뉴스레터

Kim Moon-ki (Professor, Department of History at Pukyong National University)

He graduated from Pusan ​​National University with a master's degree from the same graduate school, graduated from the Ph.D., and received his Ph.D. from Pukyong National University. The main research topic is the impact of climate change in Little Ice Age on East Asia. Currently, he is studying the natural history of East Asia and knowledge exchange about fish. He served as the Director of Pukyong National University Museum and is the Head of Archive Center for Korean Maritime and Fisheries.

Q. You have been studying climate change, disasters and changes in agricultural environments in the 17th century East Asia from a comparative perspective, focusing on the three East Asian countries. As COVID-19 sweeps the world, many people are predicting that the world before and after COVID-19 will change completely. What has led you to be interested in disasters such as plagues that have not been noticed in previous studies?

A. It seems that I have studied climate and disasters for more than 20 years. When I started studying climate while majoring in history, I remember the words people around me. “When did climate become the subject of history?” “A person majoring in history studies climate? Really?” But I didn’t understand these words. I grew up in the countryside and I watched vividly how the weather and nature have a great impact on human life.
When we opened the history record, disasters and famine were so routine. Just as the words "the monarch regards the people as heaven, and the people as the basis of eating" symbolizes, disasters and famine have had a profound impact on the survival of the nation as well as the survival of the individual. So, I always wondered if researchers today are missing out on the importance of disaster and famine research. I wanted to emphasize that human beings, the subject of history, can only exist in relation to nature.

Q. The lesson from COVID-19 is that we must respond and cooperate with the global crisis. It seems to be showing how smoothly the response patterns of each country, the medical system, the government's management system, and the distribution system of materials including economic support, which appear in a special crisis situation called 'the spread of infectious diseases', are working. Is there an example of historically meaningful development through a great disaster?

A. The impact of disasters and famine on the development of history is very paradoxical. On the one hand, it destroys civilization, but at the same time it makes new changes. A typical example is the plague that killed one-third of the European population in the mid-14th century. The spread of plague protected the forests that were being destroyed by the population increase, restoring economic power, and creating an opportunity to look out for slaves, gold and perfume. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, famine and infectious diseases continued due to cold weather and weather changes, leading to witch hunting. But there was also an attempt to interpret this weather phenomenon accurately, leading to the era of the scientific revolution symbolized by Galileo and Newton. Also, in 1783, the Asama volcano in Japan and the Laki volcano in Iceland erupted, continuing to have a low temperature and weather fluctuation for more than a few years. In Japan, hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation due to the Tenmei famine(1783–1787), and nationwide riots and cannibalism were rampant. The famine that happened at this time also caused Tongsinsa to cancel its planned visit to Japan. In France, where the bad harvest continued, the complaints and anger of the people who suffered from hunger exploded from the French Revolution in 1789. The French Revolution, which presented the ideal of 'freedom, equality, and philanthropy' to mankind, was also set in the background of bad harvests and famine caused by extreme weather.

Q. In the past, when farming was the basis of life, plague and natural disasters seemed to be the biggest difficulties. In the 17th century, climate change in the Little Ice Age was marked worldwide, and how did this period affect human history?

A. In the 17th century, when the climate cold phenomenon, which is a characteristic of the Little Ice Age, occurred frequently in natural disasters, resulting in bad harvests, famine, and infectious diseases. This was almost the only time in the history of global population decline. Riots, rebellions and wars have taken place all over the world, jeopardizing society.
Europe, for example, has been in constant rebellion and revolution throughout the world since the 30-year war. In the UK, there was a 'Puritan Revolution', in France 'La Fronde' and in Spain 'Catalan Revolt'. In Ukraine, 'Razin's rebellion' occurred, and the Ottoman Empire also suffered riots and chaos due to a serious financial crisis. This crisis is also found in New World America. European historians have early noted this phenomenon and raised the '17th century crisis theory'. Recently, Geoffrey Parker expressed this period as 'Global Crisis', looking at the influence of the Little Ice Age from a world history perspective. Just as today's earth is experiencing an ecological crisis due to warming, it is pointed out that the 17th century was also the era of global ecological crisis.

Q. Due to climate change in Little ice age, East Asia is also expected to have suffered famine. How did the three East Asian countries in the 17th century respond to famine?

