“1908: The Spiritual Origin of the Republic of Korea”
Creatrip Team
23 days ago
Dr. Lee Seon-min, a modern Korean history researcher, has published a revised and expanded version of her 2023 doctoral dissertation titled 1908, the Origin of the Republic of Korea. She argues that 1908—often overlooked after the 1907 collapse of the Korean Empire—marks the spiritual and ideological origin of modern Korea for three reasons: 1) the Sinminhoe (신민회) began organized activities under the leadership of An Chang-ho, advancing the transition to modern political activism; 2) Shin Chae-ho’s serialized essay “A New Reading of History” (독사신론) in the Daehan Maeil Sinbo laid the foundations of historical nationalism; and 3) linguistic nationalist efforts led by Ju Si-gyeong resulted in the founding of the National Language Research Society, a precursor to the Hangul Society (한글학회). Lee contends these intellectual and organizational seeds sprouted into the 1919 March 1st Movement and ultimately the establishment of the modern state in 1948.
