방각본 <조웅전>의 원천

Abstract

Jowoong-Jeon, one of the old novels written in Korean, has been handed down in numerous forms. Its writer and the time of writing have been unknown alike the cases of other old novels. There remain several types of Gyeongpan and different versions of Wanpan, a large number of manuscripts, and a considerable number of typographic versions. Such a large number of different versions indicates the popularity of Jowoong-Jeon. Nevertheless, there has been no light shed on its relationship with lending library until recently. However, the existence of lending library version of Jowoong-Jeon which was composed of nine volumes at least, has become known by recent research on the account books of lending library. Also, there remains one volume (out of seven in total) of lending library version in the Dankook University Yulkok Memorial Library. By examining these lending library versions, this paper has succeeded in elucidating the following points; Firstly, Jowoong-Jeon was written by lending library in Seoul. Secondly, the Gyeongpan and Wanpan of the piece are the abridged versions of lending library book in Seoul. Lastly, the original text of the typographic version in the 1910's was the Wanpan. Until now, there have only been researches which focused on explaining each branches of the Gyeongpan and Wanpan Jowoong-Jeon, but the question on their origin has never been asked. This paper has made it clear that the origin of the Gyeongpan and Wanpan Jowoong-Jeon is lending library book. By amplifying this result to the other cases of old novels, it would become evident that the origin of commercial woodblock book was lending library book.