02280cam a2200229 i 4500 26968 BD-DhIUB 20230910115236.0 180510s2019 nyu b 001 0beng 9781438473635 (hardcover : alk. paper) 9781438473642 BD-DhIUB 23 951.902092 L9117k Lovins, Christopher, 1980- author. King Chongjo, an Enlightened Despot in Early Modern Korea / Christopher Lovins. Albany, NY : Suny Press, c2019. 222 p. ; 24 cm Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-208) and index. "Were the countries of Europe the only ones that were "early modern"? Was Asia's early modernity cut short by colonialism? Scholars examining early modern Eurasia have not yet fully explored the relationships between absolute rule and political modernization in the highly contested early modern world. Using a comparative perspective that places Chŏngjo, king of Korea from 1776 to 1800, in context with other Korean kings and with contemporary Chinese and European rulers, Christopher Lovins examines the shifting balance of power in Korea in favor of the crown at the expense of the aristocracy during the early modern period. Lovins is the first in English-language scholarship to analyze the recently discovered collection of 297 private letters written by Chŏngjo himself. These letters were undoubtedly a vital channel of communication outside of official court historians' scrutiny, since private meetings between the king and his ministers were forbidden by custom. Royal politics played out in an arena of subtle communication, with court officials trying to read the king's unstated, elliptically hinted at intentions and the king trying to suggest what he wanted done while maintaining plausible deniability. Through close analysis of both official records and private letters, including Chŏngjo's "secret letters," Lovins shows that, in contrast to previous assumptions, the late eighteenth-century Korean monarchs were not weak and ineffective but instead in the process of building an absolutist polity."--Provided by publisher. Korea Kings and rulers Biography. ddc BK 0 26968 26927