It's funny how I have always been able to recognise the South Korean flag, but I never truly noticed that the black lines in all four corners were slightly different from each other. But now that you've explained it to me, I'll never unsee it. Just goes to show that you can recognise and "know" something without TRULY "knowing" it.
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 I didn’t realize it’s the flag of England and the flag of Scotland and Saint Patrick’s Saltire superimposed upon eachother until …until too recently. But, I went to public school and the USA honestly doesn’t teach enough about nations that aren’t called “the United States of America.”
No kidding that was the first thing I thought of too! Pepsi already bought Soviet naval ships, wouldn’t be a stretch to see them buy the Korean Peninsula lol.
Hello Hilbert. All very logical. I first saw the flag on TV for the Seoul Olympics and thought it looked both interesting and impressive, which you would want in a national flag.
Korean flags are really interesting, its also interesting to note how the Russian flag has also changed so much through history. But predominantly, the most known Russian flag is the Soviet flag which is a bit ironic.
@@seneei I mean, honestly the Soviet flag probably is the most "iconic" flag associated with Russia. I don't you have to be a commie to say that. Personally, I like the Romanov flag. I think the black/yellow/white is really cool and unique.
Good video! One thing, as far as I’ve had it explained for me by Korean friends of mine who have studied eastern and western philosophy in university, the symbol does not represent “positive and negative” or “good and evil” so much as a sort of “night and day”. There’s no implication of moral good or bad to either, but that instead it’s just different. I could be wrong, I haven’t studied it myself, but that’s how it’s been explained to me by people who know what they are talking about
I was kind of curious if there was any significance or reason to why they changed the design of the Taegeuk between the earlier flag and the post occupation flag to be less "spirally".
Maybe originally they didn't want to look too similar to yinyang. But later they realized it wasn't similar enough. Like idiots kept asking "but what is that?"
Maybe it has to do with printing and dyeing, it's probably really difficult to get the right shapes and even harder to standardize the correct "angle(for my lack of a better word)" of the spiral.
Just a small point about the pronunciation of Choseon. The "eo" is a letter combination adopted about twenty years ago by the Korean government to represent the sound of a "u" as in "umbrella". So, the "eo" in Choseon is pronounced the same as it is in "luncheon" or "truncheon", not as it is in "neon" where it is in fact to separate letters , "e" and "o".
@@xinyiquan666 Do you have an english letters combination for that "ancient sound of Chinese"? I have no idea what your Chinese character is or means or sounds like. lol
@@nirbija it is similar to cho sen , korea does never had its own lanuagges, it used Chinese as writing system from day one, even today, they have to write names in chinese on their ID cards, idt
If there is "EO" in Korean that does not mean 2 vowels one being e and one being o. "EO" is a transliteration of one of 2 "o"s that the Korean language uses. It is very similar to the English sound of "awe". The other "o" is just written as "O" and it doesn't really exist in English I think but it's a bit like the o in the English word "so" but not quite. In German both EO and O exist.
The first one [like the English o in of] is ㅓ The second one [like the English o in over] is ㅗ The problem for English speakers learning Korean is that in many cases there are several vowels or consonants that are not differentiated in English making hearing and producing them somewhat difficult to learn. Moreover, Korean vowels and consonants are seldom written alone, but have to be assembled in a cluster such as these three 태극기 Tae-guk-ki .
Bro, use the IPA. Cos the pronunciations of "awe" is different from dialects. British English pronounce it as a long and rounded o /ɔː/, while Americans tend to pronounce it as short unrounded o /ɑ/.
@CommunistBot That's after the split into North and South. And because communists backed by Soviets co-opted the northern committees and started infiltrating the southern ones.
@CommunistBot The US worked hard to defeat the Japanese empire. A protectorate over Japanese-occupied Korea was only fair. Same as the Soviet dominion over Eastern Europe. Yet the Soviets who did almost nothing in the Pacific got half of Korea. This is called a concession.
@CommunistBot Eastern Europeans deserved independence too but that also didn't happen. From occupied to neo-occupied. But that's just war really, it's never fair for those caught in the in-between.
I wish Japan didn't started the Imjin war. That way, the Jurchens would not have build up power to over throw the Ming dynasty. The Koreans kept the Jurchens as their part of the country until 1400's when the Jurchens were to change their mind and give tributes to Ming China. If the Japanese didn't started the war. Joseon and Ming would've suppressed the Jurchens. Focusing on the grind 💪🏾 for their country. Not westernized
@@edwardsnowden8821 they’re only different in ideology and government, but ethnically they are still Korean, the people of the same nation just like West and East Germany.
I did not expect an interesting video on the Korean flag by a non-Korean on the web. My gratitudes. However, I feel obliged to play the devil's advocate as the Korean online and make some nitpicks here: First is the extent of Ma Jianzhong's influence on the creation of the flag. The initial design of Ma was one resembling the Qing flag of the time, with a red dragon on a white background with blue clouds, which the Korean monarch furiously refused (May 22nd 1882 - April 6th on the lunar calendar). Then comes the record of a repartee between Ma and the Joseon PM Kim Hong-jip, which 'could' be interpreted as Ma coming up with a second design that gave fruit to the one in use today. The debut of the design resembling the current one is in May 22nd, 1882 (unofficially in the 14th) in the treaty signed with the United States, and the repartee above is recorded on April 11th of the same year. So it makes sense to believe that Ma has brought up a second design which the Koreans adopted and debuted in a month... right? Maybe, but also maybe not. Let me elaborate. The (possible) confusion arises due to the differences in date between the Lunar (Chinese) calendar and the contemporary calendar. Prior to 1896 - 14 years from the flag's debut, the lunar calendar was in use in Korea just like in much of sinosphere until then (Japan, Vietnam, etc and ofc China). And the recorded date of the repartee (April 11th) in contemporary calendar translates into May 27th, days after the signing of the treaty and hence the design's debut. Furthermore, the precise process in the creation of the Korean flag's design exists within the diary of Park Yung-ho (then mayor of Seoul and later PM). While the draft designs no longer exist, the King's initial design is said to've consisted solely of Red (symbolising the monarch), Blue (symbolising the ministers) and White background (symbolising the common populace). Then PM Kim objected on the grounds of the flag being too similar to the Japanese one, henceforth adding the bagua symbolising the 8 historic provinces. For the historians subscribing to this side of the story, Ma's conversation with Kim on the new flag is considered mere afterthought. It was perhaps Ma approving Korea's adoption of a new flag on behalf of the Qing government, as a suzerain nation would do, or Ma saving his face by fabricating some element of Qing influence on Korea's new flag after his initial design was vehemently rejected. Interpretation of the Korean flag's origin could go either way, but the current take seems rather misleadingly oversimplified as "Chinese diplomat made a flag and the Koreans loved it" sort. Second is on the 'People's Republic of Korea' being 'communist' part. While the PRK was undoubtedly a left-leaning endeavor, it's inception was by a (debatably) non-communist socialist with attempts to create a unity government of both left and right. It's left-leaning agenda was due to the fact that the government was hastily created under worries of Soviet march into Seoul, and hence was created in absence of key right-wing leaders (of the Provisional Government), leaving it to the mostly left-leaning pro-independence groups at home. Probably could've just settled with the term 'socialist' or 'left-leaning' for this, since 'communist' is quite a narrow term to brand a country.
