Daedongyeojido: Kim Jeong-ho's Great Map of Korea

Full transcript

Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul. Before Google Maps, before GPS, there was this. The Daedongyeojido, a giant map of the whole Korean peninsula, made by a man named Kim Jeong-ho in 1861.

How giant? If you put all the pieces together, it's almost seven meters tall. That's taller than a two-story building. But here's the genius part. Kim Jeong-ho didn't make one huge sheet. He split the country into twenty-two folding books. Each book folds like an accordion. So a traveler could carry just the part they needed. Basically, it's the first portable map app.

He also used symbols, like a legend on a modern map: marks for towns, roads, mountain fortresses, and post stations. And the roads have little dots every ten li, about four kilometers, so you could calculate distance. Smart, right?

Now let me bust a famous myth. Many people heard that Kim Jeong-ho walked all over Korea and climbed Mount Baekdu eight times, and then the government threw him in jail for making a secret map. Dramatic story! But historians say there's no real evidence for it. The story spread in the twentieth century. In reality, Kim Jeong-ho carefully studied and combined many older maps, and improved them. Less adventure, more research. But honestly, that's still impressive.

And he carved the map into woodblocks, so many copies could be printed. The museum even keeps some of those original wooden printing blocks.

Yul's tip! Look for the map and the woodblocks in the Joseon section. Try to find your favorite city, like Seoul, which was then called Hanyang. Then find where you are today. It's a fun little time-travel game.