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A Study of the Parting Records Related to Wolsa Yi Jung-gueui’s Prince Crowning Jucheongjeongsa

Kang, Soon-Ae 1

1한성대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper is a study of the eight records of farewell to Wolsa Yi Jung-gu-eui (1564∼ 1635) on his jucheongjeongsa for the crowning of the prince (1604). The paper looks over Wolsa’s life and achievements, looks into the diplomacy of the jucheongjeongsa aimed at ratifying the crowing of the prince to the Ming empire in the 37th year of Seonjo’s reign (1604), and analyzed the farewell records related to the prince crowning jucheongjeongsa. Wolsa Yi Jung-gu-eui’s courtesy name was Seongjing while his pen name was Wolsa. He placed first in the seungbosi in the 10th year of Seonjo’s reign (1577), passed the jinsasi in the 18th year of Seonjo (1585), and passed the augmented literary examinations in the 23rd year of Seonjo (1590). He became master of letters serving as a munsa. Being especially outstanding at diplomatic documents relating to sadae (serving the great) and gyorin (neighborly relations) he was dispatched to China four times in the 31st and 37th year of Seonjo’s reign (1598 and 1604) and in the 8th and 12th year of Gwanghaegun’s reign (1616 and 1620), contributing greatly to pressing matters surrounding Joseon during the reigns of Seonjo and Gwanghaegun. In his 46 years of government service during the reigns of Kings Seonjo to Injo, he served extensively as minister in the Six Boards of the Government and served nine times as minister of Culture and Education and twice as Chief Scholar. Of his writings, 25 volumes of Wolsajib, 1 volume of Seoyeongangeui and 1 volume of Daehakgangeoh remain. Gwanghaegun, the second son of King Seonjo born by his concubine Gongbin, was crowned prince at the age of eighteen on April 28 in the 25th year of Seonjo when Imjinwaeran broke out on April 13. He was crowned as the state of the nation became critical to support the morale of the people and to pursue bunjo during war. Four jucheongsas were dispatched over ten years, beginning with Yun Geun-su’s party in the 27th year of Seonjo’s reign (1594) to Yi Jung-gueui’s party in the 37th year of Seonjo’s reign (1604) ; all of the them returned unsuccessful. As the prince crowning jucheongsa to the Ming Dynasty in the 37th year of Seonjo’s reign (1604), Wolsa Yi Jung-gueui made diplomatic endeavors to ratify Gwanghaegun’s authority to the Ming empire’s elder statesmen and government officials but failed because of the established belief that the firstborn son of the king’s official consort should be crowned prince. The photographic edition of Keunmuk edited by Wichang Oh Sae-chang contains eight farewell records of writers and time periods that are clearly known and that are not in the collections in the writer’s handwriting. It includes records by Gu Sa-maeng, Ki Ja-heon, Kim Jong-nam, Mok Seo-heum, Samyung Yu Jung, Yi Hui-deuk, Choi Cheol-gyeon and Hong Jin. The poems appear in diverse forms such as the heptasyllabic regulated verse, the pentasyllabic regulated verse, and heptasyllabic extended poetry with the rhyming characters hoe, gyeong, ji, mun, ma in the neutral tone. The poems mostly congratulate Wolsa Yi Jung-gueui on being selected as the prince crowning jucheongsa, as he was the master of letters, and describe how important his mission to Yanjing is and how it is worthy of being written in history. The expressions in parting with him vary from having hearts full, being pained by the mere greenness of the grass, feeling heartache at the difficultly of parting, hoping that he would return successful, and promising a future meeting in the fall overlooking chrysanthemums with a wine jar when he returns successful. This study will be used in the basic future studies of private records as well as in those of bibliography, record management, history and Korean language.

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