Integration Processes in the Circulation of Knowledge ─ Cases from Korea

Korea, geographically situated at cultural crossroads, has a long history of creative engagement with knowledge from outside sources. This volume discusses processes of knowledge integration – of interpretive adaptation, dissection, selection and re-assemblage, of reduction and amplification, as well as of blending with existing cognitive structures – in pre-modern and early modern times. The articles assembled deal with a wide range of sources (including material objects as carriers of knowledge) and with diverse fields of knowledge, spanning the realms of philosophy, religion, literature, military and technical knowledge, and political thought. Together, they richly illustrate the transformative powers inherent in re-configurations of knowledge.

Marion Eggert is Professor of Korean Studies at Ruhr University Bochum. She has published on Korean and Chinese literature, especially travel literature, and intellectual history, primarily of the 17th to 19th centuries, as well as on literary and intellectual transactions within East Asia.
Florian Polking is a researcher and lecturer for Korean Studies at Ruhr University Bochum. He teaches Korean History as well as courses on Korean society and philosophy. He is engaged with the sociopolitical value of technical knowledge and craftsmen within the wider field of state-sponsored building projects during the 17th and 18th century.