 
A. The most interesting part of climate change in Little Ice Age in the 17th century is the global ‘simultaneousness’. For example, there is a record that Hamel and his party, who drifted in Jeju, moved to Hanyang in the winter of 1654, which was very cold and the East Sea was frozen. At the same time, the sea of ​​Zhejiang Province, a subtropical region, was frozen in China, and the Thames River in England was frozen. In East Asia in the 17th century, large and small famines occurred constantly.
In East Asia in the 17th century, large and small famines occurred constantly. Notable famines occurred in the early 1640s, 1670s, and late 1690s. In China in the 1640s, the starvation occurred in the 13th to 15th years of Sungjeong (1640–1642), and the Ming Dynasty was destroyed; and at the same time, the Kanei famine occurred in Japan. In the 1670s, there was Kyungsin great famine(1670~1672) in Joseon, and in Japan, there was Enpô great famine(1674~1677). In the 1690s, millions of people died due to Eulbyung great famine(1695~1699), and in Japan, the Genroku great famine occurred.
The three East Asian countries' response to the simultaneous famine was different. In the 1640s, when famine occurred, the dynasty was replaced, but it was relatively stable in the late 17th century. On the other hand, Joseon suffered much worse famine in the second half than in the first half of the 17th century. Meanwhile, Japan is hit by more severe famine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That's the Tenmei and Tenpo famines (1833–1837).

Q. The 17th century was a period of upheaval in terms of international relations. Ming and Qing are changed, and the Manchu war has occurred twice. If famine had affected the upheaval in East Asia, I wonder how it would have affected it.

A. In the 17th century, mankind experienced the coldest period since civilization began. The famine caused by climate change at Little Ice Age had a profound impact on the upheaval of East Asia in the 17th century. The peasant revolt that led to the destruction of Ming was caused by the continuous drought and famine of the 1620s. The bandits were caused by famine, and famine continued to become a vicious cycle due to the bandits.
The famine, especially in the 13th and 15th years of Sungjeong (1640–1642), was historically unparalleled. It was called 'a serious famine that is very rare'. Everything was record-breaking, from abnormal colds to extreme droughts to swarms of grasshoppers to epidemics. At this time, the famine gave the peasant rebels who had been driven to the brink of extinction a chance to recover, and they drove Ming to destruction in just three years.
On the other hand, Joseon suffered severe famine in the late 17th century. Snow and frost fell in the middle of summer, and nearly a million people died from famine and infectious diseases. In particular, during the Sukjong period, there was no way to solve the famine, so we had to receive 50,000 seok(the unit counting grain in the Joseon Dynasty) rice from the Qing Dynasty.
The request for rice support for the Qing Dynasty occurred in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the destruction of the Ming Dynasty, the Jeongchook-Hwayak signing. This deeply hurt Literati in the Joseon Dynasty, who said, "We must avenge the Qing and redeem our honor," and eventually became a background for the construction of the Daebodan. The famine of the time was deeply related to the formation of the dominant ideology of the late Joseon Dynasty.

Q. You released "A Study on Ichthyological Knowledge of Dong-Ui-Bo-Gam in the Early Modern Japan: Focus on Written Conversation of Tong-Sin-Sa" in 2019. In this paper, I was able to see the results of the study on information and knowledge exchange between the intellectuals of Joseon and Japan, mediated by Joseon Tongsinsa. Was there a special occasion in your recent study that focused on ‘fish’?

A. I think you can wonder a little bit because the person who has been studying the climate change of the Little Ice Age is looking at the recent exchange of knowledge about fish in the three East Asian countries. But it was the fish called herring that connected these two research topics. The most important thing I have focused on studying climate change is the change of nature, which is the background of history. It is because plants and animals are the most sensitive to climate change.
When the climate cools, the crop's northern limit moves south. This is why I studied Citrus reticulata in Gangnam, and I can see that the geese also moved south. "So what changes have happened in the ocean?" In the process of finding the answer to this question, I found herring. Around the 17th century, coldsea fish, herring, appeared in the seas of Joseon, China and Japan, and made people who suffered from frequent bad harvests full.
In the end, this study has made us interested in the exchange of knowledge about fish, the Natural History of Fishes in East Asia. In the future, I plan to study the meaning of animals in East Asian civilization beyond fish. As we know, the viruses we are experiencing today, such as SARS, MERS, COVID-19, are caused by the relationship between humans and animals. In this respect, I think this is part of the environmental history.

Q. When I talk to you, I find that plague and disasters are not related to climate change. And I think that if we neglect the research on the environment, which is the basis of human life, we can miss the important factors that make history move. Please tell the students who will study this field in the future.

A. I have been thinking about the importance of environmental history once again as I experienced the COVID-19 virus. As civilization develops, the relationship between man and nature will become more important. In addition, today, discussions are expanding beyond environmental history to Global History and Anthropocene.
I think that in the process of forming such a big discourse in the future, a calm and solid historical approach will become more urgent. The pleasure I felt while studying history is that it unexpectedly requires a lot of imagination. New perspectives and questions about existing perspectives are a virtue that historians need. So environmental history is a very creative field. I hope more researchers will challenge.