This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Kim Jeong-ho | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kim Jeong-ho |
| Birth date | c. 1804 |
| Death date | c. 1866 |
| Birth place | Joseon dynasty |
| Occupation | Cartographer, geographer, civil service |
| Notable works | Daedongyeojido |
Kim Jeong-ho was a nineteenth-century Korean cartographer and geographer best known for compiling the monumental atlas Daedongyeojido. Working in the late Joseon dynasty period, he combined field surveying, historical records, and administrative maps to produce a detailed representation of the Korean Peninsula. His work influenced later Korean cartography, interacted with contemporary Chinese mapping traditions such as those of the Qing dynasty, and attracted scholarly attention from figures associated with Joseon scholars and Korean antiquarians.
Kim was born in the early nineteenth century during the reigns of Sunjo of Joseon and Heonjong of Joseon in Joseon dynasty. His family background is variably recorded in Korean gazetteers and local histories; some accounts link him to Jinju region gentry circles that engaged with silhak-inspired scholarship. He likely had exposure to Confucian classics through seowon academies and to practical matters via contacts with local magistrates and county offices responsible for land surveys and taxation. His intellectual milieu connected him to contemporary scholars influenced by Seo Yu-gu, Jeong Yak-yong, and the broader currents of Silhak movement.
Kim’s principal achievement is the compilation, engraving, and dissemination of regional and national maps culminating in Daedongyeojido. He produced earlier regional maps and city plans for locales such as Hanseong, Busan, Incheon, and Jeju Island, often referencing earlier cartographic sources like Kangnido and Chinese atlases used in Joseon. His activities intersected with administrative projects overseen by Uijeongbu and local hyangyak institutions that maintained land registers. Kim’s prints and editions circulated among yangban elites, merchants in Jangmadang markets, and officials in provincial offices of Gyeongsang Province and Jeolla Province.
Kim spent significant time in the Jinju area, where he compiled local geography, folklore, and topographic detail that informed his national atlas. The Daedongyeojido, completed in the 1860s, is a multi-sheet map covering the Korean Peninsula with unprecedented scale and accuracy for its time; it was engraved on woodblocks and printed for distribution in Joseon dynasty markets and official circles. The atlas reflects place-name conventions seen in sources like Sejong Sillok and Daedongyeojido drew attention from later collectors associated with Korean Empire antiquarianism and scholars in Japan and China during the late nineteenth century. Surviving originals and copies were later studied by historians connected to Dongnip Sinmun-era intellectuals and preserved in archives associated with National Museum of Korea and private collections influenced by Yi dynasty scholarship.
Kim combined field reconnaissance with compilation from documentary sources, employing techniques paralleling contemporary cartographers in Qing dynasty China and Western-influenced surveys encountered via port cities like Incheon and Busan. He recorded elevations, waterways, roads, and administrative boundaries by traveling routes used by postal stations and by consulting land registers and local magistrates’ records. His approach synthesized empirical observation with historical cartography exemplified by maps such as Kangnido and supplemented by measurement practices linked to Joseon-era taxation procedures. Woodblock engraving and sequential sheet layout reflect print technologies shared with Japanese and Chinese map producers active in the nineteenth century.
Kim’s atlas became a benchmark for Korean geographic knowledge and influenced later mapmakers, surveyors, and historians engaged with national territory debates during the transition from Joseon dynasty to the Korean Empire. Daedongyeojido informed cartographic work by Korean modernizers involved in postal, railway, and telegraph planning, and it was referenced in studies by Korean historians and collectors in the 20th century reconstruction of premodern Korean geography. His methods anticipated modern topographic survey practices and provided a cultural touchstone used by institutions such as Korean scientific societies and museums preserving Korean cartographic heritage.
Scholars debate authorship, dating, and the degree of originality in Kim’s maps, with discussions involving comparisons to earlier works like Kangnido and Chinese atlases from the Qing dynasty. Questions persist about the extent of official sanction from Joseon court authorities and whether Kim’s fieldwork involved collaboration with provincial offices in Gyeongsang Province and Jeolla Province. Some researchers link later modifications of the atlas to collectors in Japan and China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, raising debates over provenance and the transmission of Korean cultural property. Historians associated with modern Korean historiography continue to reassess Kim’s place in the development of East Asian cartography and in the shaping of Korean national identity narratives.
Category:Korean cartographers Category:Joseon people