Transactions and the History of Science in Korea: Korean Studies and Research on Korean Nature

Founded in 1900, the Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch (RAS-KB) was the first academic society dedicated to studies of Korea. At that time, Japan’s influence on Korea was growing, and Korea became a Japanese colony in 1910. The missionaries who established and operated the RAS-KB therefore sought to publish diverse research on the Korean peninsula’s nature and the lives of Koreans in the society’s journal, Transactions, rather than addressing sensitive questions about Korea/Korean identity or essence. This approach allowed studies of Korea’s nature and scientific history to be published in Transactions. In fact, the only monograph published by the RAS-KB during the Japanese colonial period was Ju-myeong Seok’s research on Korean butterflies. Although Seok later advocated for the national character of biological research after liberation, he did not formally express such views during the colonial era. The articles published by the RAS-KB in Transactions during the Japanese colonial period were significant as early research in Korean studies. However, after Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the academic value of RAS-KB and Transactions gradually decreased as professional research on Korean history and culture expanded under Korean scholars.