Premodern Korea Humanities Resources

Last updated on March 22, 2026

See also Beyond Harvard: Databases & Libraries Holding Korean Rare Books for key databases frequented by experts and students in the field.

Key Dictionaries and Reference Materials for Reading Primary Documents 

Research Guide for Korean Studies

  • Provided by the Harvard-Yenching Library 

어듸메 Odŭime

  • An experimental search engine that locates Middle Korean and Modern Korean historical documents. 
  • Guide to using the search engine & accounts of the search engine development

Han'guksa imiji charyo 한국사 이미지 자료 (Korean History Image Resources)

  • compiled by Kuksa P'yŏnch'an Wiwŏnhoe 국사편찬위원회 (National Institute of Korean History)

Yŏktae Kuksa kyogwasŏ 역대 국사 교과서 (Textbooks of the Korean National History)

  • compiled by Kuksa P'yŏnch'an Wiwŏnhoe 국사편찬위원회 (National Institute of Korean History)
    • 개화기 및 대한 제국기 - 일제강점기 - 미군정기 및 교수요목기 - 1차 교육과정 - 2차 교육과정 - 3차 교육과정 - 4차 교육과정 - 5차 교육과정 - 6차 교육과정 - 7차 교육과정

Han'guk munhwasa 한국문화사 (A Cultural History of Korea) 

  • compiled by Kuksa P'yŏnch'an Wiwŏnhoe 국사편찬위원회 (National Institute of Korean History)
    • 01 혼인과 연애의 풍속도
    • 02 배움과 가르침의 끝없는 열정
    • 03 거상, 전국 상권을 장악하다
    • 04 근현대 과학 기술과 삶의 변화
    • 05 상장례, 삶과 죽음의 방정식
    • 06 연희, 신명과 축원의 한마당
    • 07 전쟁의 기원에서 상흔까지
    • 08 화폐와 경제 활동의 이중주
    • 09 옷차림과 치장의 변천
    • 10 자연과 정성의 산물, 우리 음식
    • 11 신앙과 사상으로 본 불교 전통의 흐름
    • 12 역사 속 외교 선물과 명품의 세계
    • 13 20세기 여성, 전통과 근대의 교차로에 서다
    • 14 나라를 지켜낸 우리 무기와 무예
    • 15 하늘, 시간, 땅에 대한 전통적 사색
    • 16 장시에서 마트까지 근현대 시장경제의 변천
    • 17 천민 예인의 삶과 예술의 궤적
    • 18 불교 미술, 상징과 영원의 세계
    • 19 그림에게 물은 사대부의 생활과 풍류
    • 20 광고, 시대를 읽다
    • 21 근대와 만난 미술과 도시
    • 22 여행과 관광으로 본 근대
    • 23 다양한 문화로 본 국가와 국왕
    • 24 유교적 사유와 삶의 변천
    • 25 기록과 유물로 본 우리 음악의 역사
    • 26 쌀은 우리에게 무엇이었나
    • 27 농업과 농민, 천하대본의 길
    • 28 고문서에게 물은 조선시대 사람들의 삶
    • 29 조선이 본 일본
    • 30 이방인이 본 우리
    • 31 서구 문화와의 만남
    • 32 한반도의 흙, 도자기로 태어나다
    • 33 삶과 생명의 공간, 집의 문화
    • 34 음악, 삶의 역사와 만나다
    • 35 ‘몸’으로 본 한국여성사
    • 36 한 해, 사계절에 담긴 우리 풍속
    • 37 한국 서예문화의 역사
    • 38 무속, 신과 인간을 잇다
    • 39 삶의 공간과 흔적, 우리의 건축문화
    • 40 사냥으로 본 삶과 문화

Korean History Databases 한국사데이터베이스 

Silloker

  • PI: Hyeok Hweon Kang, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Digital platform that brings together Sillok 實錄, Sŭngjŏngwŏn ilgi 承政院日記, and Pibyŏnsa tŭngnok 備邊司謄錄
  • Description by the developers: "Silloker is a digital platform that opens creative avenues into studying Korea’s Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910). Its title takes after sillok 實錄 (“veritable records”), a compilation of Chosŏn court annals that ran for five centuries, covering topics as varied as diplomacy, economy, religion, quotidian life, and natural phenomena. This is a staggering 49,646,667 characters and 1,894 books, fully digitized. But it is only a sliver of administrative records available in digital form, including also the Records of the Border Defense Council 備邊司謄錄 (Pibyŏnsa tŭngnok) and the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat 承政院日記 (Sŭngjŏngwŏn ilgi).

