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Father Kim Dae-geon selected as UNESCO World Monument

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Kim Dae-geon, the first Catholic priest in Korea. To commemorate this, UNESCO selected Kim Dae-geon as the person of 2021. UNESCO is an international organization in education, science and culture. So why did they select Father Kim Dae-geon? UNESCO is announcing the reason for the selection that Kim Dae-geon practiced equality and philanthropy, and that he produced the Joseon Jeondo and informed Joseon to European society.

The Catholic Diocese of Daejeon and Dangjin held various events at the Shrine of Solmoe from August 14 to 22; it is the birthplace of Kim Dae-geon. In particular, during the two days of August 17 and 18, an international academic symposium was held on various topics related to Kim Dae-geon. NAHF co-hosted a session on 「The Joseon Jeondo」 made by Kim Dae-geon with the Naepo Research Institute of Catholic History. I would like to introduce the contents of 「The Joseon Jeondo」 confirmed through symposium and the notation of Dokdo in the map.

The main contents related to 「The Joseon Jeondo」 revealed in the Academic Symposium

In 'Session 4-Map', there were academic presentations on the following topics. 1) ‘The Cartographical Characteristics of 「The Joseon Jeondo」’, 2) Maps made in the style of 「Dong-guk Jido(Compete Map of the Eastern Country)」 by Jung Sang-gi, which is presumed to be modeled after 「The Joseon Jeondo」, 3) 「The Joseon Jeondo」 introduced in French academic circles, 4) The Romanization of the place names used in 「The Joseon Jeondo」. Through this symposium, four facts were revealed.

First, 「The Joseon Jeondo」 consists of a total of five maps including original and copy, and is housed in the French National Library, NARA, etc.This could be classified into two types.

Second, The copy of 「The Joseon Jeondo」 was identified as a 'small map' among the maps of the 「Dong-guk Jido」 described in a similar way to the actual form of the Korean peninsula. The most similar map was 「Paldo Jeondo」 in Yeungnam University Museum.

Third, 「The Joseon Jeondo」 was introduced with copy and content in 『The Journal of Paris Geographical Society』 published in 1855. And it was used to make the 「Joseon Jido(Map of Korea)」 in 『The History of the Catholic Church in Korea』 written by Claude-Charles Dallet in 1874, and 「Joseon Jido」 in 『Dictionnaire coréen-français』 written by Félix-Clair Ridel in 1880.

Finally, transcription was applied to the romanization rule of place names in 「The Joseon Jeondo」. This notation is presumed to have influenced the Romanization of Hangul used in later generations.

「The Joseon Jeondo」 informs the West that Dokdo is the land of Korea.

On 「The Joseon Jeondo」, the territory of Joseon was painted as it was, and the place names were notated as Roman characters. So Westerners were able to easily grasp the scope of the territory of Joseon and the place names of each region. The Romanization of 'Seoul' was first used on this map. The name of 8-do and various districts and prefectures across the country were also notated as Roman characters on this map. And the names of the islands around the Korean peninsula were also marked. On the East Sea, Ulleungdo and Usando were notated as 'Ulleungdo' and 'Ousando' in Roman characters. Ulleungdo and Usando were notated as Roman characters on the East Sea of ​​the map.

「Joseon Wangguk-do(Map of Joseon Kingdom)」(1735) is made by French scholar J. B. B. D'Anville. It is the first map in the Western world to be made in the form of 'individual map' by notating the Korean peninsula and its surrounding islands. This map is the first Western map that Dokdo(Usando) is notated. However, there is a limit to the fact that the place name was notated as Roman characters according to Chinese pronunciation. Meanwhile, in 「Hankuk Jeondo」(1840) made by Philip F. von Siebold, place name is marked as Roman character according to Korean pronunciation. Therefore, 「The Joseon Jeondo」(1845) is meaningful because the form of the Korean peninsula is drawn close to reality, the place name written as Roman according to the Korean pronunciation is used, and the Dokdo(Usando) was first written as the territory of Joseon. In addition, since Usando was notated on 「The Joseon Jeondo」, Usando has appeared on various maps made in the West. Usando is notated in all four copy maps published at the symposium. And the following publications also featured maps of Usando notated: The map in 『The Journal of Paris Geographical Society』(1855), the map in Dallet’s 『The History of the Catholic Church in Korea』(1874) and the map in Ridel’s 『Dictionnaire coréen-franais』(1880).

In honor of Father Kim Dae-geon

Father Kim Dae-geon was arrested in June 1846 and martyred at Saenamteo on September 16, 1846; his age was 26. He dedicated his life to the protection of human values, such as equality and philanthropy. His life has been sympathized with the world, and he gives us a lot of enlightenment. In addition, he left us the 「The Joseon Jeondo」 which depicts the Usando(Dokdo) as the territory of Joseon. I think that the fact that Kim Dae-geon left such a big gift means to protect Dokdo and Korea. In the 200th anniversary of his birth, I am going to finish this article by recalling the great meaning left by Father Kim Dae-geon.