science

With the Century

With the Century is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand With the Century rather than just read about it. In short: Reminiscences: With the Century (Korean: 세기와 더불어) is the autobiography of Kim Il Sung, founder and former president of North Korea. The memoirs, written in 1992 and published in eight volumes, retell Kim's life story through his childhood to the time of Korean resistance.

Key takeaways

With the Century belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect With the Century to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of With the Century from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Reminiscences: With the Century (Korean: 세기와 더불어) is the autobiography of Kim Il Sung, founder and former president of North Korea. The memoirs, written in 1992 and published in eight volumes, retell Kim's life story through his childhood to the time of Korean resistance. Initially, a total of 30 volumes were planned but Kim Il Sung died in 1994 after just six volumes; the seventh and eighth volumes were published posthumously. The work reveals early influences of religious and literary ideas on Kim's thinking. An important part of North Korean literature, With the Century is held as an intriguing if unreliable insight into the nation's modern history under late colonial Korea. The book is considered one of a few North Korean primary sources widely available in the West and as notable research material for North Korean studies. Authorship of With the Century is disputed, with some claiming that it was written by professional writers instead of Kim Il Sung himself.

History Until the 1960s, Kim Il Sung had encouraged his fellow revolutionaries to publish their memoirs, and generals such as Ŭlchi Mundŏk, Kang Kam-ch'an and Yi Sun-sin were featured in North Korean history books. Kim Il Sung's son and future successor Kim Jong Il, however, called back such biographies and sought to reinforce Kim Il Sung's cult of personality by controlling the works that made reference to him. In this regard, With the Century effectively replaced another work, Reminiscences of the Anti-Japanese Guerillas, as one of the most important propaganda pieces. In 1974, Kim announced that he would write his memoirs. According to Kim himself, before that he had spared little thought about writing his memoirs. When Kim Jong Il assumed the office of Secretary for Organizational Affairs, Kim Il Sung was allowed more time to focus on his writing. Kim also describes being encouraged to write his memoirs by literary people and foreign statesmen. With the Century was written in 1992 when Kim was in his 80s, two years prior to his death. Initially the memoirs were supposed to span 90 chapters in 30 volumes comprising five parts: "The Anti-Japanese Revolution", "People's Country", "Along the Road of Socialism", "The Nation's Desire", and "Turning Point of Century". However, only the first six volumes of part one, "The Anti-Japanese Revolution", were completed before Kim's death and two additional volumes were published posthumously.

Kim Il Sung's ideological influences The memoirs suggest that Kim Il Sung was influenced by communism, Christianity, Confucianism, Cheondoism and wide range of other traditions. Kim Il Sung was born to a Presbyterian family, even though he downplays their devotion in his memoirs. The anti-foreign pro-independence Donghak Movement, founded by a Korean scholar Choe Je-u and influenced by Catholic missionaries, is one of the fascinations of his youth that Kim Il Sung treats at length in the memoirs. The Donghak rebellion served as a model for other contemporary Korean movements combining religion with nationalism. Kim Il Sung describes being intrigued by the native Korean Cheondoism movement that evolved from the Donghak rebellion. Cheondoism believes in the idea that all men are equal and bear the spirit of heaven in themselves. The memoirs disclose that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member and author Sang Wol (Shang Yue) was Kim Il Sung's teacher in literary matters at private Yuwen Middle School in 1928, where Sang Wol taught for six months. This was young Kim's most decisive and the only formal educational influence on his background with both literature and esthetics. Sang Wol introduced Kim Il Sung to the classics of Chinese, and Russian literature such as Maxim Gorky's Mother and Enemies. Sang Wol encouraged Kim to become a 'proletarian writer'. Outside of school, Kim Il Sung also came into contact with Joseph Stalin's writings. The memoirs reveal the impact of Kim Il Sung's knowledge of religion and scholarship of literary classics and art on the theory of Juche. Juche ideology has been interpreted as being similar to Cheondoism, as both think that people are the masters of their own fates. Despite the various early religious influences, Kim Il Sung frowned upon the practice of religion, and instead demanded near-religious loyalty and adherence to the militaristic rules that are part of living in North Korea. In the preface of With the Century, Kim writes: "'The people are my God' has been my constant view and motto. The principle of Juche, which calls for drawing on the strength of the masses who are the masters of the revolution and construction, is my political creed."

Volumes

Publication The first six volumes of With the Century were published before Kim's death in 1994. The seventh and eight volumes were published posthumously. The volumes have been reprinted as part of at least two collections: the 50-volume Kim Il-Sung: Works (김 일성 저작 선집; Kim Il-sŏng chŏjakchip) and the 100-volume Complete Collection of Kim Il Sung's Works (김 일성 전집; Kim Il-sŏng chŏnjip). The volumes are also included with the North Korean made tablet computer Samjiyon. In addition to the full eight volumes, the electronic library on the tablet includes the 50-volume Works which holds the first 18 chapters of With the Century. Translations exist in 20 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, German and Arabic.

Reception

In North Korea, With the Century holds an important role in culture and society and is genuinely popular. There it is a major source of the myth of the "anti-Japanese" struggle in propaganda. Western scholars, on the other hand, have focused on the historicity of events portrayed in the memoirs and have critically assessed the value of With the Century as a historical source. The omnipresence of With the Century has also been linked to Kim's cult of personality.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

With the Century: Kim Il-sung in his youth in 1926. With the Century gives a credible but unverifiable account of his early years. Illustration from the book.[42] — Kim Il-sung in his youth in 1926. With the Century gives a credible but unverifiable account of his early years. Illustration from the book.[42]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with With the Century

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what With the Century claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to With the Century before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about With the Century ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of With the Century

In research: With the Century appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses With the Century in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: With the Century is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1992 non-fiction books, Authorship debates, Censored books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for With the Century outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study With the Century in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what With the Century means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain With the Century out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is With the Century in simple terms?

Why does With the Century matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study With the Century?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on With the Century.