The Royal Hunt in Korea: Koryo-Mongol Interactions in the Late Thirteenth Century

George Kallander, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Syracuse University

This talk situates Korea in the context of Mongol empire by tracing the exchange of people and ideas via the royal hunt under Mongol rule (1219–1360s) and its subsequent impact on elite identity. The royal hunt clashed with acceptable models of Confucian statecraft and identity, scholarly traditions that were reputedly strong under the Koryo and Choson dynasties. Debates over hunting will be discussed through the life of King Chungnyol (r. 1274–1308) and the responses of such Confucian officials as Yi Sunghyu (1224–1300). King Chungnyol challenged Confucian norms in other ways when, based on Northeast Asian uxorilocal marriage practices, he returned to Korea with a Mongol wife and lifestyle. Yi and others pushed back against such “barbaric” practices, in efforts to reify Confucian norms that emphasized Sinic-style bureaucracy and governance.

George Kallander is Assistant Professor of History at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, where he teaches courses on Korea and East Asia. His first book, Salvation through Dissent: Tonghak Heterodoxy and Early Modern Korea (UCLA, Philosophy and Religion Series, UHP, February 2013), explores the Tonghak religion, and includes annotated translations of numerous Tonghak primary sources. His second project, entitled Korea in East Asia and the World (Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming), examines a period of Korean history characterized by new interactions from religious to material exchanges. Dr. Kallander has held fellowships at the Academy of Korean Studies, the Weatherhead East Asian Institute (Columbia University), and a research Fulbright in Seoul, Korea. He earned a Ph.D from Columbia University in 2006 under the guidance of Professor Emeritus Gari Ledyard.