추사 김정희의 한글 편지 해독과 의미

Abstract

Studies on the letters written in Korean by Chusa Jeong-heeKim(1786~1856) have made advances in collection of data on Koreanletters, literary, linguistic and calligraphic findings; however, there have notbeen a study on deciphering Korean letters of Chusa. This paper examines1st, 20th, and 31st photoprints of “Chusa’s Letters in Korean,” those withparticularly frequent misinterpretations, and offers new interpretations aswell as methods to better utilize the epistolary materials. Chusa’s Korean letters are written in irregular longhand with varioustypes of letterings combined in a free style. As it is not a work of art,characters with the same meaning were confused with characters ofdifferent meanings. Moreover, the characters are spaced according to theChinese character writing style of the time, creating further confusioninhibiting accurate interpretation. This paper first used visual methods and then contextual methods tointerpret vague passages of Chusa’s Korean letters. As a result, this papercould interpret the forty-one misspelled characters by comparing them withprevious interpretations and presents the photoprints of Chusa’s Koreanletters along with the interpreted version. It also provides explanations ofthe interpretations with evidences as well as summary of the content of the letter. Such efforts led to the conclusion that previous interpretationsinclude many misinterpretations leading to largely inaccurate understandingof the letter. From the perspective of Korean Linguistics, the Korean letters open up anew possibility for sociolinguistic approach within the field of History ofKorean language. It can also be used for complementing the originalmaterials with annotations. The content of the letter directly reflects theevents of the times which could serve as useful data of social, folk andeveryday life history of the respective era. Moreover, Chusa’s uniquehandwriting style is shown in the letters making it an ideal referencematerial for history of calligraphy as well as a sample for Koreancalligraphy. As mentioned above, accurate interpretation of Chusa’s Koreanletters can contribute to various research efforts including the fields ofKorean linguistics. This paper limited interpretations to three Korean letters of Chusa butfuture endeavors will need to include all forty letters to contribute furtherto Korean epistolary literature. To minimize misinterpretations of Koreanepistolary data, multidisciplinary approach including Korean literature,linguistics, Chinese literature, calligraphy, etc. will be necessary. Furtherresearch is needed to increase accuracy of the epistolary materials.