Koreans: 한민족/한국인/한국사람, 韓民族/韓國人/韓國사람, Han minjok/ethnic, Hanguk in (Han nation people), Hanguksaram,: 조선민족/조선인/조선사람, 朝鮮民族/朝鮮人/朝鮮사람, Joseon minjok/ethnic, Joseon in (people)/Joseonsaram, lit. ’Korean race‘; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic
group native to Korea and southern Manchuria. Koreans are considered the fifteenth-largest ethnic group in the world. Koreans refer to themselves as Hanguk-in (Korean: 한국인, Hanja: 韓國人) or Hanguk-saram (Korean: 한국 사람), both of which mean “people of the (Sam)han state.”
Modern Koreans are suggested to be the descendants of the ancient people from Manchuria who settled in the northern Korean Peninsula. Archaeological evidence suggests that proto-Koreans were migrants from Manchuria during the Bronze Age. They have links with the Japanese people. According to most linguists and archaeologists with expertise in ancient Korea, the linguistic homeland of proto-Korean and of the early Koreans is located somewhere in Manchuria, particularly the Liao river.
Korea’s indigenous clothing, hanbok, has maintained its basic components throughout Korea’s 5,000-year history, while its styles and forms have evolved in various ways based on the lifestyle, social conditions, and aesthetic taste of the times. The Jeju people or Jejuans (제주사름, Jeju-sareum) are a subgroup of the Koreans who live on Jeju Island, South Korea.
Korean and Cherokee cultures both have histories marred by invasion and occupation, and the development of an alphabet was used to confront oppressive colonization and safeguard cultural identity. These scripts provided an element of unity for individuals and acted as a means of record keeping. Until 1443, Koreans used complex Chinese characters to write because of their proximity of the Chinese Empire, but the differences between the Chinese and Korean languages meant that this system did not adequately cover the needs of the Korean people. Ancestral rites (cherye) are performed to honour them on death anniversaries and on major holidays. Two of the most important holidays are Sŏllal (Lunar New Year) and Chusŏk (harvest moon festival, often referred to as the Korean Thanksgiving), both observed according to the lunar calendar.
Traditional Korean music is typically classified into several types: the “legitimate music” (called jeongak or jeongga) enjoyed by the royalty and aristocracy of Joseon; folk music including pansori, sanjo, and japga; jeongjae (court music and dance) performed for the King at celebratory state events; music and dance connected with shamanic and Buddhist traditions such as salpuri, seungmu, and beompae; and poetic songs beloved of the literati elite such as gagok and sijo.
Hanbok was the everyday dress of Koreans for thousands of years before the opening of the country to the West. Western dress has supplanted the hanbok almost everywhere, but even urban dwellers commonly still wear it on special occasions such as important family meetings, holidays, weddings, and funerals.
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“I dedicate this page to all my Korean friends“
KOREAN LITERATURE
CHARACTER OF KOREAN LITERATURE
– Altaic links to Koreans
– Beauty of Korea
– Bibliography
– Koreans
– Korean Art
– Korean Festivals
– Korean Language
– Korean Music
– Korean Paintings
– Korean Poetry
– Korean Proverbs
– Korean Dance
– Korean Race
– History of Korea
– Indigenous Peoples of Korea
– Links
– Literature
– Martial Arts (Taekwondo)
– Medicine
– National Anthem
– Pictures
– Youtube Videos
Other Links
WHAT IS KOREAN LITERATURE?
Although the oldest known writings – written language – date back only 5,000 years at best, we can ‘read’ our history by studying fossils, our DNA, geological data, cosmological data, our language, and so on, and from these records, we can determine the origin, or rather the prehistoric history, of the , the baik-yi-min-jok – the ‘White-clad People’ (called “Dong-yi” — the eastern barbarians, 동이족 東夷族” and also 예맥족 濊貊族 by the Chinese historians). Recent genetic analysis on Koreans with eight ethnics (Koreans in China, Japanese, Han Chinese, Mongolians, Zhuangs, Malays, Javanese, and Soviet Asians) suggested that Koreans have the common origin to central Asians, and Mongolians.
The character ‘Yi’, as shown above, was originally meant for barbarians in the east, but later expanded to be more an inclusive word to mean aliens. The big Korean school of thought, touched on in prehistory section, claimed that the Koreans were true descendants of the Dongyi [Dong-yi] people.
Hence, the identities of Koreans had changed dramatically during the course of history. As one reader speculated, “modern-day Koreans” might very well have “appropriated their (Dongyi) history and myths”. Charcoal remains of 2000-year-old rice in western Japan pointed to China’s Yantze Delta as the origin. DNA studies conducted on human remains excavated in Shandong Peninsula suggested southern and northern points of origin for Jormon and Yayoi Japanese. On basis of various historical records and modern technology analysis, I would speculate that early Korean culture was very much connected with eastern China as a result of nascent human migration from south to north and ii) that Tungusic invasions from Manchuria gradually overtook the early Continental traits. In both cases, Tungusic or continental, Koreans shared inseparable relations with the Chinese.
CHARACTER OF KOREAN LITERATURE
Korean literature is usually divided chronologically into a classical and a modern period. But the basis for such a division is still being questioned. Great reforms swept Korea after the mid-19th century as its society actively absorbed Western things.
Korea’s classical literature developed against the backdrop of traditional folk beliefs of the Korean people; it was also influenced by Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Among these, Buddhist influence held the greatest sway, followed by enormous influences from Confucianism – especially Song Confucianism – during the Choson period.
Korea is one of the rare countries maintaining a single ethnic group by expelling all foreign invasions through history. They developed unique culture that has never been disconnected in 5000 years. The oldest domesticated rice in the world was found in Korea. This rice grains are 15,000 years. The oldest rice grain in the earth, BC13000, which is three thousand years older than the oldest one found in China. This discovery is important because it disproves the hypothesis that Chinese who cultivated rice migrated to Korean peninsular.
“Power lasts ten years; influence not more than a hundred. The deeper the waters are, the more still they run. One can build a mountain by collecting specks of dust.”
Yongbi eocheonga (hangul: 용비어천가, hanja: 龍 飛 御 天 歌) literally means “Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven”. It was compiled during the reign of Sejong the Great as an official recognition of the Joseon dynasty and its ancestral heritage as the forerunners of Joseon, the Golden Age of Korea. The Songs were composed through the efforts of a committee of Confucian philologists and literati in the form of 125 cantos.
This compilation was the first piece of Korean text to depart from a long history reliant on Chinese characters and be recorded in Hangul, the first and official alphabet of Korea. There are several underlying themes in addition to the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty which are of significant importance to understanding the events that provoked the creation of these poems: linear events that took place in China, the apotheosis of virtuous Kings proceeding the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty, and Confucian political and philosophical ideologies of the era in rejection to Buddhism. Each of the poems included in the work convey deep-seated feelings of nationalism and a proud proclamation of cultural independence from the Mongol empire.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
