• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.46
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• pp.113-142
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• 2017

The goal of this paper is to analyze the vocabularies and cases related to Kimchi as a cultural history. For this purpose, we extract the vocabularies of Kimchi from the records of Korean Literary Collection in Classical Chinese, Annals of the Choson Dynasty, Records of Daily Reflection, and Diary of the Royal Secretariat. The existing literatures related to Kimchi are confined to some cookbooks, but in this study, we attempt to overcome the existing limitations and adopt a comprehensive and systematic approach. The classic literatures of the Choson Dynasty are mainly recorded in traditional Chinese characters; therefore, the readability is poor, and it is presupposed that a lot of time and effort will be needed for the translation work after securing the data. Therefore, we performed this research with a focus on this part. Next, we tried to reconstruct the archetype of Kimchi culture in the Choson Dynasty by classifying the above materials according to the subject and literature sources.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.112-128
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• 2019

The history of modern Korean 'kimchi' can be traced through the history of the wordforms 'dihi' (디히), 'dimchʌi' (딤?), and 'thimchʌi' (팀?) in ancient Korean texts. As native Korean words, the 'dihi' word line ('dihi', 'dii', 'jihi', and 'ji') constitutes an old substratum. This word line coexisted with the 'dimchʌi' word line (dimchʌi, jimchʌi, and kim∫chi) from the Hanja '沈菜'. 'Ji', which is the last word variation of 'dihi', and is still used today as the unique form in several Korean dialects. In standard Korean, however, it only serves as a suffix to form the derivative names of various kimchi types. 'Dimchʌi' is believed to have appeared around the $6^{th}-7^{th}$ centuries, when Silla began to master Chinese characters. Hence,'dimchʌi' reflects either the Archaic Chinese (上古音) or the Old Chinese (中古音) pronunciation of the Hanja, '沈菜'. With the palatalization of the plosive alveolar [t], 'dimchʌi' changed to 'jimchʌi'. The Yangban intellectuals' rejection of the palatalization of the plosive velar [k] led to the hypercorrection of 'jimchʌi' into 'kimchʌi'. It is precisely the hypercorrect 'kimchʌe' that gave the wordform 'kim∫chi', which has eventually become the standard and predominant form in today's Korean language. Regarding 'thimchʌe', it reflects the Middle Chinese (Yuan Dynasty) pronunciation of the Hanja '沈菜' and was used mainly in writing by Yangban intellectuals.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.265-273
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• 2021

The Chinese Sigyeong records the foods of the Primitive Pickling Period, pickling being a universal vegetable storage method, but does not indicate the origin of the pickled vegetables or the location of the source of transmission. Kimchi mainly used salt and sauce-based soaking materials at the beginning of the Fermented Pickling Period (beginning in the 1st to 3rd centuries A.D.), and it differed from the Chinese method, which used alcohol and vinegar. In the Umami-Flavored Pickling Period (beginning in the 14th and 15th centuries A.D.), jeotgal, fermented seafoods, were added, and pickles with a completely new identity were created, one different from any other pickles in the world. Lastly, entering the Complex Fermentation and Pickling Period (beginning in the 17th and 18th centuries), the technical process evolved using a separate special seasoning containing red pepper as the secondary immersion source after pickling in brine, the primary immersion source. As a result of this, kimchi was transformed into a food with a unique form and taste not found anywhere else. The unique characteristic of kimchi is that the composition of original materials, a combination of salted marine life and vegetable ingredients, is its core identity, and there is a methodological difference in that it is completed through a second process called saesaengchae (生菜)-chimchae (沈菜).