    Silloker joins these archives in a single platform and offers new tools for exploratory data analysis. It allows users, first, to query across multiple archives effectively and to store and download their search results. It also offers a tool for aggregating and graphing the frequency of search hits throughout the five-centuries long dynasty, generating real-time results in table and graph. For Korean studies and beyond, our platform represents a new model for curating chronicle data: it enhances the capabilities of the traditional search engine platforms but also integrates them with built-in tools for exploratory data analysis."

Glossary of terms for Korean history found in Korean  secondary school-education text books 교과서 용어해설 

  • Compiled by the National Institute of Korean History (Kuksa p'yŏnch'an wiwŏnhoe 국사편찬위원회)

Gateway to Premodern Korean Studies

조선시대 외국어 학습서 DB, supported by the Academy of Korean Studies

Old Books about Korea Online

Timeline of Historical Periods, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, South Asia 

  • Asia for Educators: Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Timeline of "Old Documents" (Komunsŏ)

  • Searchable database of "Old Documents," managed by the Academy of Korean Studies 

Chronological tables of dynasties and rulers of East Asia, including post-Ming-Qing transition chronological table (i.e., 崇禎後/崇禎紀元後)

Jiam Diary: Re-reading the Life of Chosŏn Yangban through Digital Data (The Diary of Chiam, Chiam ilgi 支菴日記)

Jangseogak Summer Hanmun Workshops

  • 장서각 여름 한문 워크샵 (The Academy of Korean Studies)

Notices biographiques sur des personnages de l'histoire pré-moderne coréenne: matériau pédagogique pour le Réseau des études sur la Corée (RESCOR)

  • Biographical notes on historical persons of premodern Korea in French.
  • Created by Isabelle Sancho, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research, History Department (section 33)

Répertoire historique de l'administration coréenne de Maurice Courant 모리스 꾸랑의 "한국 역대 행정-관직 총람" 

The Online Glossary of Japanese Historical Terms

  • Developed by Historiographical Institute at the University of Tokyo
  • Read about the glossary here.

Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies (SSYCDS)

  • Mission as stated on the website: "The mission of the Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies is to create a dynamic resource for university professors, graduate students, and independent scholars interested in the cultures of China from the tenth century and the founding of the Song and Liao dynasties to the end of the Yuan dynasty in the fourteenth century."
  • The "Research References" includes links to 

IDP International Dunguang Programme

NTU (National Taiwan Library) Digital Library of Buddhist Studies

Premodern Korean Historical and Literary Texts in English Translation: A Timeline

  • PI: Si Nae Park, Harvard University

English Translations of Korean Literature: A Searchable Database

  • Project background from the website: Project Background This searchable database of English translations of Korean literature is a project that evolved from the field-defining edited volume The Routledge Companion to Korean Literature (edited by Heekyoung Cho, 729 pages, published in 2022). One of the key initiatives within the volume was the creation of a database of English translations of Korean literature, intended to be paired with scholarly resources for both teaching and research purposes. To briefly introduce the volume, it comprises 35 chapters written by leading scholars in the field and holds particular significance as the most comprehensive collection to date of English-language articles on Korean literature. The primary objective of this volume is to provide thorough, reliable, and enduring reference work not only for research but also for teaching in the fields of Korean literature, cultural studies, and related disciplines. In an effort to provide invaluable resources for researching, teaching, and studying Korean literature, the Companion includes as an appendix an extensive list of English translations of Korean literature, originally compiled by Hyokyoung Yi. Aware of the limitations of static, unsearchable printed data, we have collaborated with various individuals and units to develop an expanded, searchable online database based on the list presented in the Companion. We believe that this database will serve as a vital tool for researchers, educators, students of Korean literature, and the broader public in locating available translations of Korean literary works. We also hope that it will serve as a foundational resource for future research that incorporates translation data into a further insightful analysis of literary and cultural phenomena.

Naver News Library

Databases of Chinese and Japanese Materials (developed in Canada and the US):

Chinese Text Project (ctext.org)

  • "The Chinese Text Project is an online open-access digital library that makes pre-modern Chinese texts available to readers and researchers all around the world. The site attempts to make use of the digital medium to explore new ways of interacting with these texts that are not possible in print. With over thirty thousand titles and more than five billion characters, the Chinese Text Project is also the largest database of pre-modern Chinese texts in existence."

Ming Qing Women's Writings 明淸婦女著作 Digital Archive and Database Project, McGill University (Project Director Professor Grace Fong). 

  • Participating libraries include:
    • Harvard-Yenching Library (2003-2005)
    • Peking University Library (2008-2009)
    • Sun Yat-sen University Library (2011-2015)
    • National Library of China (2012-2018)
    • East China Normal University Library (2012-2018)
    • Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (2018- )
    • Hong Kong Baptist University Library (2018- )

China Biographical Database Project (CBDB)

    • "The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 529,560 individuals as of May 2023, primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries. With both online and offline versions, the data is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. The image below shows the spatial distribution of a cross dynastic subset of 190,000 people in CBDB by basic affiliations (籍貫)."

