Kim Jeong-ho and the Daedongyeojido: The Mapmaker Behind Joseon Korea's Great Folding Map

Kim Jeong-ho (1804–1866?) was a Korean geographer and mapmaker of the late Joseon dynasty, best known for the Daedongyeojido ("Map of the Great East"), a huge map of Korea published in 1861 as 22 foldable booklets that together form a map about 6.7 metres by 3.8 metres, at a scale of 1:162,000. His art name was Gosanja, "person of the old mountain", and he is remembered today as the greatest mapmaker in Korean history.

A man we know little about

Despite his fame, very little is certain about Kim's life. He was born in Hwanghae Province, in what is now North Korea. He was not a high-ranking official, and few documents about him survive. A popular story says that he walked the whole length and breadth of the Korean Peninsula, through every mountain and valley, to research his maps. It is a powerful image, and it appears in many children's books, but it is difficult to verify, and Kim also made careful use of the maps and geographical records that already existed in his time.

The map in 22 booklets

What makes the Daedongyeojido special is not only its accuracy but its clever design. The country is divided into 22 horizontal strips, and each strip is folded like an accordion into a small booklet. Each booklet covers an area roughly 47 kilometres north to south and 31.5 kilometres east to west. A traveller could carry only the booklets for the region they needed, while a scholar could lay all 22 side by side to see the whole peninsula. Several versions exist, with either 21 or 22 booklets.

Printed from wood

Kim did not just draw a single map; he carved it into woodblocks so that it could be printed and shared. The map came with a preface explaining his method, a legend of symbols, statistics and a separate map of the capital, Seoul. Roads are marked with dots every ten ri (about four kilometres), so travellers could estimate distances. Mountains are drawn as connected ranges, showing how ridges and rivers divide the land, an approach rooted in traditional Korean ideas of geography.

The prison legend

One famous story claims that the regent Heungseon Daewongun was furious when he saw Kim's map, because it revealed details important for national defence, and had Kim arrested and the map destroyed. This story comes from a document produced under the Japanese colonial government. However, original woodblocks of the map still survive at Soongsil University and Korea University, and others who helped make the map were never punished. Korean historians generally believe the story was a fabrication by the colonial authorities. What really happened to Kim after 1866 remains unknown.

How to read the map today

If you visit a museum display of the Daedongyeojido, start by finding a place you know, such as Seoul or Busan, then follow the thick black lines of the mountain ranges outward. You will notice that rivers are drawn as double lines where boats could travel and single lines where they could not, and that county towns, military posts, post stations and warehouses each have their own small symbol, explained in the legend. Then look at the gaps between the dots on the roads: where the dots crowd together, the land is steep and travel was slow. Once you learn this simple visual language, the map stops looking like decoration and starts to read like a practical travel guide written more than 160 years ago.

Legacy

Copies of the Daedongyeojido are treasured in Korean collections, and the map is a symbol of Korea's scientific and cultural achievement in the nineteenth century. An asteroid, 95016 Kimjeongho, is named after him. For students, the map is also a lesson in how to turn a huge, complicated land into something people can hold in their hands.

Learn with Kim Jeong-ho: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to map out	to plan carefully in detail	She mapped out her study schedule.
the lay of the land	the general situation	Let's get the lay of the land first.
off the map	very remote or forgotten	The village felt off the map.
to scale	in correct proportion	The model is drawn to scale.
a legend	the key explaining a map's symbols; also a famous story	Check the legend at the bottom.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a place you know well, using "to map out" and "the lay of the land".