Writings, 1950-1994

The writings document Wagner’s professional and academic contributions to the study of Korean history, particularly the Chosŏn period (1393-1894), from 1950 to 1994, and include manuscript drafts, articles for encyclopedias, conference papers, speeches, and book reviews. Wagner’s writings on the historical aspects of the Yi Dynasty include The Problem of Reform in the Yi Dynasty: Some Background Considerations (undated) and On the Phenomenon of the Political Purge in the Early Yi Dynasty (1959). Discussions of Wagner’s Munkwa project, a computerized resource for the analysis of traditional Korean political-social elite society during the Yi Dynasty, can be found in A Modern Computer Approach to Genealogical Research for East Asia (1969) and A Computer Study of Yi Dynasty Civil Examination Rosters (1970). Similarly, the origins and development of chapkwa examinations and chungin lineages are detailed in An Inquiry into the Origin, Development, and Fate of Chapkwa-Chungin Lineages (1983) and The Emergence of the Chapkwa-Chungin Lineages (1987). Publications Wagner wrote in the early 1960s to promote Korean studies in the United States include those written for the American Council of Learned Societies, Korean History Syllabus, Project 45, an account of Korean history during the Koryŏ and Yi periods (918-1910), and Korean Bibliographies, a data book presenting basic information on selected Yi Dynasty and early twentieth-century Korean figures; as well as articles on Korea for the Collier Encyclopedia Yearbook, Encyclopedia Americana, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Wagner’s translations of Korean language writings also appear in this series, including A Problem in the Origins of Discrimination against Sŏja, an article that examines problems related to illegitimate sons in Chosŏn Korea, by Korean historian Yi Sang-Baek; and Selections from the Kuk-sa Tae-Kwan (A General History of Korea) by I Pyŏng-To, which was a college term paper Wagner wrote for his Korean 111 course at Harvard in 1953.

Correspondence filed in this series chronicles Wagner’s translation of A New History of Korea (1984) and his co-authorship of a general history of Korea, Korea Old and New: A History (1990); contains Wagner’s evaluations of the writings of other Korean scholars in the United States; and includes comments on Wagner’s study of the literati purges during the middle Chosŏn period in Korea, The Literati Purges: Political Conflict in Early Yi Korea (1974).