Royal Asiatic Society Korea

RAS Korea - CULTURAL EXCURSION

THEME:
'Exploring Jeongneung Royal Tomb, Heungcheonsa Temple and Donam Market'

LEADER: Jun Y.G. Shin

DATE: Saturday, November 7, 2026, 1:00-5:00PM

DESTINATION: Jeongneungcheon Stream, Arirang Hill, Jeongneung Royal Tomb, Heungcheonsa Temple, and Donam Market

COST: W25,000 for RAS Korea Members; W30,000 for Non-members
MEETING POINT: Exit 1, Bukhansan Bogungmun Station (북한산보국문역, Ui–Sinseol Line)

This excursion will explore the history of Jeongneung Royal Tomb and places associated with it such as Heungcheonsa Temple and Jeongneungcheon Stream, as well as the nearby Arirang Hill and Donam Market, where we will learn about the origins of bindaetteok, the mung bean pancakes often enjoyed by Koreans on rainy days.
Our first stop is Jeongneungcheon Stream, named after the nearby royal tomb. Like Cheonggyecheon before its restoration, the stream offers an opportunity to compare sections preserved as natural waterways with those covered by roads and to discuss the development of the area since the colonial period.

We will then discuss the history of nearby Arirang Hill, originally known as Jeongneung Pass. Pioneering Korean filmmaker Na Woon-gyu filmed parts of his landmark movie Arirang – named after Korea’s best-known folk song – here in 1926, and the film’s nationwide success helped give the hill its present name.

Next, we will explore Jeongneung, the royal tomb of Queen Sindeok, second wife of Joseon’s founder, King Taejo. Originally located in central Seoul, the tomb was moved to its present site following the bitter conflict between Queen Sindeok and her stepson, Yi Bang-won, later King Taejong. The tomb bears witness to one of the most tragic episodes in early Joseon history.

Nearby Heungcheonsa Temple was established as a royal memorial temple and traditionally maintained the tomb. Its distinctive architecture includes Geungnakbojeon Hall, dedicated to Amitabha Buddha, and a rare late-Joseon chanting hall. The temple also houses an unusual 42-armed Avalokitesvara statue dating to the late Goryeo period, along with Twelve Zodiac Guardian Statues.

Our final destination is Donam Market, where traces of North Korean refugees who settled here after the Korean War remain visible in shop names and food traditions. We will discover businesses named after places in Hwanghae Province and sample its regional specialties such as bindaetteok and gangajitteok. Those who wish to can stay after the walk concludes for a meal at one of the restaurants (cost not included).
This walking excursion will set off at 1:00 pm from Exit 1 of Bukhansan Bogungmun Station (북한산보국문역, Ui–Sinseol Line). The excursion will last until about 5:00 pm and end near Sungshin Women’s University Station (성신여대입구역, Subway Line 4). There will be around 4 km of walking, so please wear comfortable footwear. The excursion will proceed as scheduled even if it rains – just put on your rain gear and bring your umbrella!

Jun Y. G. SHIN is a life member of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea and serves on its council.

RSVP by November 5 (Thursday) with payment of the fee via bank transfer. Please register one RSVP at a time.

LECTURE TITLE:
'The Man with “the Sinister Eye”:
Karl Gützlaff, Korea, China, and Misreading the Stone '

SPEAKER: Ronald Gray

DATE: Wednesday. November 11, 2026. 7:20PM (Seoul)

VENUE: Fifth floor (Conference Room) of FAST FIVE Tower
(Namdaemun-ro 9-gil 24, Jung-gu, Seoul), a short walk from Exit 1 of Euljiro-1-ga Station (을지로입구역, Metro Line 2)

SUMMARY:
East Asia has historically attracted eccentric, malcontented, miscreant, and amoral Western expatriates, confidence men, and adventurers, and the nineteenth century was probably their golden age. This talk concerns one of the most notorious: the German Lutheran minister Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (1803–1851). A man of protean interests, in addition to being an ardent Protestant evangelist gifted in languages, he served as an interpreter for opium smugglers, the East India Company, and the British government during the First Opium War. He was also a swashbuckling adventurer, a magistrate and Chinese Secretary to the Governor of Hong Kong, a prolific writer on Christianity and Asian culture (which, ironically, influenced Karl Marx), a master of public relations, a contributor to a Chinese translation of the Bible, and even a British spy.