Why did the symbols for Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon change positions? Some variations were shown but not discussed. As an example, in the thumbnail, from the older version to the newer version the position of the Sun and Moon symbols were swapped.
Well..Koreans took so much from Chinese empires, modified for the sake of trying to separate themselves from Chinese influence and boom it's theirs! But I can somewhat understand as they were once stuck in between Japan and China, very fragile country
Actually before the Korean republic fully emerged there wasn't a set rule for drawing Taegeukgi! As long as it included the taegeuk (or a variant) and the four bagua(we call it palgue팔괘) or even eight bagua in any position it was all considered a Taeguekgi. Fun fact, all korean students participate on a taegeukgi drawing contest every year on significant holidays related to the country's independence. I think it's good way to learn all the parts of the korean flag.
People love to talk about the symbolism of flag colors. But the real reason so many flags are red, white, and blue is that red and blue are the cheapest dyes. And if you are starting with fabric that has been bleached white, leaving parts white is even cheaper.
@@golem7492 Yeah I was just going to say this. Very few things on earth are naturally blue, most of which are metals or stones which must be mined and refined, then mixed with other things, in order to make dye. One thing I'm surprised about is how few flags incorporate black and green, the actual cheapest dyes to produce as they could be produced even by a single Neolithic man using the same plant, either the leaves of a tree, or the burnt ashes of wood.
The Korean flag designed by Lee Eung Jun was already used in US-Korea treaty before Ma the chinese guy proposed it to the emperor of korea. Furthermore. Ma did not propose the Taeguk or other elements but suggested to make a variation of the qing flag. It seems like you got the source from the false claims of the chinese
Korean Empire was founded in 1897 by king 'Gojong' of Joseon dynasty to strengthen Korea's deplomatical position until getting merge to Japanese empire in 1910. During 1392 to 1897 is Joseon dynasty
By coincidence, Like the Taegeuk pattern, North Korea had more land on the left and South Korea had more land on the right, based on the 38th parallel. 😅
Imitating the Chinese Tai Chi Eight Trigrams diagram, the middle is the Yin Yang Eight Trigrams fish, symbolizing the positive and negative, and the three horizontal lines are "Qian", indicating heaven and yang. On the other hand, it is Kun, with the symbol "San Duan Heng" indicating the earth. In the innate Eight Trigrams, Qian and Kun are placed above and below the Tai Chi diagram, respectively. However, the Korean national flag has been significantly simplified,
i love how the 2 guys korea asked for a flag basically went with no effort at all or maximum effort and thought put into the flag. kinda a yin-yang sorta deal.
the korean flag is basically a lofty way for royals or governments to communicate that they hold up the heavens, the earth, the moon, the sun and the harmony of forces over the white korean garment
I must ask as to when that quote regarding on the meaning of the DPRK flag is from. It contains some very nationalistic rhetoric which makes me suspect it might be from after the Korean War and that it is not the original meaning of the flag.
North Korea used the same flag as South Korea until the Korean War. there is a photo of Kim Il Sung making speach under a large Korean Flag hanging in the background.
@@davidjacobs8558 The current flag was adopted in the later half of 1948 (although it was slightly changed in 1992) which was two years before the Korean War started.
Oh damn… I just realize something…… Those lines on the Korean Flag is divination… from the Book of Changes / Classic of Changes. Perhaps it comes from a different one… but damn seeing this thumbnail litearlly right after I just saw about the that Book of Classic really got me spooked. _Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (⚋) and yang is solid (⚊). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷)._ damn… so they're connected.
@@hyun-87 Sounds to me you got an issue that you're eager to prove a point and you're so emotional that you wanted to make unrelated things to be about what you wanna talk about to prove a point
Taoism entered Korea before the Confucianism more than 2000 years ago but never really adopted officially by various Korean states, the main religion was basically local folk shamanism but when Buddhism entered Korea, the all of Korean kingdoms adopted Buddhism as official state religion and this became more systematically adopted and late Silla to Goryeo periods were the golden age for Buddhism in Korea. It was the state religion, however Neo-Confucianism was favored by the scholars of Goryeo and this led to official adoption by the late Goryeo after Buddhism became corrupted and discourage, when Joseon took over from late Goryeo, Neo-Confucianism became the state religion and code of everything from way of life to laws.
Philippines has many interesting flags not even including the kingdoms that once ruled. One of them being the KKK flag. Would be nice to do a video on that.
@@miahconnell23 The Philippines has lots of words and abbreviation that sound weird in English. Such as KKK, MILF, Ambasing, nega, Masbate, etc. There was even a country in the islands during 1898 named the Republic of Negros.
Also important thing to note about the KKK flag here is that, its not an acronym of the Ku Klux Klan and it has nothing to do with that group. Its actually written in tagalog as Kataas-taasang, kagalang-galang, katipunan which basically means "Most high, Well Respected, The Gathered ones" (katipunan) The KKK in the phililpines were basically an army that fought against the Spaniards
with all due respect , Taegeukgi flag was already used in the Korean - American Treaty, which was signed before the Ma Jianzhong's Proposal, so the claim that Ma Jianzhong proposed the design of the flag and was involved in its creation is not correct. This is either a malicious distortion that capitalizes on the confusion between the lunar and solar calendars, or a foolish Error that fails to take into account the difference in dates between the lunar and solar calendars.
