PARK JI-WON
He studies the operating principles and practical value of unfamiliar institutions and material culture, asking how learning can improve ordinary life under local conditions.
Other names and spellings
연암 박지원 · 박지원 · 연암 · 朴趾源 · Park Ji-won (Yeonam) · Park Jiwon · Pak Chi-wŏn · Pak Chiwon · Yeonam Park Ji-won
Core ideas
Works & sources
Park Ji-won, an editorial paraphrase of the perspective in The Jehol Diary and Northern Learning — not a direct quotation
PARK JI-WON, a first reading
Park Ji-won, pen name Yeonam, was a late Joseon official, writer, and thinker associated with Northern Learning. His travel writing examined Qing material culture and institutions through the practical question of what could improve ordinary life in Joseon.
Northern Learning and practical benefit: what does it mean?
Park's Northern Learning was not a demand to admire Qing culture uncritically or reproduce its visible forms. It examined why carts, roads, construction, trade, and other arrangements worked, then asked whether their principles could make life and production better under Joseon's own conditions. Practical benefit is therefore more than efficiency. It requires judging whose life improves, whether the local setting can support the change, and where the new benefits and costs will fall.
Explore the thinker and concept ↗