錦帶 李家煥의 藏書 『古文淵鑑』

Abstract

This article is an attempt to reveal the process of academic achievement of Lee Ga-hwan李家煥, a prominent scholar in the late Joseon Dynasty. As a victim of the Shinyu Persecution辛酉迫害, Lee Ga-hwan tends to be abstracted as a ‘a man of great erudition and genius’. Other than his proficiency in astronomical calculations introduced from the West, his achievements as a scholar have not been sufficiently highlighted. Among the books owned by Lee Ga-hwan, I found that Gomunyeongam『古文淵鑑』, Gihawonbon『幾何原本』(Euclid’s Elements), and Gyeongsepalpyeonyuchan『經世八編類纂』 are representative of his scholarly aspect, and through analyzing these three books in turn, I want to trace the process by which his erudition was formed. In this article, the first of them was focused on Gomunyeongam. This book, an anthology of Chinese classic prose, was compiled under the royal command during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. The Gomunyeongam owned by Lee Ga-hwan was purchased by his father, Lee Yong-hyu李用休 from an official interpreter Kim Hong-cheol金弘喆. According to Lee Ga-Hwan’s remarks, this book was given to Kim Hong-cheol’s grandfather, Kim Ji-nam金指南, by a relative of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It was originally produced for the emperor to see, so the printing and manufacturing of the book are exquisite and beautiful, especially the cover is bound with yellow silk. On the other hand, one Gomunyeongam stored in the National Library of Korea is bound with yellow silk, so it is presumed that the book is the one Lee Ga-hwan was referring to. This book had two collection seals indicating the original owner, but both were deleted. So, as of now, it is unknown whether the owner of this book was Lee Ga-hwan. However, it is noteworthy that there are other traces of deletion of certain contents in this book. Originally, in the margin at the top of the text of this book, there were printed criticisms written by 12 influential bureaucratic writers during the Qing Dynasty. However, in the yellow silk-covered Gomunyeongam housed in the National Library of Korea, all 100 or so critical writings written by Zhang Ying張英, one of the 12, have been deleted. Zhang Ying, a prominent bureaucrat and literary figure in the Qing Dynasty, is a person involved in the 1771 forbidden book case in Joseon. King Yeongjo expressed fierce hatred for both of them by mentioning Zhu Lin朱璘, the author of the Chinese history book Myeonggijipnyak『明紀緝略』, and Zhang Ying, who wrote the preface together. In addition, merchants who circulated Myeonggijipnyak in Joseon and the yangban class who possessed the book were caught, and some of them were beheaded. It is presumed that the deletion of Zhang Ying's criticism from the yellow silk-covered Gomunyeongam was a self-rescue measure attempted by an upper-class intellectual who had access to high-quality information related to the forbidden book case. He had removed anything related to the troubled figure from his book, in order not to be politically attacked for possessing a disturbing book. And there are several circumstances to think that Lee Ga-hwan was an upper-class intellectual who executed such a deletion. Lee Ga-hwan not only had the yellow silk-covered Gomunyeongam, but also read the book closely to fully grasp its format and content. In addition, Chae Je-gong蔡濟恭, an influential senior politician of Lee Ga-hwan, was the closest to King Yeongjo at the time, and supervised the resolution of the forbidden book case to suit the king’s wishes. In other words, Chae Je-gong was in a position to let Lee Ga-hwan know that Zhu Lin and Zhang Ying were the objects of the king’s anger. In this paper, through the analysis of Gomunyeongam that is believed to have belonged to Lee Ga-hwan, I tried to shed light on his appearance in his youth on the way to achievement as a bureaucratic writer, and reconstruct the cultural and political atmosphere of the Joseon intellectual class surrounding him. In the future, this work will be continued through Gihawonbon and Gyeongsepalpyeonyuchan.