How to read romanized Korean words: ae - between the “a” in “cat” and “e” in “bed” eo - between the “o” in “not” and “o” in “nor” eu - between the “e” in “kitten” and “u” in “put”
The People's Republic of Korea was not Communist and neither was its centrist leader Lyuh Woon-hyung. It is true that Lyuh was able to secure the cooperation of many communists, but the People's Republic of Korea united the entire political spectrum, and was rejected by both the Soviet Union and the US who installed their own governments in Korea rather than let Koreans rule themselves.
there were very few educated people in Korea, due to Japanese occupation, and Koreans were not able to establish their own government without help from superpowers. World is not an ideal place, and you have to manuever the whims of Superpowers around you, whether you like it or not.
@@davidjacobs8558 This is not about whether the Koreans could have ruled themselves without the help of superpowers. They didn't have much choice in the matter. However, the occupying superpowers explicitly rejected the leadership of the People's Republic of Korea which had popular support. The Soviet Union jailed and executed the respected leader of the Pyongyang People's Committee. By spurning the opportunity to work with homegrown political leadership that had popular support, the superpowers helped create the conditions for the dictatorships that arose when the Koreas eventually were allowed to form their own governments.
@@challalla Lyuh did not have popular support. Japanese suppressed all aspect of Korean life. Most Koreans didn't know what was going on in the world or in Korea. Most Koreans didn't know who Lyuh was. Most Koreans didn't know who Kim Il Sung was. Many Koreans heard of Rhee Seung Man, because he was around for long time, even before Japanese become extremely oppressive, due to the War going badly. and he was prefered by Americans.
you are funny, "centrist" -though you are right, not specifically communist, just its own flavor of dictatorship ("democratic" in the name being of course hilarious)
i now realice that my faucet has a 90º flipped taegeuk. Its interesting how red and blue represents similar concepts in radically different contexts (red=more heat=positive, blue=less heat=negative)
As a native Korean (welp South Korean ofc) this is pretty accurate! One of the things I want to point out is that although the “People’s Republic of Korea” is in fact leftist or somewhat socialist, it wasn’t communist, and had little to do with Soviet Union. Other than that it’s pretty accurate! I actually don’t know why the flag design has been slightly altered throughout time, and I hoped to learn it from this video but I don’t think I could learn it haha. The yin-yang or Taeguk symbol represents harmony between positive and negative, yes. The key difference between the west and the east on viewing time is that whereas the west has seen time/history as a linear/progressive thing, for example dialectics in Marxist ideology, the east has seen it as circulative thing, such as the Sun rising everyday, the day being the positive and the night being the negative. The Moon in this case was viewed as an antithesis to the Sun and other examples include: Men and Women which were viewed as positive and negative respectively. As far as I know, this yin-yang relationship is also found similarly in the Middle East or Near East region (Levant or Syria) which had this dichotomous philosophy, and it influenced Christianity, creating Devil as opposed to God, and Hell as opposed to Heaven, whereas the original Christianity only had God and Heaven but not Devil nor Hell.
Yeah, Westerners typically discuss the 6-2-5 War in terms of the USA succeeding in keeping communists out of the ROK, but they don't discuss how the USA approved of the ROK murdering local leftist protesters who just wanted social democracy.
as a Cantonese speaker, when you mentioned the name of North Korean flag at 1 minute there, i immediately catch the meaning of it, cos the pronunciation is just like Cantonese 🤣🤣🤣🤣
0:31 They reversed the directions of the top left and bottom right i-ching trigrams, inverting the positions of 'water' and 'fire'... or I suppose 'moon' and 'sun', in this case.
태극은 은하 소용돌이에 지문도 비슷한 사람들이 있다 손가락 지문도 정확히 음양모양 똑같은 형태가 많소 (프랙탈 구조로 어디에나 찾을수 있다 그냥 물이 구멍으로 흘러가도 비슷해 보임 ) 적도선이 지나는 곳 에서는 신기하게 서로 다른방향으로 회전하는걸 눈으로 본다 바꿔도 좋지만 힘든작업이라면 그냥 원래 대로 태극 음양을 좌우대칭으로 돌리는게 더 좋아 보인다
Great video as always. However, I hope your regard for native-like pronunciation like what I have watched from other videos be sustained consistently. Vowels in Romanized Korean also use digraphs to represent a single sound. Meanwhile, the Korean Empire was declared only at the last couple years of the 19th century when the penultimate native Korean monarch Gojong of the Yi Dynasty (i.e., the Joseon Dynasty; Joseon was also a name of Korea) proclaimed himself emperor (even with the incoming threat of the Japanese empire). This should have be noted due importance since, at least nominally, the Korean state viewed itself as a vassal of Qing China, which was also an empire.
yes, in Chinese view of the world, whoever rule the Central Plain (ie, China) rules the whole earth. And everyone else are vassals to Chinese Emperor. ie, there can only be 1 Empire, and 1 Emperor. And only Chinese Emperor has the direct access to the Heaven. Also, what this means is that anybody (ie, foreigners, non Han Chinese) can be the Emperor of China, if he has the mandate of Heaven.
It's not a proper way to describe the Joseon-Qing relationship. Joseon was an independent kingdom and also a tributary state of the Chinese empire. Originally, the mainland Chinese empire was Ming. When Qing conquered and replaced Ming, Joseon denied serving Qing as the mainland Chinese empire. They eventually waged the war, so Qing imposed Joseon to be the tributary state of them. Joseon was forced to accept it, but even after the war, they didn't think of themselves as a vassel of Qing.
@@aaaa-xv8fi Hence the word nominal. The people of Joseon had so long been considering themselves independent, and in reality they really were independent. Indeed, when they count their years, they count from the first year of reign of the last Ming emperor.
I am Korean and I've learnt so much from this video and all the Korean history experts in the comment section. 😂😂😂 You can never boast your knowlege in Korea because there's always an expert nearby.
When I was first Teaching in S. Korea, in 1972, I saw an old shrine with the black and white Taeguk on the door. In addition I occasionally saw pictures that had three rather than two components, a yellow shape was added to the similar blue and red shapes. I saw both a curly version like the Imperial flag, and a version more like the present one on the flag. A version NOT used on the flag has two "eyes," the one within the blue shape being red and the one within the red shape being blue. The symbolism here being that each form or status has within it the seed of the other. I thought that somewhat similar to a Marks & Engels notion. Thanks for another very interesting video, and for the trip down memory lane.
