19세기 말 豐壤 趙氏 <조병길가언간>에 대한 서지적 고찰

Abstract

This paper aims to present the 84 newly identified letters in addition to the four <Jo Byeong-gil Fanmily's Letters(Eongan)> ones introduced in 1974 in late professor Il Geun Kim’s “Newly discovered Korean old vernacular letters” and examine their characteristics. In particular, the focus of the discussion is on the bibliographic review, which looks into the sender and recipient information and relationship, and the year each letter was sent, examining the characteristics of the content of each. The new literary source <Jo Byeong-gil Fanmily's Letters (Eongan)> is currently in the author’s possession. Of the total 111 letters, 84 are clear in their information on the senders and recipients; this study investigates those 84. <Jo Byeong-gil Fanmily's Letters(Eongan)> has its importance in terms of material history in that it describes the circumstances of the turbulent late 19th century while depicting the daily lives of individuals. Most of the letters were written between 1893 and 1896, which was also when historical events such as Donghak Peasant Revolution, Sino-Japanese War, and Gabo Reform occurred. The letters contain realistic depiction of details that reflect such events. The rapidly changing, uncontrollable days of Joseon in the late 19th century are introduced and depicted, such as the distress of the Yangban (upper class), who were plundered during the Donghak nongmin undong, fear arising due to Cheongil jeonjaeng during the Joseon Dynasty, a literati women’s view on Danballyeong (compulsorily cutting off men’s topknot), weddings, and slave trade, showing the letters’ value as material for life and cultural history research. Due to the social atmosphere of Joseon where Confucian ethics was emphasized, very few love letters in Korean remain, and in particular, hardly any among those exchanged between unmarried couples. <Jo Byeong-gil Fanmily's Letters(Eongan)> has eight, giving a glimpse of the realities of love letters in those days and highlighting the potential for research on various kinship terms and dialects found in them. Based on this study, we hope that an in-depth discussion on <Jo Byeong-gil Fanmily's Letters(Eongan)> will continue in various fields such as Korean language, life history, and socio-cultural history.