御札帖으로 본 正祖의 인간적 면모

Abstract

This paper analyzes the new material, King Jeongjo's letter album. The letter album of King Jeongjo is made up of two hundred ninety-seven letters written by King Jeongjo from August 20th, 1796 to June 15th, 1800, which were sent to Manpo Sim Hwan-ji(1730～1802). These letters that King Jeongjo and Sim Hwan-ji, the leader of political opponent party called 'noronbyeokpa'(Old Doctrine Party of Principle), secretly exchanged contain their opinions about current political issue, king's orders, secret informations, and the stream of public opinions. This paper illustrates the process of exchanging the secret letters, and the personal aspects of King Jeongjo which revealed in the letters including King Jeongjo's private life and the condition of a disease in his later years. The letters also show King Jeongjo's hot temperament, a sense of humor and humanity. Next, this paper clarifies that the secret letters were written with style of using a literal translation of Korean language and Idu(writing system) and furthermore, King Jeongjo had a command of colloquial expression and proverb, trying to deliver more proper descriptions. Through these analyses, this paper shows the personal aspects of the scholarly Monarch, King Jeongjo, and the stylistic characteristics of the secret letters, different from his policies which encouraged a pure style in writing denouncing a short literary composition.