韋史 申錫禧의 글쓰기에 나타난 대외인식의 특징―洋擾에 대한 대응을 중심으로―

Abstract

At the time of Shinmiyangyo (‘United States-Korea war of 1871’), Shin Seok-hee was a high-ranking official who was responsible for defending the West Coast as a local official in Suwon. In addition, he led the poetical circles in Buckchon of Seoul in the mid-19th century with Park Gyu-su, Shin Seok-woo, and Jo Myeon-ho. He was a considerable person to understand historical circumstances and literary history in those days, but the study on him has not been intensively researched because most of the materials related to him scattered abroad. However, materials and document relevant to Shin Seok-hee including his anthology, which kept in Japan, recently open to Korea. This paper is the first study on Shin Seok-hee in Korean academia and it examines his aspects of activity and ideological orientation as a government official. Shin Seok-hee became government official at 35 in 1842 and ended his life as the Minister of the Interior by the time he was 66 years old in 1873. He kept getting involved in writing diplomatic documents since 1861. He was able to participate in the preparation of diplomatic documents because of his outstanding writing skill. We believe he gained extraordinary insight into the state of affairs overseas of those days through these activities. Shin Seok-hee collected, organized, and researched books of tactics in-depth since he felt the necessity of defending the seas ahead of his time. We consider that he was the person who preferred to fight with the Western invader with the military strength rather than diplomatic means. Accordingly, he threw himself, heart and soul, into defending Suwon and the West Coast as a local official in Suwon when the United States-Korea war of 1871 broke out, and he also made a specific military operation to use fire to attack enemy ships. In summary, Shin Seok-hee’s perspective on international relationships is clearly distinguished from Wijeongcheoksa (‘the ideology of protecting righteousness and expel wickedness’) so that it should be re-examined its significance through the broad discussion.