한국정치에 대한 역사적 접근과 사료: 전통의 계승

Abstract

The Historical approach is a basic method in history and social sciences. This approach depends on a chronological description and narrative method. A chronological composition of history encovrages us tell the simple facts, or truth. It is important for historians to discern a hard evidence in many historical sources. What are the most valuable materials in Korean political history? The Annals of the Choson Dynasty and the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat[Seungjeongwon Ilgi] are both essential for researching the political history of the Choson Dynasty. These two materials have been registered in the World Documentary Heritage by UNESCO. In the pre-modern age, Koreans had the tradition to preserve the historical documents their of Kings. during the Japanese colonial period, Korea's tradition disappeared. The government of the Republic of Korea is so eager to reinvent the traditional archival system of King, that the presidential library will become public in the near future. The declassified Korean Government document will then become indispensable sources of Korean political history.