This study focuses on analyzing the landscape essays written by Sabkyo An Suk Kyeong in relation to his works. This study also aims on identifying characteristics of his landscape essays which have not yet been recognized, within the context of the landscape essays of the era. Closely related with poetry, dream records[夢記], and pilgi(筆記), Sabkyo’s travel essays embody his travel experience as a whole. This can be understood in the trend of landscape literature of the era, which, along with travelogues, incorporated various genres.
First of all, Sabkyo closely connected poetry with travel writing. He used identical expressions in both poems and travelogues and used the narrative of the travelogue as a catalyst to amplify and deepen the lyricism in his poems. Next, Sabkyo used the same method for creating imagery in dream records and travel writing, and thus, added the mystical ambience to the imagery of the landscape, along with his perception of reality and his views on life. Sabkyo further instilled his core idea, Sinocentrism, in the landscape, which shows his pride in Joseon and his ideal on reestablishing the universal order. Finally, by expanding and embellishing his anecdotes of the people he met during his travels in his pilgi writings and by deepening the scope of information on the landscape and travels in his travelogues, which originally are topics for pilgi, Sabkyo differentiated the content of his writing by each genre. This characteristic is more prominent in Sabkyo’s travelogues among the travelogues in the eighteenth century. The eighteenth century brought rise to a depth in lyricism, detailed imagery, and a systemization of the information on landscape in landscape literature, all of which led to the proliferation and variation of each genre. Sabkyo’s literary works are the most prominent among the flow of such works.