조선 전기 지성사의 관점에서 본 사화(史禍) ― 조선 전기 한문학 연구의 새로운 방향 수립을 위한 탐색

Abstract

History compilation becomes the core of composition of civilization in the sense of establishingthe system of a country, because the compilation of history is the comprehensiveissue covering all the fields related to civilization such as society, politics, culture,geography, manners and music and so on. The process of history compilation called attentionto the issues of history consciousness, ways of describing history, and court-diaristsas the subjects who were in charge of recording history. The issue of history compilationwhich originally begun from the issue of the archives management and thecourt-diarists system in the early Joseon Dynasty gradually became the conflicts betweennew intellectuals and the old ruling power group on the issues of judgement on the moralityof the subjects who were in charge of recording history and the objects of the historyof the days, and of attainments of strict moral evaluation. However, this was not justmerely negative entailment as political conflicts which caused political purges such as historicalcrimes and Sahwa(士禍). More importantly, this process became the initiative forthe establishment and development of the civilization in the early Joseon Dynasty and becamedirectly related to the formation of intellectuals of the days. The main focus of thisarticle is to show that the experience and awareness as the main subjects of history compilationbecame the crucial breakpoint in the growth and change of intellectuals duringthe early Joseon Dynasty. This article deals with two important ‘historical events’ of intellectuals in the earlyJoseon Dynasty. One was ‘Gichuksaok(己丑史獄)’ which happened in the year of 1469(Yejong1) and this event showed court-diarists attitudes as the main subjects of practiceand historical issues caused in the process of compilation of Sejosillok(世祖實錄) The other event was ‘Muosahwa(戊午士禍) which happened in the year of 1498 (Yeonsankun4) and thisevent confirmed the court-diarists’ progress of their consciousness and practice to a certainpoint since ‘Gichuksaok’. In particular, the events, which happened in the period ofKing Sejo(世祖) and was considered past history, became very acute issues from the eventin the year of 1498, the year of Muo(戊午). The attitudes of the court-diarists and the rulingparty posed a very important issue from two Sahwas (i.e., ‘Gichuksaok’ and ‘Muosahwa’)which happened in the years of 1469 and 1498 respectively. ‘Gichuksaok’ was an affairbrought on by the compilation of Sejosillok, which was the event that ‘King Sejo’ and theruling party supporting his grasping political power became the object of recordinghistory. Furthermore, the principle and basis of Historical Manuscripts which should berecorded anonymously turned into a registered system all of a sudden and became theorigin of ‘Gichuksaok’. This made court-diarists feel afraid of the ruling party’s authority andthus revise the Historical Manuscripts collectively, which ended in their death penalty. This Sahwa showed how much the court-diarists could record history in an honesty wayand the limitations of their ideological and practical approaches on history. Thirty yearslater, it was the ruling power that wanted to revise the Historical Manuscripts on thecontrary. On the other hand, the court-diarists found their historical legitimacy about theHistorical Manuscripts from the authentic history which was connected from the historiographers‘Samdae’ to the Chunchu(春秋) of Gongja(孔子) and eventually to the Jwajun(左傳)of Jwagumyung(左丘明). Young court-diarists were rightfully aware of their own way of recordinghistory and therefore their power to attain the fundamental principle becamemuch stronger through the recognition of the grounds from historical tradition. The newrecognition and the logic of evaluation about the history which had been established bytheir own information and public opinion created by young intellectuals were operated atthe root of this phenomenon. As a result, those young intellectuals revealed their ownidentity as ‘moral beings’ in the foreground and selected old intellectuals called ‘Hungu’(勳舊) as the opposite party. In this way, ‘Gichuksaok’ and ‘Muosahwa’ had important status inthe history of intellectuals in that those events clearly revealed the crucial breakpoint inthe growth and change of intellectuals during the early Joseon Dynasty.