근·현대 영국·일본인 역사가들이 본 『 징비록』

Abstract

The Jingbirok, Ryu Seong-ryong’s memoirs, was transmitted to Japan by a Joseon embassy and published in 1695 under the title Joseon Jingbirok in Kyoto. Ever since the Jingbirok has remained a steady bestseller in various forms for the three centuries. Highly acclaimed as the best history of the Imjin War, the Joseon Jingbirok has reached numerous readers in Japan. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Joseon Jingbirok was brought to Qing China by a Chinese scholar. In the early Meiji Era, W. G. Aston, then British diplomat to Japan, translated it into English, which led to a corpos of scholarly works. Japanese scholars from the early 20th century have produced a large corpus of solid scholarly works on Ryu Seong-ryong and his book. In these works, Japanese scholars have praised Ryu not only as a great minister but a great historian, which attests to the immortality of the Jingbirok as historical record. I have recently compiled into a source book hitherto unexplored English language publications by British diplomats, five pieces of primary documents, including four academic articles by modern Japanese historians. This paper introduces those sources, their general contents and significance. Particularly, evidential researches by modern Japanese historians will supplement the weaknesses of Korean scholarship, hoping that this source book will be a meaningful addition to our understanding of Ryu Seong-ryong, the Jingbirok, and, ultimately, the Imjin War.