• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.76-87
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• 2015

The present study examines the Saekgyeong (Classic of Husbandry; 1676), an agricultural manual dating from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), and the agricultural thought of its author by Park Se-dang (pen name: Seogye; 1629-1703), a scholar. Its purpose lies in exploring the value of contemporary urban agriculture based on an examination of the attitudes toward agriculture, the values pursued through agriculture, and the ways of dealing with and using land as evinced by the classic and its author. Confirmed through an examination of Park's agricultural philosophy and the Saekgyeong, the results of the present study are as follow. First, there is the socioeconomic value of pursuing the stability of and promoting the economic independence of indigent petty peasants through productivity improvement. Second, there is the experiential value of exploration through experience and agricultural field practice for study. Third, there is the environmental value of endeavoring to overcome an infertile natural environment through agricultural methods that sought to accommodate the land by reading the flow and phenomena of nature. Fourth, there is the practical value of compiling the Saekgyeong and seeking to broaden its use as a guidebook containing agricultural methods appropriate to the land and the wisdom for life.8) When examined in terms of contemporary urban agriculture, the significance of the four values above is as follows: the socioeconomic effect of encouraging urban agricultural activities as a means of welfare for socially alienated classes and promoting the creation of jobs; the enhancement of the significance of study through hands-on activities from an educational perspective; the recycling and recovery of resources and the enhancement of environmental consciousness for the recovery of urban ecology; and a practical spirit that seeks to contribute directly to society through academic research that contributes to practical life and approaches familiar to the populace. The present study sought to find the value of urban agriculture, under discussion in diverse ways in recent years, in the thoughts of our ancestors, who pondered on agriculture. Despite differences in the periodic background, the significance of the present study lies in its in-depth reexamination of the fundamental significance of diverse agricultural values that are being pursued today.