Yet Gützlaff was also an extremely controversial figure who died in disgrace. Although capable of great charm and respected for his linguistic abilities, he was widely disliked, considered arrogant and duplicitous, and regarded with deep suspicion by many contemporaries, so much so that the noted British Sinologist and translator Arthur Waley famously described him as “a cross between parson and pirate, charlatan and genius, philanthropist and crook.” The novelist Timothy Mo, in his celebrated novel An Insular Possession, about the foundation of Hong Kong and the Opium Wars, portrayed Gützlaff as “a controversial figure – ‘that sinister eye’ – regarded by many as a hypocrite, if not a murderer,” and the historian Julia Lovell has dryly remarked that he was “fluent in both self-deception and China’s southeastern dialects.”

This lecture will discuss Gützlaff’s colorful and contentious experiences as a missionary and interpreter in China during the First Opium War, including his close association with opium smugglers and participation in the negotiations resulting in the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the war; his landmark 1832 visit to Korea, where he stayed for a month and developed an interest in the Korean language; and his prodigious writings, particularly those concerning Korean, as well as his authorship in 1832 of the first interpretative essay in English on China’s greatest novel, Dream of the Red Chamber (Honglou meng), in which he fundamentally misread the work. The talk will conclude by addressing whether Gützlaff deserves the negative reputation he has acquired.

BIO:
Ronald Gray has taught at universities in Japan, Korea, China, and, most recently, the United States. He has written seven books, including several on Dream of the Red Chamber. He lives in Gongju, South Korea.

ADMISSION (Online & In-person):
Free for RAS Korea Lifetime and Annual Members;
W10,000 for Non-members;
W5,000 for Non-member students (Student ID requested)
If you would like to attend online Zoom,

CULTURAL EXCURSION
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THEME:
'The Heights Beyond the City Wall: Jagged quarries, Hillside Villages, & Tales of a Deposed Queen'

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LEADER: Matt VanVolkenburg

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DATE: Saturday. November 14, 2026. 2:00PM to 5:00PM

DESTINATION: Changsin-dong, Sungin-dong, Samseon-dong, and Seoul Fortress

COST: W25,000 for RAS Korea lifetime and annual members; W30,000 for Non-members

MEETING POINT: Exit 4 of Changsin Station (창신역, Subway Line 6) at 2:00PM
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DESCRIPTION:

Climb the city wall north of Dongdaemun and look east, and you’ll notice steep granite cliffs rising above the decades-old roofs, and should you make your way further east, you’ll discover even starker cliffs. These are the remains of quarries established during the Japanese colonial period, which supplied stone for buildings such as the Bank of Korea and Seoul Station. Today, the hills above them offer views of several neighborhoods, as well as traces of Joseon-era history in unexpected places.

Starting from Changsin Station, we’ll pass by one of the old quarry faces and seek out a tunnel at Beopwangsa Temple that was likely excavated during the Pacific War. After climbing the adjacent hill into Sungin-dong’s neighborhood park, we’ll take in the panoramic views on offer and explore sites associated with Queen Jeongsun, who was deposed alongside her teenage husband, King Danjong, in 1457. His tragic fate was brought to the screen earlier this year in The King’s Warden, which became the second-best-selling film in Korean history. While Danjong died at a young age in exile, the former Queen Jeongsun lived for decades in the hills around Sungin-dong. We’ll visit a small exhibition space dedicated to her life in the park, as well as Cheongnyongsa, the temple where she took refuge after her husband had been exiled.

After a short uphill bus ride, we’ll pause at a hilltop café with rooftop views before taking a short walk to the Seoul City Wall and then descending into the narrow alleys of Jangsu Village on the northern side of the ridge. Upon reaching the bottom of the valley, we’ll visit Samgunbu Chongmudang, a government building dating to 1868 that served as the headquarters of the late-Joseon military command before being relocated here in 1930.

We’ll then continue through narrow alleys, cross the uncovered Seongbuk Stream, and visit one of the area’s last remaining blocks of traditional hanok houses, some of which have stood for around 90 years. As we end the walk, we’ll consider the relationship between the houses’ age and their proximity to the stream, and how these factors shaped a number of nearby neighborhoods in Seoul.