Pak Tŏkhwa (1590–n.d.) was a marginal member of the long-running lineage of the Pak clan of Miryang, a clan that is prominent today in South Korea. We say marginal because he seems to have been lesser in his own family, not listed with the same name pattern as his father’s other sons, and, as burial records show, buried apart from other family members in southern Kyŏnggi Province. Eugene Park discovered him as the ancestor of his own lineage—the Park spelling being a variant of Pak (朴), the third most common surname in South Korea. Koreans with the same surname are distinguished by clan, usually referring to the locale of the clan’s origin story, and within the clans by branches, all with careful attention to exogamy and social-status awareness. The Pak clan of Miryang is a distinguished kinship group, but some of its branches are obscure or even dubious in origin....
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
