Primary Sources with Document-based Questions | Asia for Educators

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PRIMARY SOURCES

LESSON PLANS

Primary Sources with DBQs

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CHINA

JAPAN

KOREA

VIETNAM & SE ASIA

4000-1000 BCE | 1000 BCE-300 CE
... | 600-1000 | 1000-1450 | 1450-1750
1750-1919 | 1900-1950 | 1950-2000

4000-1000 BCE

Origin Myths

• Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]

1000 BCE-300 CE

Origin Myths

• Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]

600-1000

Then Ten Injunctions of King T'aejo

• The Ten Injunctions of Wang Kôn (King T'aejo) [PDF]

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Social Stratification: The "Bone Rank" System

• Sôl Kyedu [PDF]

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Hyangga: Oral Poetry of the Silla

• "Song for a Dead Sister," by Wôlmyông [PDF]

• "Song for the Peace of the People" (Anmin'ga), by Ch'ungdam [PDF]

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1000-1450

Han'gul, the Korean Script

• Chông Inji's Postscript to the Hunmin Chôngûm (Correct Sounds to Instruct the People), 1446 [PDF]

• Ch'oe Malli's Opposition to the Korean Alphabet [PDF]

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Neo-Confucianist Hostility Toward Buddhism

• Pak Ch'o, Anti-Buddhist Memorial [PDF]

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Early Chosôn Land Reforms

• Chông Tojôn, On Land [PDF]

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Social Stratification: Inherited Slave Status

• "Inheritance of Slave Status" [PDF]

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1450-1750

Inherited Status (Slavery); Genealogy

• Excerpts from the Pangye surok: Yu Hyôngwôn on Abolishing Slavery [PDF]

• Excerpts from Preface to the Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn, by Sô Kôjông [PDF]

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Neo-Confucian Reforms; Women

• Excerpts from the Sejong sillok: Reform of Funerary Practices, 1437 [PDF]

• Excerpts from the Sôngjong sillok: Prohibition Against Remarriage of Women, 1447 [PDF]

• Excerpts from Instructions to My Daughter, by Song Siyôl [PDF]

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1750-1919

Japanese Rule (1910-1945)

• "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori [PDF]

• Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919) [PDF]

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Late Chosôn Reformist Thought

Chông Yagyong, 1762-1836
• Excerpts from the Yôyudan chônsô: Chông Yagyong on the Roots of Royal Authority

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Reactions to Contact with the West, 1800s

Yi Hangno, 1792-1868
• Excerpts from the Hwasô sônsaeng mujip: Yi Hangno on "Sinifying the Western Barbarians"

Ch'oe Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
• The Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve Reforms Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]

The Independent (Tongnip sinmun), 1896-1899
• Editorial on "Nation and Civilization": A Periodical for the Korean People
• Editorial on "Nation and Civilization": Seoul's Water Supply

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Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)

Ch'oe Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
• The Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve Reforms Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]

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1900-1950

Japanese Rule (1910-1945)

• "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori [PDF]

• Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919) [PDF]

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Formation of the Korean Communist Party

• Manifesto of the Korean Communist Party in Shanghai (1921) [PDF]

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Stories about the Colonial Experience

• Oral Histories of the Colonial Era [PDF]

• Oral Histories of the "Comfort Women" [PDF]

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1950-2000

South Korea's Postwar Development

Pak Chônghûi, 1917-1979
• Selections from To Build a Nation (1971) [PDF]

Kim Chiha, b. 1941
• "Five Bandits" (1970) [PDF]

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The Ideology of Kim Ilsông (1912-1994) and North Korea

• "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" (Speech, 1955) [PDF]

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Security on the Korean Peninsula

• Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1994) [PDF]

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