Salim: Korea’s Spirit
and the Existential Art of Living
Collective Intelligence of Survival
For thousands of years, Koreans endured a harsh natural environment and repeated invasions. What enabled survival was salim—the accumulated communal wisdom for sustaining life together.
Relational Ontology
The individual “I” has meaning only within the “we.” Life is valued not as an isolated unit, but as part of the vitality of the whole. This worldview strongly tends to seek individual identity through community belonging
The Aesthetics of Circulation
Nothing is discarded. Everything is revived, reused, or transformed—turning crises into opportunities and hardship into resilience. This capacity for regeneration is at the heart of Korean survival culture.
Relational Emotional Culture
Koreans have created a sensitive emotional network using 'jeong' (deep emotional connections) and 'nunchi' (reading the room). This builds stronger community bonds, but it can both support and restrict personal independence and individuality. It's a complex yet distinctive communication style.
Creative Adaptability
"Use what you have." "Mix things together to make something new." This creative spirit became part of who Koreans are, helping them stay hopeful and proud even in very hard time
Salim in Everyday Life
Water Conservation
Rainwater was stored in jars, rice-washing water was poured on plants, noodle water used for dishwashing, and the last rinse water for toilet cleaning. Even ice was cut in winter and stored in underground icehouses (bingo) for summer use.
Food Regeneration
Cold rice became sungnyung (scorched rice tea) or nurungji, soybean paste soup broth was reused for stew, kimchi brine for cold noodles. Dried radish greens supplied winter vitamins, sweet potato stems were dried for side dishes, pumpkin leaves steamed for wraps, and even tangerine peels brewed into tea or used as insect repellent.
Clothing and Fabric Recycling
Children’s hanbok were lengthened as they grew. Worn-out clothes became diapers or rags, threads were pulled and rewoven, silkworm cocoons repurposed for bedding, and hemp scraps twisted into ropes.
Fuel and Energy
Dung bricks made of cow or horse manure fueled winter heating. Fallen branches and leaves became firewood, ashes turned into detergent, candle wicks were reused, and lamp oil was saved by sleeping early.
Space Utilization
On top of ondol floors, vegetables were dried. Under the wooden floors, storage space was carved. The eaves dried peppers and corn, verandas dried grains, and jangdokdae (crock terraces) served as natural refrigerators.
Healing and Medicine
Mulberry leaves for tea, plantain for wounds, mugwort for moxibustion, bellflower root for coughs, ginger for colds, garlic for antibacterial uses. Even earthworms (fever remedy) and wasp nests (painkiller) became medicine.
Tool and Utensil Recycling
Broken pottery was mended with iron staples, worn brooms turned into brushes, cracked pots repurposed as flowerpots, bottomless jars into chimneys. Chopsticks became clothespins, paper bags reused multiple times.
Salim at the Community Level
Labor Cooperation – Dure and Pumasi
During farming seasons, villages organized dure teams. Work rotated: transplanting rice, weeding, harvesting. House building, moving, or making soybean paste became communal tasks. “Today at Kim’s, tomorrow at Park’s.” Burdens were shared, bonds strengthened.
Mutual Aid through Savings Circles (Gye)
Villagers pooled money monthly; those in need took first. No interest, only trust. Separate gye existed for weddings, funerals, or milestones. A bad harvest in one home meant the village shared rice from their jars.
Food Sharing
Good food was never eaten alone. Steamed rice cakes were distributed house to house, kimchi offered by the bowl, ritual foods shared after ceremonies. New neighbors were welcomed with gifts of rice, soy paste, and kimchi.
Transmission of Skills
Older women taught weaving, sewing, cooking to younger wives. Kimchi-making was communal. Literacy and farming knowledge were passed naturally within the village.
Shared Resource Management
Wells, washing sites, mills—jointly maintained. Forests treated as collective property; harvesting was regulated by consensus. Fish, nuts, herbs—all shared as common resources.
Rituals and Festivals
Village rituals (dongje) were collective acts of devotion for good harvests. Afterward, food and drink were shared. Major holidays like Chuseok featured communal games, strengthening unity.
Childcare and Caregiving
Every adult disciplined and praised all children. Neighbors cooked seaweed soup for new mothers, and young wives helped elderly widows with housework.
Modern Echoes of Salim
Consumer Cooperatives like Hansalim, Dure, iCOOP—reviving traditional salim wisdom through sustainable food systems and fair trade.
Social Cooperatives supporting community-based economies of sharing and solidarity.
Medical Cooperatives prioritizing collective health over institutional profit.
Recycling & Upcycling Movements like “Reuse & Reshare” echoing the motto: “Nothing is wasted.”
Local Currencies & Sharing Economies embodying pumasi in modern form.
Urban Community Projects (shared kitchens, co-parenting, neighborhood cafes) as contemporary salim practices.
National Crises and the Spirit of Salim
Colonial Resistance: The “Made in Josun” movement—producing cloth, dye, matches, syrup—to resist Japanese economic exploitation.
Korean War Survival: Refugees cooked rice in tin cans, made bedding from parachute cloth, and undergarments from flour sacks.
Industrialization Era: Shantytown families shared food, raised children together, and supported education despite poverty.
IMF Financial Crisis: Families cooked at home, reused clothing, joined the “Gold-Collecting Campaign,” and embraced “Anabada” (save, share, swap, reuse).
COVID-19 Pandemic: Homemade masks, neighborly food-sharing, balcony gardens, and communal childcare.
Natural Disasters: From typhoon Rusa (2002) to Maemi (2003), neighbors rebuilt homes and replanted fields together.
Salim as Philosophy for Humanity
'Sallim' has supported Korea as a way of turning daily life into art. The amazing thing is that after the Korean War in 1950, children in one of the world's poorest nations learned the National Education Charter telling them to 'work for the betterment of all mankind.' This message is still in Korea's constitution today."
“… to promote the equal improvement of people’s lives within, and to contribute to lasting world peace and the co-prosperity of humankind beyond … ensuring safety, freedom, and happiness for ourselves and our descendants.”
Few nations have explicitly committed to the co-prosperity of humankind in their founding documents.
Co-prosperity is the expansion of salim. It is the legacy of Hongik Ingan—the mandate to benefit all humanity.
Today, in the face of planetary crises—climate change, inequality, and technological disruption—the world desperately needs this philosophy.
Korea, with its unique trajectory—surviving invasions, overcoming poverty, industrializing, democratizing, digitizing—has both the experience and the moral resources to lead. The global spread of K-pop, K-food, and K-culture is not an accident, but a reflection of this deeper resonance.
Now, Korea must step forward.
As a nation embodying both Eco-Logic (circulation, coexistence, autonomy) and Human-Logic (domination, growth, competition), Korea can pioneer K-Logic—a new paradigm of Salim Capitalism.