3 Taeguk is very commonly used in Korea in traditional decorations. they mean Heaven, Earth and Men (Humanity). frequently painted on double hung doors on traditonal buildings.
It is not from confucias or daoism and ying yang is not the origin it is from shaivism from india. You can find the transformation is detail abt this symbol, especially in south indian temples.
i wish korean peninsula will be unified and no more communism on the north geez people are starving and suffer in malnutrition aside from the families closer to Kim Jong Un
Bagua map comes from a divination book in ancient China 3,000 years ago. It is used to predict the future. It has different meanings according to different combinations. The book is called I-Ching, and it consists of three parts, one of which has been lost.
3:00 The Tai Chi diagram in your picture is wrong. The Tai Chi diagram shows that there is yang within yin, and yin within yang.It means that you can’t just look at the surface of everything. Positives and negatives are always intertwined.In fact, according to Chinese divination theory, the Korean flag is very unlucky.Just like a person, only the body, no limbs. In other words, there are only up, down, left and right, not southeast, northwest.It also means that North Korea and South Korea can never be integrated and will always be divided.
Lee Eungjun used the first Korean Taegeukgi on May 22, 1882. Korean history regards he is the inventor of the Korean flag. Meanwhile, Ma Jianzhong's mention about Taegeuk was made on May 27, 1882. So he didn't exactly invent the Korean flag. He just helped to develop it. Some comments are saying that the Joseon dynasty was a vassel state of China(Qing). But it's not a proper way to describe the Joseon-Qing relationship. Joseon was an independent kingdom and also a tributary state of the Chinese empire. Originally, the mainland Chinese empire was Ming. When Qing conquered and replaced Ming, Joseon denied serving Qing as the mainland Chinese empire. They eventually waged the war, so Qing imposed Joseon to be the tributary state of them. Joseon was forced to accept it, but even after the war, they didn't think of themselves as a vassel of Qing.
It's funny how I have always been able to recognise the South Korean flag, but I never truly noticed that the black lines in all four corners were slightly different from each other. But now that you've explained it to me, I'll never unsee it. Just goes to show that you can recognise and "know" something without TRULY "knowing" it.
so is UK's union jack. its not simetric.
I found it on accident, I was drawing flags, realized the lines weren’t all the same
@@DanksterPawsme too.
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 I didn’t realize it’s the flag of England and the flag of Scotland and Saint Patrick’s Saltire superimposed upon eachother until …until too recently. But, I went to public school and the USA honestly doesn’t teach enough about nations that aren’t called “the United States of America.”
it's a Daoist thing, from the I-Ching
I'm getting a thirst for a Pepsi for some reason.
Product placement going crazy now a days
Yummy
Don't drink it
No kidding that was the first thing I thought of too! Pepsi already bought Soviet naval ships, wouldn’t be a stretch to see them buy the Korean Peninsula lol.
Drink it
Hello Hilbert. All very logical.
I first saw the flag on TV for the Seoul Olympics and thought it looked both interesting and impressive, which you would want in a national flag.
People kept asking why was it the pepsi logo.
Korean flags are really interesting, its also interesting to note how the Russian flag has also changed so much through history. But predominantly, the most known Russian flag is the Soviet flag which is a bit ironic.
The current Russian flag is essentially the the Civil Ensign flag of the Russian Empire, which dates from 1796.
Holy commie-cope
@@seneei I mean, honestly the Soviet flag probably is the most "iconic" flag associated with Russia. I don't you have to be a commie to say that. Personally, I like the Romanov flag. I think the black/yellow/white is really cool and unique.
your avatar suggests you like the
communist red star
Good video! One thing, as far as I’ve had it explained for me by Korean friends of mine who have studied eastern and western philosophy in university, the symbol does not represent “positive and negative” or “good and evil” so much as a sort of “night and day”. There’s no implication of moral good or bad to either, but that instead it’s just different.
I could be wrong, I haven’t studied it myself, but that’s how it’s been explained to me by people who know what they are talking about
I’m not reading all that
The terms Positive and Negative here in Taoism don't signify "good" and "bad" think more the Positive and Negative terminals on a battery.
@@AGamerthatregretsalot lmao that isn't that much
@@AGamerthatregretsalot you can use the internet to search up words if you dont know them
@@AGamerthatregretsalot braindead yt users when the comment doesn't have a subway surfers clip underneath
I was kind of curious if there was any significance or reason to why they changed the design of the Taegeuk between the earlier flag and the post occupation flag to be less "spirally".
Maybe originally they didn't want to look too similar to yinyang.
But later they realized it wasn't similar enough.
Like idiots kept asking "but what is that?"
I like the spiral taegeuk better honestly
Maybe it has to do with printing and dyeing, it's probably really difficult to get the right shapes and even harder to standardize the correct "angle(for my lack of a better word)" of the spiral.
I told old Korea to change their flag. (real)
That's says a lot about Korean society.
Just a small point about the pronunciation of Choseon. The "eo" is a letter combination adopted about twenty years ago by the Korean government to represent the sound of a "u" as in "umbrella". So, the "eo" in Choseon is pronounced the same as it is in "luncheon" or "truncheon", not as it is in "neon" where it is in fact to separate letters , "e" and "o".
As another tip for anyone interested, eu is pronounced like the oo in book.
@@capncake8837 A prime example of this is how people want to Romanize 김 정 은 as Kim Jung Un and not as it is pronounced: Gim Jeong Eun.
what ever it is, its ancient sound of chinese, because that word choseon is chinese word 朝鲜
@@xinyiquan666
Do you have an english letters combination for that "ancient sound of Chinese"?
I have no idea what your Chinese character is or means or sounds like. lol
@@nirbija it is similar to cho sen , korea does never had its own lanuagges, it used Chinese as writing system from day one, even today, they have to write names in chinese on their ID cards, idt
If there is "EO" in Korean that does not mean 2 vowels one being e and one being o. "EO" is a transliteration of one of 2 "o"s that the Korean language uses. It is very similar to the English sound of "awe". The other "o" is just written as "O" and it doesn't really exist in English I think but it's a bit like the o in the English word "so" but not quite. In German both EO and O exist.
