International Workshop of the Project C09 “Evaluations of Knowledge in Confucian Academies”

The evaluation of knowledge in traditional Korea has been predominately associated with the institution of the state examinations. This particular form of top-down knowledge evaluation fascinated European scholars from Voltaire to Jacques Le Goff. The workshop strives to explore areas beyond the scope of the state examinations and analyze various types of knowledge evaluation strategies present in traditional Korea. In this workshop we seek to investigate institutions and practices of knowledge evaluation from the perspective of social, ideological, religious or methodological diversity.

What were the mechanisms of knowledge assessment within the Buddhist community? How was the knowledge of a medical specialist, who did not participate in the state examinations, affirmed? Were there any particular exams within the Koryŏ and Chosŏn navy? Can poetry contests be viewed as a specific form of knowledge evaluation? What were formal and informal control mechanisms in master-disciples relations within artist or handicraft communities? How was the legal and administrative knowledge of local clerks verified?

All these phenomena are linked together through the assumption that every transfer of knowledge is accompanied by sanctioning and evaluating. In spite of the dominant position of the state examinations, it is clear that there were large areas ruled by different sets of examination protocols and strategies. The purpose of this conference is to broaden the understanding of knowledge transfer in premodern Korea, focusing on examination cultures from Koryŏ times till the coming of modernity.