Databases managed by the National Institute for Japanese Literature

The Library of Chinese Humanities

    • "The Library of Chinese Humanities presents important works in the pre-modern Chinese cultural tradition in accurate and readable English translation, side by side with a good edition of the original. Initially focusing on writings from China’s Middle Period (roughly 1st through 13th centuries CE), the Library includes works of poetry, fiction, philosophy, history, and religion. Titles in the Library of Chinese Humanities will be published in print and Open Access online, providing an invaluable resource to students, scholars, and readers worldwide."

Grand Secretariat Archives (Nei ge da ku dang an 內閣大庫檔案)

  • From the website "The archives of the Grand Secretariat currently housed at the Institute were originally kept at the Grand Secretariat Storehouse in the Ch’ing imperial palace. They were removed from the Storehouse when it underwent renovation in 1909. After the overthrow of the Ch’ing, these archives changed hands several times, and were, at one point, even sold to a paper recycling factory. Eventually, the Institute purchased them from Li Sheng-to, a book collector, in1929 thanks to the efforts of Fu Ssu-nien, the Institute’s first director. There are over four thousand Ming(1368-1644) documents and more than three hundred thousand volumes of Ch’ing(1644-1911) archival materials in this collection, including imperial decrees, edicts, memorials, tribute document, examination questions, examination papers, rosters of successful examination candidates, documents from the offices of the Grand Secretariat, documents from the offices for book compilation, and old documents from Mukden. Memorials make up the bulk these documents.
    The archives contain valuable source materials for institutional, social and economic historians. They record general administrative activities and legal cases, many of which cannot be found in Ch’ing legal compendia."
  • Description from "SearchWorks catalog : Stanford Libraries": "Grand Secretariat Archives is a database that contains documents originally housed in the storerooms of the Grand Secretariat of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). After 1949 these documents were kept at the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica. The entire archive contains about 310,000 items. The collection, dating from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty (1368-1912), encompasses a wide variety of subjects. For full content coverage, see "Grand Secretariat Archives - Inventory and History of Preservation". Also, portions of the archives had been published under title: Ming Qing dang an." 

Perdita Manuscripts

  • Managed by Warwick University
  • Editorial board consists of "academics and scholars have provided advice, feedback and written contributions for Perdita Manuscripts. We are very grateful for their help and support. Dr Elizabeth Clarke (University of Warwick) Dr Jill S. Millman (University of Warwick) Dr Victoria E. Burke (University of Ottawa) Dr Jonathan Gibson (English Subject Centre, Royal Holloway, University of London)"
  • Description from the website: "Discover manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Produced in association with the Perdita Project based at the University of Warwick and Nottingham Trent University, the project seeks to rediscover early modern women authors who were “lost” because their writing exists only in manuscript form." 
  • Search Perdita Manuscripts

Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present

List of papers presented at the Society of Korean Linguistics in Japan 朝鮮語硏究會 조선어연구회 (1983–2004)

Manchu Studies Group

Digital Collections of the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation 

  • These digital libraries from the Hán-Nôm collections of the National Library of Vietnam and Thắng Nghiêm Buddhist Temple (Chùa Thắng Nghiêm 勝 嚴寺) were created by the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation. Our work was funded through grants from the Chino Cienega Foundation (U.S.A.), the International Music and Art Foundation (Liechtenstein), the North Carolina State University Libraries, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State University, and the U.S. Embassy (Hanoi), as well as from donations from individuals worldwide.

Korea and Vietnam before the Twentieth Century: Comparisons and Connections

Granger: Historical Picture Archive, result from the keyword search using "Korea"

Japanese personal and place names, compiled by Kungnip kugŏwŏn

Colonial Korea: Early Modern Architecture in Korea 

  • Description from the website:

    "Colonial Korea explores the question of why the peninsula’s early modern built environment looked the way that it did. It began as a series of travel photo essays documenting remaining architecture from the Japanese occupation — essentially a way for me to make sense of an architectural history that I had little understanding of at the time. Colonial Korea has since taken an academic tone, but those old (sometimes inaccurate) photo essays have been left here as they provide visual information to the public that is not always easy to find.

    "Discussion on Colonial Korea is highly encouraged, and comments are always welcome. If you see an error, questionable content, or a point you’d like to talk about, please feel free to add your thoughts or contact me directly using the contact form.

    "This is a noncommercial website. However, some of its content is copyrighted or owned by myself and not licensed out for reproduction. Please contact me directly if you wish to reproduce images and photographs for purposes outside of the standard rules of Fair Use. If I own the originals, or they are photographs I took myself, I can get you a higher resolution version for commercial purposes."