Volta
Person1750 – 1805

Park Je-ga

Northern Learning scholar of secondary-son birth who served as a Gyujanggak editor; his Bukhagui urged learning from Qing and encouraging consumption to spur production

A student of Park Ji-won, he became one of the first Gyujanggak copyists when Jeongjo opened office to sons of concubines in 1779, and travelled to Qing several times. In the Bukhagui he urged the use of carts and ships and trade with Qing, likening wealth to a well that "fills the more you draw from it and dries up if left alone," stressing consumption over thrift.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

2 related events

  1. 1
    1777 – 1851Opening of office to secondary sons and the petitions of the junginrelated figure

    In late Joseon the seoeol (sons of concubines) and the jungin petitioned collectively against discrimination in office. Under Jeongjo the way opened for the seoeol, and in 1851 restrictions on them were largely lifted.

  2. 2
    1778Park Je-ga’s Bukhaguiauthor

    Back from Qing, Park Je-ga wrote Bukhagui urging Korea to learn from Qing, use carts and ships to build up commerce and industry, and stop preaching thrift alone, since consumption spurs production.

People who appear alongside

  • Jeongjo1752 – 1800

    Twenty-second king of Joseon, founder of the Gyujanggak library and builder of Hwaseong Fortress

  • Cheoljong1831 – 1863

    Twenty-fifth king of Joseon, raised on Ganghwa and placed on the throne by the Andong Kim clan; after the 1862 uprisings he set up an office to reform the three taxes

  • Yu Deuk-gong1748 – 1807

    Gyujanggak editor of secondary-son birth whose Balhaego placed Balhae in Korean history and coined the term “Northern and Southern States”

  • Park Ji-won (Yeonam)1737 – 1805

    Silhak scholar who wrote the Yeolha ilgi after travelling to Qing

  • Hong Dae-yong (Damheon)1731 – 1783

    Northern Learning scholar whose Uisan mundap argued that the earth rotates and the universe is infinite, challenging the China-centred worldview

Themes this person appears in

  • Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800

    The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution