조선본 『故事成語考』 연구

Abstract

This article comprehensively reviewed Gosaseongeogo published in the Joseon dynasty and shed light on its significance in the history of publishing culture. Gosaseongeogo is a encyclopedic work that provides all the specialties and historical facts from Confucian scriptures and historical books by category, for the purpose of cultivating basic knowledge and learning writing of the children around the age of 15. Gosaseongeogo published in the Joseon dynasty has a rare history that Chinese books were published in Joseon via Japan. However, basic details such as the bibliographical characteristics, investigation of extant versions, publication period, target audience, etc. of Gosaseongeogo published in the Joseon dynasty have not been revealed. This paper focused on this point and proceeded with research, and obtained the following results. First of all, it is presumed that the currently confirmed Gosaseongeogo published in the Joseon dynasty are all of the same series and have been reprinted once. The first edition has not yet been confirmed. And, certain printed copies and manuscripts contain important information related to publication, and it can be confirmed that printed copies have already been popular since the mid-18th century. In the case of distribution, it seems to have been mainly centered on the Yeongnam region. However, as a result of comparing the Japanese and Joseon editions of printed copies, a large number of errors are found in the Joseon edition, and most of them are considered to be misprints by miscopying. Although there is a limitation that this hinders the understanding of the meaning of some contents, the fact that numerous printed copies and manuscripts exist proves that it has been quite popular as a commercial publication, and at the same time, that it can be confirmed that the people recognized Gosaseongeogo as a helpful book for studying the royal examination.