Why the Daedong Yeojido Became a Target of Ridicule

If you look at it without any background knowledge, you've probably seen those comparison photos

that make you feel dizzy by highlighting the gap in technology between the East and the West.

But if you look into the details, you'll realize that the two have absolutely no correlation

and that it's just malicious agitation.

First of all, the background of how the Daedong Yeojido was created

is largely misunderstood by the general public.

From the most famous urban legends—like Kim Jeong-ho dying in prison or the Daewongun ordering it to be burned—

most people now know that these are baseless nonsense.

(In the first place, the Daewongun came to power after the map was already made...)

Yet, the idea that Kim Jeong-ho created it by personally trekking across the country,

or the theory that he decided to make one because Joseon lacked a proper map,

are still spread around today as if they were historical facts.

The person mentioned above is Shin Heon (a military official who served as Minister of Military Affairs and Minister of Works),

who was the one who actually commissioned the work from the private geographer Kim Jeong-ho.

That's right.

To begin with, the Daedong Yeojido wasn't some "invention created by a private geographer

who lamented the lack of maps in Joseon,"

but was part of an administrative project executed under state leadership from the start.

And it wasn't done in some primitive way like, "Go trek the land by yourself and bring back a map,"

but rather by granting him access to existing maps and materials

stored in state facilities like the Bibyonsa (Border Defense Council) or Kyujanggak (Royal Library) to compile them all...

Aside from some additional field surveys for data supplementation,

it's unlikely he actually traveled the entire country.

Kim Jeong-ho's status was essentially that of a private contractor commissioned for the job,

so he wasn't a figure who warranted much attention in the first place.

Consequently, nothing much is known about his life other than the creation of the map.

The conclusion is that this isn't a case of "invention vs. invention."

If it's not an invention, why compare it to a subway system??

In other words, the propaganda claiming that Joseon had no maps before this

and that this one man created it—

regardless of how many people actually fell for it—

shows a very strong intention from those who wanted to deceive people.

If Kim Jeong-ho had truly been persecuted as the rumors suggest,

Shin Heon, who had signed treaties with Japan and risen to the rank of high minister,

would have been executed immediately, and the preface he wrote

for Kim Jeong-ho's work would never have survived to this day.

Unless the image of the state of Joseon had completely hit rock bottom,

this kind of nonsense wouldn't have worked...

But this raises a question:

How did the Daedong Yeojido—which was essentially just a compilation of data for administrative reorganization—

become so famous that it suddenly gets compared to the London Underground

and ends up being humiliated to this day as material for "anti-Korea" fabricated propaganda?

The culprit is the nationalist historian (and pro-Japanese collaborator) Choe Nam-seon.

He is the one who spread all the various myths

about the Daedong Yeojido that are still widespread today.

Because this man wrote fictionalized accounts, packaging the map

as if it were some kind of Rosetta Stone or Poneglyph,

this whole mess happened.

Of course, it is true that it's a heritage with immense research value even today,

but it's not some "ancient secret scroll" that was painstakingly completed

while traveling the eight provinces three times, losing an eye,

and being imprisoned by the Daewongun.

Because the image was distorted,

today, the Daedong Yeojido is frequently

matched up against the subway—the pinnacle of human technology at the time—

and suffers a pitiful defeat.

Since the Daewongun was quite interested in military reform,

even if their timelines had overlapped, he would have likely supported Kim Jeong-ho;

the possibility that he suppressed him is low.

Source: https://aagag.com/issue/?idx=1631879