The first one [like the English o in of] is ㅓ The second one [like the English o in over] is ㅗ The problem for English speakers learning Korean is that in many cases there are several vowels or consonants that are not differentiated in English making hearing and producing them somewhat difficult to learn. Moreover, Korean vowels and consonants are seldom written alone, but have to be assembled in a cluster such as these three 태극기 Tae-guk-ki .
use the IPA dude
yes, Korean language has many vowels that European languages don't use.
then again, Korean language also lack some sounds that European languages use.
Bro, use the IPA. Cos the pronunciations of "awe" is different from dialects. British English pronounce it as a long and rounded o /ɔː/, while Americans tend to pronounce it as short unrounded o /ɑ/.
@@gtc239 not too many people know what IPA even is.
6:31 People's Republic of Korea wasn't communist. It was anti-imperialist and sought popular land reforms, but that didn't stem from Marxist ideology.
@CommunistBot Probably. Didn't last long enough for that to be certain.
@CommunistBot That's after the split into North and South. And because communists backed by Soviets co-opted the northern committees and started infiltrating the southern ones.
@CommunistBot,Nah. The soviet also did not accept korean rule
@CommunistBot The US worked hard to defeat the Japanese empire. A protectorate over Japanese-occupied Korea was only fair. Same as the Soviet dominion over Eastern Europe. Yet the Soviets who did almost nothing in the Pacific got half of Korea. This is called a concession.
@CommunistBot Eastern Europeans deserved independence too but that also didn't happen. From occupied to neo-occupied. But that's just war really, it's never fair for those caught in the in-between.
9:18 the fact that a channel with over 400K subs is OK with including errors is somehow refreshing to me. I subscribed!
I really wish Korea wasn’t divided into two after it had gain independence from Japan following the end of WW2.
I wish Japan didn't started the Imjin war. That way, the Jurchens would not have build up power to over throw the Ming dynasty. The Koreans kept the Jurchens as their part of the country until 1400's when the Jurchens were to change their mind and give tributes to Ming China. If the Japanese didn't started the war. Joseon and Ming would've suppressed the Jurchens. Focusing on the grind 💪🏾 for their country. Not westernized
@@JohnDoe-mx6xhwell put
That would be a very different Korea
the two Korea's have absolutely nothing in common Today. they are for all interests and purposes two different things
@@edwardsnowden8821 they’re only different in ideology and government, but ethnically they are still Korean, the people of the same nation just like West and East Germany.
Always wondered what was the back story of that flag due to its uniqueness. Thanks for the explanation.
I did not expect an interesting video on the Korean flag by a non-Korean on the web. My gratitudes.
However, I feel obliged to play the devil's advocate as the Korean online and make some nitpicks here:
First is the extent of Ma Jianzhong's influence on the creation of the flag.
The initial design of Ma was one resembling the Qing flag of the time, with a red dragon on a white background with blue clouds, which the Korean monarch furiously refused (May 22nd 1882 - April 6th on the lunar calendar). Then comes the record of a repartee between Ma and the Joseon PM Kim Hong-jip, which 'could' be interpreted as Ma coming up with a second design that gave fruit to the one in use today. The debut of the design resembling the current one is in May 22nd, 1882 (unofficially in the 14th) in the treaty signed with the United States, and the repartee above is recorded on April 11th of the same year. So it makes sense to believe that Ma has brought up a second design which the Koreans adopted and debuted in a month... right?
Maybe, but also maybe not. Let me elaborate.
The (possible) confusion arises due to the differences in date between the Lunar (Chinese) calendar and the contemporary calendar. Prior to 1896 - 14 years from the flag's debut, the lunar calendar was in use in Korea just like in much of sinosphere until then (Japan, Vietnam, etc and ofc China). And the recorded date of the repartee (April 11th) in contemporary calendar translates into May 27th, days after the signing of the treaty and hence the design's debut. Furthermore, the precise process in the creation of the Korean flag's design exists within the diary of Park Yung-ho (then mayor of Seoul and later PM). While the draft designs no longer exist, the King's initial design is said to've consisted solely of Red (symbolising the monarch), Blue (symbolising the ministers) and White background (symbolising the common populace). Then PM Kim objected on the grounds of the flag being too similar to the Japanese one, henceforth adding the bagua symbolising the 8 historic provinces. For the historians subscribing to this side of the story, Ma's conversation with Kim on the new flag is considered mere afterthought. It was perhaps Ma approving Korea's adoption of a new flag on behalf of the Qing government, as a suzerain nation would do, or Ma saving his face by fabricating some element of Qing influence on Korea's new flag after his initial design was vehemently rejected.
Interpretation of the Korean flag's origin could go either way, but the current take seems rather misleadingly oversimplified as "Chinese diplomat made a flag and the Koreans loved it" sort.
Second is on the 'People's Republic of Korea' being 'communist' part. While the PRK was undoubtedly a left-leaning endeavor, it's inception was by a (debatably) non-communist socialist with attempts to create a unity government of both left and right. It's left-leaning agenda was due to the fact that the government was hastily created under worries of Soviet march into Seoul, and hence was created in absence of key right-wing leaders (of the Provisional Government), leaving it to the mostly left-leaning pro-independence groups at home. Probably could've just settled with the term 'socialist' or 'left-leaning' for this, since 'communist' is quite a narrow term to brand a country.
North Korea is communist
this needs to be pinned 🙏
Why did the symbols for Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon change positions? Some variations were shown but not discussed. As an example, in the thumbnail, from the older version to the newer version the position of the Sun and Moon symbols were swapped.
It's a very negative statement putting the sun under water (it's water, not the moon).
Well..Koreans took so much from Chinese empires, modified for the sake of trying to separate themselves from Chinese influence and boom it's theirs!
But I can somewhat understand as they were once stuck in between Japan and China, very fragile country
Actually before the Korean republic fully emerged there wasn't a set rule for drawing Taegeukgi! As long as it included the taegeuk (or a variant) and the four bagua(we call it palgue팔괘) or even eight bagua in any position it was all considered a Taeguekgi.
Fun fact, all korean students participate on a taegeukgi drawing contest every year on significant holidays related to the country's independence. I think it's good way to learn all the parts of the korean flag.
@@jasons4045 ok chinese nationalist calm down there, china had a major influence on all of asia, not just Korea
@@jasons4045 yes. back when china USED to be great.
