Appreciation of the Meteorological Knowledge from "Jeung-Bo-San-Lim-Gyeong-Je"

"Jeung-Bo-San-Lim-Gyeong-Je" (meaning "Revised Forest Management") has been well recognized as the informative document that introduces scientific knowledge and experiences of Korean ancestors regarding weather and climate. The tradition of Gwan-Cheon-Mang-Gi(i.e., empirical forecasting of short-term weather phenomena based on the status of cloud or sky) has been continuously utilized as a civilian weather forecasting method and even for very short-term weather prediction by operational forecasters these days. This agricultural technology textbook, published during the Great King Youngjo in Chosun-Dynasty, may be regarded as a poorly written document from the modern standpoint. Nonetheless, this study demonstrates that by and large the empirical knowledge contained in the book is indeed science based although their applications are limited to several hours for local forecasts in agricultural practices and daily living. For example, the wisdom of keeping water at an optimum level in a paddy field after sowing to prevent young seedlings from late frost damages was not at all different from the present technique of vinyl covered seedling nursery.

증보산림경제의 기상학적 지식에 대한 평가