sequences recovered from the liver biopsy enabled the scientists to map the entire ancient hepatitis B viral genome. Read more.
KOREAN WATER AND MOUNTAIN SPIRITS
KOREA CAME very early in Oriental history under the influence, if not under the domination, of China, and a cult of the Dragon has existed there since antiquity. Dr. William E. Griffis, in his valuable book Corea, the Hermit Nation, has this to say of its presence there under the local name riong; and some absurdly extravagant legends might be quoted.
“The riong [Li Lung?],” Dr. Griffis writes, “is one of the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures. He is an embodiment of all the forces of motion, change, and power for offence and defence in animal life, with the mysterious attributes of the serpent. There are many varieties of the genus Dragon… . In the spring it ascends to the sites, and in the autumn buries itself in the watery depths. It is this terrific manifestation of movement and power which the Corean artist loves to depict—always in connection with waters, clouds, or the sacred jewel of which it is the guardian.”
There is also a terrestrial dragon, which presides over mines and gems; and the intense regard for it is perhaps the chief reason why mines have been so little worked in Chosen, the people superstitiously fearing that disasters may follow disturbance of the metals which they believe are peculiarly the treasure of this jealous earth-spirit.
“All mountains are personified in Korea,” we are told by Angus Hamilton, and are “usually associated with dragons. In lakes there are dragons and lesser monsters… . The serpent is almost synonymous with the dragon. Certain fish in time become fish-dragons; snakes become elevated to the dignity and imbued with the ferocity of dragons when they have spent a thousand years in the captivity of the mountains and a thousand years in the water. All these apparitions may be propitiated with sacrifices and prayers.”
The most important of Korean heights are the Diamond Mountains, where the mines of the country are most extensively worked, to the trepidation of the populace who anticipate that some day a dreadful retribution will fall on the impious foreign exploiters of their mineral veins. “One dizzy height is named Yellow Dragon, a second the Flying Phenix; and a third, the Hidden Dragon, has reference to a demon who has not yet risen from the earth upon his ascent to the clouds.”
Mr. Hamilton gives a description of the temples of Yu-chom-sa in the Diamond Mountains. Of one of them he says: “The altar of this temple is adorned by a singular piece of wood-carving. Upon the roots of an upturned tree sit or stand fifty-three diminutive figures of Buddha. The monks tell an old-world legend of this strange structure. Many centuries ago fifty-three priests, who had journeyed from far India to Korea to introduce the precepts of Buddha into this ancient land, sat down by a well beneath a spreading tree. Three dragons presently emerged from the depths of the well and attacked the fifty-three, calling to their aid the wind dragon, who thereupon uprooted the tree. As the fight proceeded the priests managed to place an image of Buddha on each root of the tree, converting the whole into an altar, under whose influence the dragons were forced back into their cavernous depths, when huge rocks were piled into the well to shut them up. The monks then founded the monastery, building the main temple above the remains of the vanquished dragons.”
Apart from any historical suggestions which this interesting story may contain, one notes that the exorcism of the threatening demons was accomplished in just the same way as Christian monks did by a show of the Cross, as we shall see when we come to consider the dragon-lore of mediaeval Europe.
Whatever is most excellent the Koreans compare to the divinely virtuous Dragon. A ‘dragon-child’ is one that is a paragon of propriety; ‘a dragon-horse,’ one having great speed, and so on to indicate the superlative. A common proverb, “When the fish has been transformed into the dragon,” means that a happy change has taken place. This embodiment of good nature and good luck is, of course, simply the Chinese lung, friendly and worthy of respect and worship.
It appears, however, that Buddhistic travellers and missionaries from cobra-worshipping India, corrupted this gentle faith long ago by the introduction of the Hindoo doctrines and practice of naga-worship, inculcating a system of diabolism that filled the land with fear and defensive magic: the cheerful old dragons of the past became horrid snakes, lurking in every pool, and filling the seas with terror. A Korean book describes an exorcist of nagas who went with his pitcher full of water to the pond inhabited by a naga, and by his magic formulae surrounded the reptile with a ring of fire. As the water in the pitcher was its only refuge the naga turned himself into a small snake and crept into the pitcher. Whether the exorcist then killed him the story does not reveal; but in the tale Visser finds evidence of the nagas “not only as rain-gods, but also as beings wholly dependent on the presence of water and much afraid of fire—just like the dragons in Chinese and Japanese legends.”
Hulbert, author of The Passing of Korea, describes things and ideas as they were before the modernization of the country by the Japanese. He informs us that every Korean river and stream, as well as the surrounding oceans, was formerly believed to be the abode of a dragon, and every village on the banks of a stream used to make periodic adoration to this power. The importance of paying so much formal respect to it lay in the fact that this aquatic dragon had control of the rainfall, and had to be kept in good humour lest the crops be endangered by insufficient showers; furthermore it was able to make great trouble for boatmen and deep-sea sailors unless properly appeased. Hence not only the villagers and farmers, but the owners and masters of ships desiring favourable weather for their voyaging, made propitiatory sacrifices—not alone the important war-junks, but the freight-boats, fishermen, ferry-boats, etc., each conducting its own kind of ceremony to ensure safety. In all cases it was addressed as tribute to a water-spirit.
The ceremony, at least when held on land, was performed by a mudang (a professional female exorcist) in a boat, accompanied by as many of the leading persons of the village as were able to crowd in with her. “Her fee is about forty dollars. The most interesting part of the ceremony is the mudang’s dance, which is performed on the edge of a knife-blade laid across the mouth of a jar that is filled to the brim with water.” Even more elaborately nonsensical was the ceremony on a ferryboat—a great institution in a land without bridges, as Korea used to be.
Mr. Hulbert says that not until the beginning of the reign of the present dynasty was the horrible custom of throwing a young virgin into the sea at Py-ryung, as a propitiatory offering to the demon of the ocean-world, discontinued. “At that place the mudang held an annual seance in order to propitiate the sea-dragon and secure plenteous rains for the rice-crop and successful voyages for the mariners.” With the change of the royal house a new prefect was appointed to the district, who had no faith or sympathy with either the theory or its frightful demands. He attended the next seance, where he found three mudangs dragging a screaming girl towards the seashore. Stopping them he asked whether it was really necessary that a human being be sacrificed. They answered that it was. “Very well,” he said; “you will do as an offering.” Signing to two policemen they tied and hurled one of the mudangs into the waves. The dragon gave no sign of displeasure, and a second, and after her the third, were ‘sacrificed’ without any visible response from the demon the people had been taught to fear. This demonstration ended the practice and the profession of the mudangs together.