I always thought Pepsi was from Korea
People love to talk about the symbolism of flag colors. But the real reason so many flags are red, white, and blue is that red and blue are the cheapest dyes. And if you are starting with fabric that has been bleached white, leaving parts white is even cheaper.
Blue was certainly not a cheap dye until it could be produced synthetically.
@@golem7492 Yeah I was just going to say this. Very few things on earth are naturally blue, most of which are metals or stones which must be mined and refined, then mixed with other things, in order to make dye. One thing I'm surprised about is how few flags incorporate black and green, the actual cheapest dyes to produce as they could be produced even by a single Neolithic man using the same plant, either the leaves of a tree, or the burnt ashes of wood.
@@golem7492 yeah I thought it was called "royal" blue for a reason
The Korean flag designed by Lee Eung Jun was already used in US-Korea treaty before Ma the chinese guy proposed it to the emperor of korea. Furthermore. Ma did not propose the Taeguk or other elements but suggested to make a variation of the qing flag. It seems like you got the source from the false claims of the chinese
Tai Chi Bagua has eight hexagrams，korean flag 4 hexagrams shows symbol in Chinese means “conflicts"
Korean Empire was founded in 1897 by king 'Gojong' of Joseon dynasty to strengthen Korea's deplomatical position until getting merge to Japanese empire in 1910. During 1392 to 1897 is Joseon dynasty
I have allways considered South Korea's flag the most beautiful in the world.Greetings from México.
Thank you, I love its simplicity as well!
I love the Mexican Flag and its Aztec lore, too!
You can go and Google " 八卦图 " and you will know that the Korean flag is broken
太极八卦图
@害羞的龙宝宝 so true???
I always thought it was interesting how the taegeuk looked like the north/south border
By coincidence, Like the Taegeuk pattern, North Korea had more land on the left and South Korea had more land on the right, based on the 38th parallel. 😅
As a Korean I’m impressed by the massive research you done.
Imitating the Chinese Tai Chi Eight Trigrams diagram, the middle is the Yin Yang Eight Trigrams fish, symbolizing the positive and negative, and the three horizontal lines are "Qian", indicating heaven and yang. On the other hand, it is Kun, with the symbol "San Duan Heng" indicating the earth. In the innate Eight Trigrams, Qian and Kun are placed above and below the Tai Chi diagram, respectively. However, the Korean national flag has been significantly simplified,
Honestly, the lighter shade of blue seems more fitting to me. I just like that one better.
i love how the 2 guys korea asked for a flag basically went with no effort at all or maximum effort and thought put into the flag.
kinda a yin-yang sorta deal.
The first guy procrastinated until the last second and during the presentation had to think of something.
the korean flag is basically a lofty way for royals or governments to communicate that they hold up the heavens, the earth, the moon, the sun and the harmony of forces over the white korean garment
South Vietnam also had a Bagua-based flag, though they only put a single Trigram on it.
*That similiar from North Vietnam & Ottoman Empire Flag & Republic Of Türkiye Flag.*
There is only one other country that uses the Fengshui on their flag
I must ask as to when that quote regarding on the meaning of the DPRK flag is from. It contains some very nationalistic rhetoric which makes me suspect it might be from after the Korean War and that it is not the original meaning of the flag.
North Korea used the same flag as South Korea until the Korean War.
there is a photo of Kim Il Sung making speach under a large Korean Flag hanging in the background.
@@davidjacobs8558 The current flag was adopted in the later half of 1948 (although it was slightly changed in 1992) which was two years before the Korean War started.
Oh damn… I just realize something…… Those lines on the Korean Flag is divination… from the Book of Changes / Classic of Changes.
Perhaps it comes from a different one… but damn seeing this thumbnail litearlly right after I just saw about the that Book of Classic really got me spooked.
_Yin and yang are represented by broken and solid lines: yin is broken (⚋) and yang is solid (⚊). Different constructions of three yin and yang lines lead to eight trigrams (八卦) namely, Qian (乾, ☰), Dui (兌, ☱), Li (離, ☲), Zhen (震, ☳), Xun (巽, ☴), Kan (坎, ☵), Gen (艮, ☶), and Kun (坤, ☷)._
damn… so they're connected.
Hm I wasn't aware it was different. Thanks :)
It’s a cool looking flag … not too cluttered and full of meaning.
Yeah that’s from Bagua 八卦
@@Noirthodox 그렇긴 한데, 지금의 중국이 그때의 중국과 같다고 생각하니? 중국의 퇴보 했지.
@@hyun-87 Did my original comment imply the statement in your question at all?
Why you forcefully steered what I said to what you wanna talk about
@@hyun-87 Sounds to me you got an issue that you're eager to prove a point and you're so emotional that you wanted to make unrelated things to be about what you wanna talk about to prove a point
@@Noirthodox 文化大革命 | Cultural Revolution
4:26 The two intermediate trigrams are Water and Fire.
Taoism entered Korea before the Confucianism more than 2000 years ago but never really adopted officially by various Korean states, the main religion was basically local folk shamanism but when Buddhism entered Korea, the all of Korean kingdoms adopted Buddhism as official state religion and this became more systematically adopted and late Silla to Goryeo periods were the golden age for Buddhism in Korea. It was the state religion, however Neo-Confucianism was favored by the scholars of Goryeo and this led to official adoption by the late Goryeo after Buddhism became corrupted and discourage, when Joseon took over from late Goryeo, Neo-Confucianism became the state religion and code of everything from way of life to laws.
Philippines has many interesting flags not even including the kingdoms that once ruled. One of them being the KKK flag. Would be nice to do a video on that.
Whaaaaaaat ?!?!
@@miahconnell23 The Philippines has lots of words and abbreviation that sound weird in English. Such as KKK, MILF, Ambasing, nega, Masbate, etc. There was even a country in the islands during 1898 named the Republic of Negros.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katipunan
@@JackopolyWasTaken Dude, thank you so much for dropping knowledge on me. ❤️ for real 🙏🙌.
Also important thing to note about the KKK flag here is that, its not an acronym of the Ku Klux Klan and it has nothing to do with that group. Its actually written in tagalog as Kataas-taasang, kagalang-galang, katipunan which basically means "Most high, Well Respected, The Gathered ones" (katipunan)
The KKK in the phililpines were basically an army that fought against the Spaniards
한국 전통 태극은 지금의 양극이 아닌 빨강 파랑 노랑의 3극이었답니다.
