『홍무정운역훈』의 문백이독 연구

Abstract

In China, discussions about literary and colloquial readings in Chinese dialects have been made since the 20th century, but in Korea, they had already started being investigated five centuries ago during the Chosun dynasty. When King Sejong and the scholars who were in the Jiphyeonjeon created Hunminjeongeum and intended to immediately publish 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』, they realized that there were two different kinds of pronunciations for the Chinese characters: One was a set of colloquial pronunciations while the other was a set of literary ones. Therefore, King Sejong and the scholars recorded literary pronunciations (correct sounds) as the method for communication with literary persons. At the same time, through active communication with commoners in Yanjing (now Beijing), they also collected baihuayin (popular pronunciations, 白話音). Since the Hongwu Emperor (明太祖) suggested the standard pronunciations for literary reading by publishing 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』in 1373, the literati of those days were required to master the literary pronunciations. Therefore, whenever Shin Suk-ju, who was inexperienced at using the literary pronunciations, visited Huang Chan of the Hanlim Academy, Shin was always accompanied by a translator. Also, when he greeted a Chinese envoy, he attended the meeting accompanied by a translator and asked about the literary pronunciations of 『Hongmujeongun』. 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』is valued highly in that it was the first work that recorded the literary and colloquial readings in the Yanjing area (now Beijing) in the 15th century. Even more important, 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』was a great work which realistically showed the cultural phenomenon that colloquial and literary sounds co-existed. In fact, Shin Suk-ju spared no effort to collect accurate pronunciations to the point of visiting Huang Chan in Yodong thirteen times. He also inquired into the literary pronunciations when he met scholars who had studied abroad in China. Moreover, he visited Yanjing seven or eight times and collected or recorded colloquial pronunciations which were commonly used among the various people. Finally, he played a pivotal role in compiling 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』. Therefore, the value of 『Hongmujeongun Yokhun』should be reconsidered, since it faithfully reflects the phenomenon of two different readings which existed in the 15th century.