부산대학교 도서관

This article tries to re-illuminate the changes in the mentalité on Korean tigers in the 19th century from the perspective of Korean tiger, Chosun people and the Westerners. Korean tigers lost their top predators’ status in the Korean peninsula in late 18th century because of the tiger hunting policy by Chosun. In early 17th century, Yoo Mong-in had already called this risk as ‘human disarrangement’ comparing to ‘tiger disarrangement.’ In the 19th century, their habitat was limited to lowland along the coasts, islands, royal tombs or royal game preserve, and wolves became the strong aversion replacing Korean tigers. The arrival of the Westerners in the 19th century generalized the crooked image of the Korean Tiger Hunter. Originally, the Tiger Hunting Korean Army was a military organization that Chosun Dynasty established to protect people from disasters, and it was the core force that defeated the invasion of various western countries in the middle of the 19th century. However, the westerners misunderstood them as simple ‘Tiger Hunters’ or ‘Mountain Hunters’ and thought them separated from the government of Chosun. In the 19th century around the port opening, Korean tiger mentalité that Koreans had made and developed for a long time was changed dramatically. The Korean Tiger which used to symbolize the power of the King was changed into the image to explain the ordinary lives of the people. Even in the ruling class, the image of the strong force that the tiger was expanded to the imperial nations and westerns including Japanese that came to Korea also wanted to exclusively possess the traditional mentalit of Korean tigers. The interest in Korean Tiger until the 19thcentury became the ground to develop it into new phases at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.