맞음
태극문양 빨강 파랑 자체가 북한 남한을 뜻하거나 아니면 좌파우파를 의미하는거라 추측됌
I like the South Korean flag because it looks unique and elegant.
Yeah that’s from Chinese Bagua 八卦
@@wonderful-w3u
No, Taekwondo is a Korean-originated martial art.
I can distinguish and give credits where credits are due :)
@@wonderful-w3u
It‘s funny cause
I never said those things you said in your comment.
@@wonderful-w3u
You were not talking to me.
You were talking to the made-up persona in your head who said those things.
@@wonderful-w3u
I did not say anything about Kimchi and Hanbok. Did I?
with all due respect , Taegeukgi flag was already used in the Korean - American Treaty, which was signed before the Ma Jianzhong's Proposal,
so the claim that Ma Jianzhong proposed the design of the flag and was involved in its creation is not correct.
This is either a malicious distortion that capitalizes on the confusion between the lunar and solar calendars,
or a foolish Error that fails to take into account the difference in dates between the lunar and solar calendars.
How to read romanized Korean words:
ae - between the “a” in “cat” and “e” in “bed”
eo - between the “o” in “not” and “o” in “nor”
eu - between the “e” in “kitten” and “u” in “put”
The People's Republic of Korea was not Communist and neither was its centrist leader Lyuh Woon-hyung. It is true that Lyuh was able to secure the cooperation of many communists, but the People's Republic of Korea united the entire political spectrum, and was rejected by both the Soviet Union and the US who installed their own governments in Korea rather than let Koreans rule themselves.
there were very few educated people in Korea, due to Japanese occupation, and Koreans were not able to establish their own government without help from superpowers. World is not an ideal place, and you have to manuever the whims of Superpowers around you, whether you like it or not.
@@davidjacobs8558 This is not about whether the Koreans could have ruled themselves without the help of superpowers. They didn't have much choice in the matter. However, the occupying superpowers explicitly rejected the leadership of the People's Republic of Korea which had popular support. The Soviet Union jailed and executed the respected leader of the Pyongyang People's Committee. By spurning the opportunity to work with homegrown political leadership that had popular support, the superpowers helped create the conditions for the dictatorships that arose when the Koreas eventually were allowed to form their own governments.
@@challalla Lyuh did not have popular support. Japanese suppressed all aspect of Korean life. Most Koreans didn't know what was going on in the world or in Korea. Most Koreans didn't know who Lyuh was. Most Koreans didn't know who Kim Il Sung was. Many Koreans heard of Rhee Seung Man, because he was around for long time, even before Japanese become extremely oppressive, due to the War going badly. and he was prefered by Americans.
you are funny, "centrist" -though you are right, not specifically communist, just its own flavor of dictatorship ("democratic" in the name being of course hilarious)
"helped create the conditions for dictatorship" - funny, what Koolaid are you drinking ? @@challalla
When I was youngkid, I thought the pepsi is Korean company because of similarity with the shape of flag of my country😅
Idk why but my Japanese diaspora school had a flag that resembled the south Korean flag but instead of red and blue it was the union jack and red
Great video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁👍
"Jwadokgi" is the most badass flag in Korean flag history.
Taegeukgi -> Tai Chi Flag
Ramhongsaek Konghwagukgi -> Blue (&) Red Color ? ? Country Flag
정말 유익한 내용입니다 선생.
6:45 I agree... that's pretty darn cool flag.
i now realice that my faucet has a 90º flipped taegeuk. Its interesting how red and blue represents similar concepts in radically different contexts (red=more heat=positive, blue=less heat=negative)
Very informative video
As a native Korean (welp South Korean ofc) this is pretty accurate! One of the things I want to point out is that although the “People’s Republic of Korea” is in fact leftist or somewhat socialist, it wasn’t communist, and had little to do with Soviet Union. Other than that it’s pretty accurate! I actually don’t know why the flag design has been slightly altered throughout time, and I hoped to learn it from this video but I don’t think I could learn it haha.
The yin-yang or Taeguk symbol represents harmony between positive and negative, yes. The key difference between the west and the east on viewing time is that whereas the west has seen time/history as a linear/progressive thing, for example dialectics in Marxist ideology, the east has seen it as circulative thing, such as the Sun rising everyday, the day being the positive and the night being the negative. The Moon in this case was viewed as an antithesis to the Sun and other examples include: Men and Women which were viewed as positive and negative respectively. As far as I know, this yin-yang relationship is also found similarly in the Middle East or Near East region (Levant or Syria) which had this dichotomous philosophy, and it influenced Christianity, creating Devil as opposed to God, and Hell as opposed to Heaven, whereas the original Christianity only had God and Heaven but not Devil nor Hell.
Yeah, Westerners typically discuss the 6-2-5 War in terms of the USA succeeding in keeping communists out of the ROK, but they don't discuss how the USA approved of the ROK murdering local leftist protesters who just wanted social democracy.
the purple really makes the old flag stand out
Just some correction for 0:23
Im not sure if its called ramhong something but it's better know with the name 인공기 (ingong-gi)
Because the old design made the onlookers feel dizzy.
as a Cantonese speaker, when you mentioned the name of North Korean flag at 1 minute there, i immediately catch the meaning of it, cos the pronunciation is just like Cantonese 🤣🤣🤣🤣
chinese loan words, they usually sound like some chinese dialects
0:31 They reversed the directions of the top left and bottom right i-ching trigrams, inverting the positions of 'water' and 'fire'... or I suppose 'moon' and 'sun', in this case.
태극은 은하 소용돌이에 지문도 비슷한 사람들이 있다 손가락 지문도 정확히 음양모양 똑같은 형태가 많소 (프랙탈 구조로 어디에나 찾을수 있다 그냥 물이 구멍으로 흘러가도 비슷해 보임 ) 적도선이 지나는 곳 에서는 신기하게 서로 다른방향으로 회전하는걸 눈으로 본다
바꿔도 좋지만 힘든작업이라면 그냥 원래 대로 태극 음양을 좌우대칭으로 돌리는게 더 좋아 보인다
good point!
Lol man if you don't get the feeling that south Korean were a sub empire of ancient China.. just look at the new flag.. it's a literal taichi symbol.
