묘지 및 묘비음기를 통해 본 최세진과 槐山崔氏 가문

Abstract

This research aims to explore the historical materials and data on the life of the Korean scholar and linguist Gongseo Choi Sejin (崔世珍: 1468~1542) who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries in Joseon, who has been little studied so far. This research focuses on examining the historic records of his family lineage, as well as the Goesan Choi clan(槐山崔氏). The Korean language Academia and the Korean History Academia have studied the life of Choi Sejin for the past decades, but found it extremely hard to explore his life because the information available on his life was sparse. Although there is no tombstone with the record of Choi Sejin’s life, a cultural heritage material with the record of the years of his birth and death, a burial plate, remains. In the early 1980s, a ceramic burial tablet, which contains the data on the years of birth and death of Choi and his wife from the Yongcheon Lee clan(永川李氏), was excavated. in the process of constructing a new apartment complex in Gwacheon City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Through this burial tablet, it was identified that Choi Sejin was born in the year of Muja(1468). Based on this finding, It is presumed that Choi Sejin's tombstone was erected at the very site where his burial tablet was found. There are some other detailed record on the life of Choi Sejin’s life, which no academia has investigated so far. The Josoen scholar Iam Song In(頤菴 宋寅: 1517~1584) left A Collection of Post Humous Works Compiled By Iam(『頤庵遺稿』), a noticeable historical data. Although this collection does not contain a comprehensive record of Choi Sejin’s life, it includes ‘Eumgi(陰記)’, the record of his life inscribed on the back of the tombstone that reads under the following title, ‘DongjijungchuBusaChoiGongmyobi-Eumgi(同知中樞府事崔公墓碑陰記)’, where ‘Choi Gong’ refers to ‘Choi Sejin.’ By deciphering the content of Song In's tombstone inscription, it was possible to discover the previously unknown facts about Choi Sejin, such as the fact that his son Choi Gam made a request to Seong Sechang a eulogy for his father’s tombstone. The inscription also provides the details about Choi Sejin's descendants and relatives. It is significantly meaningful because the descendants’ activities and history of his family, the Goesan Choi clan, can be discovered in detail. In addition to Song In’s tombstone inscription, there is another material, titled “The Goesan Choi Clan Genealogy(槐山崔氏世譜),” which organizes and records the lineage of the main clan, the Goesan Choi clan. This genealogy designates Choi Sejin as the first-generation central ancestor(中始祖) and provides a lineage for his children and descendants, thus complementing the existing written historical materials. By cross-examining the content of the genealogy and the ‘DongjijungchuBusaChoigongmyobi-Eumgi(同知中樞府事崔公墓碑陰記)’of Iamyugo, the history of Choi Sejin and the Goesan Choi clan can be identified. The findings of this study imply that further research is required for the content of the tombstone inscription written by Seong Sechang which has not been discovered yet.