Great video as always. However, I hope your regard for native-like pronunciation like what I have watched from other videos be sustained consistently. Vowels in Romanized Korean also use digraphs to represent a single sound.
Meanwhile, the Korean Empire was declared only at the last couple years of the 19th century when the penultimate native Korean monarch Gojong of the Yi Dynasty (i.e., the Joseon Dynasty; Joseon was also a name of Korea) proclaimed himself emperor (even with the incoming threat of the Japanese empire). This should have be noted due importance since, at least nominally, the Korean state viewed itself as a vassal of Qing China, which was also an empire.
yes, in Chinese view of the world, whoever rule the Central Plain (ie, China) rules the whole earth.
And everyone else are vassals to Chinese Emperor. ie, there can only be 1 Empire, and 1 Emperor.
And only Chinese Emperor has the direct access to the Heaven.
Also, what this means is that anybody (ie, foreigners, non Han Chinese) can be the Emperor of China, if he has the mandate of Heaven.
It's not a proper way to describe the Joseon-Qing relationship. Joseon was an independent kingdom and also a tributary state of the Chinese empire. Originally, the mainland Chinese empire was Ming. When Qing conquered and replaced Ming, Joseon denied serving Qing as the mainland Chinese empire. They eventually waged the war, so Qing imposed Joseon to be the tributary state of them. Joseon was forced to accept it, but even after the war, they didn't think of themselves as a vassel of Qing.
@@aaaa-xv8fi Hence the word nominal. The people of Joseon had so long been considering themselves independent, and in reality they really were independent. Indeed, when they count their years, they count from the first year of reign of the last Ming emperor.
Love South Korea from Turkiye❤
free Kurdistan
That's not sun and moon, but fire and water So, heaven, earth, fire and water.
So quite similar to 4 elements of earth , water, fire, and air.
7:43 “would peace and progress”
Me: would peace and progress my ass lmaf😂
The flag 97 to 2011 is better than the one 2011 to currently... The red and blue are much more vibrant
9:18 love it when he has a stroke 😂 good video though
I love old flag this is better for reunification
Good thing they did, previous flags were kind of messy. Although I thought 1946 flag was quite neat
was that dramatic war year
I am Korean and I've learnt so much from this video and all the Korean history experts in the comment section. 😂😂😂 You can never boast your knowlege in Korea because there's always an expert nearby.
very nice
When I was first Teaching in S. Korea, in 1972, I saw an old shrine with the black and white Taeguk on the door. In addition I occasionally saw pictures that had three rather than two components, a yellow shape was added to the similar blue and red shapes. I saw both a curly version like the Imperial flag, and a version more like the present one on the flag. A version NOT used on the flag has two "eyes," the one within the blue shape being red and the one within the red shape being blue. The symbolism here being that each form or status has within it the seed of the other. I thought that somewhat similar to a Marks & Engels notion.
Thanks for another very interesting video, and for the trip down memory lane.
3 Taeguk is very commonly used in Korea in traditional decorations.
they mean Heaven, Earth and Men (Humanity).
frequently painted on double hung doors on traditonal buildings.
2011-2023 red with the 1997-2011 blue would be great.
The four Bagua symbols are heaven, earth, water, and fire.
The left flag on the thumbnail goes hard af
It is not from confucias or daoism and ying yang is not the origin it is from shaivism from india. You can find the transformation is detail abt this symbol, especially in south indian temples.
It looks like 4 satellites are revolving that coin in middle
Fun with flags
i wish korean peninsula will be unified and no more communism on the north geez people are starving and suffer in malnutrition aside from the families closer to Kim Jong Un
Bagua map comes from a divination book in ancient China 3,000 years ago. It is used to predict the future. It has different meanings according to different combinations. The book is called I-Ching, and it consists of three parts, one of which has been lost.
Reminds me of the cover of T&C Surf Designs
3:00 The Tai Chi diagram in your picture is wrong. The Tai Chi diagram shows that there is yang within yin, and yin within yang.It means that you can’t just look at the surface of everything. Positives and negatives are always intertwined.In fact, according to Chinese divination theory, the Korean flag is very unlucky.Just like a person, only the body, no limbs. In other words, there are only up, down, left and right, not southeast, northwest.It also means that North Korea and South Korea can never be integrated and will always be divided.
interesting, never knew the history or symbolism of that flag
obviously sacred geometry is banned in flags now part from those with Deltas and rainbows
I find it kinda hard to say that Korea was liberated from the North and the South given that the Americans didn't actually fight the Japanese in Korea
Very informative.🇰🇵🇰🇷
North Korean Flag Ramhongsaek Konghwagukgi literaly means Blue Red Color Republic flag
The old one looks like something from Naruto. The people of the blueberry raspberry swirl village.
Anyone else think of the Dharma group from Lost at 4:25?
lol I didn't know that the color of the flag has been lighter since 2011
too good
Lee Eungjun used the first Korean Taegeukgi on May 22, 1882. Korean history regards he is the inventor of the Korean flag.
Meanwhile, Ma Jianzhong's mention about Taegeuk was made on May 27, 1882. So he didn't exactly invent the Korean flag. He just helped to develop it.
Some comments are saying that the Joseon dynasty was a vassel state of China(Qing). But it's not a proper way to describe the Joseon-Qing relationship. Joseon was an independent kingdom and also a tributary state of the Chinese empire. Originally, the mainland Chinese empire was Ming. When Qing conquered and replaced Ming, Joseon denied serving Qing as the mainland Chinese empire. They eventually waged the war, so Qing imposed Joseon to be the tributary state of them. Joseon was forced to accept it, but even after the war, they didn't think of themselves as a vassel of Qing.
relax korean, it's just bagua...
You can pronounce Korean without tones, it isn't a tonal language. Right now the pronunciation sounds vaguely Thai.
1:55 that's hilarious. Why would he think that would be acceptable or more clear??
Does the three red bars on the first communist Korea flag relate to the three red bars on the Communist Vietnam flag?
🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷
좋은 정보 감사합니다 ^ㅡ^)/ 태극과 건곤감리, 의미가 깊죠
Quite evidently those South Korean politicians and civil servants have certainly justified their salaries.
They should have the Shincheonji Symbol as the Korean flag
EO is like E of "~ER" in English
Gi literally means flag