Joseon wangjo sillok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty)

The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty record in chronological form the history of twenty-five reigns over 472 years (1392–1863), from King Taejo to King Cheoljong. In the Jeongjoksan archive copy held at Kyujanggak the full set runs to 1,187 books, an enormous record. It covers the historical facts of the Joseon period in every field — politics, society, diplomacy, the economy, the military, law and culture — and its truthfulness and reliability are very high. This value was recognised internationally when it was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in October 1997. The annals were compiled after a king had died and his successor had taken the throne. An office was set up temporarily for the purpose and compilers appointed, who drew on the historians' drafts, the records of current government, official records such as the Seungjeongwon ilgi and the Ilseongnok, and private collected writings. Even the king could not freely read the annals or the historians' drafts, an institutional safeguard that let the historians record history impartially. The finished annals were kept in archives built for the state's important books. In early Joseon they were kept at the Chunchugwan office in Seoul and in archives at Chungju, Seongju and Jeonju; in the Imjin War the copies at the Chunchugwan, Chungju and Seongju were destroyed, and only the Jeonju copy survived. After the war, from July 1603, the thirty-sixth year of King Seonjo, to March 1606, four further sets were printed from the Jeonju copy and kept at five archives: the Chunchugwan, Ganghwa, Taebaeksan Mountain, Myohyangsan (later moved to Jeoksangsan) and Odaesan Mountain. From then on the annals were printed in five sets, one for each archive. The Jeongjoksan copy at Kyujanggak continues the early Joseon Jeonju copy. When a Jeonju archive was decided on in 1439, the twenty-first year of King Sejong, the annals of Taejo to Taejong held at the Chunchugwan and Chungju were copied in 1445, making the first Jeonju set, and a copy of each later annal was added there as it was compiled. When the Imjin War broke out in 1592, the twenty-fifth year of King Seonjo, the Jeonju scholars An Ui and Son Hong-nok carried the Jeonju annals to Naejangsan Mountain and saved them from the fighting. They were handed to the government in 1593 and kept on Ganghwado Island, at Myohyangsan and elsewhere during the war. After it, four sets of the annals from Taejo to Myeongjong were printed from them, and the Jeonju set was placed in the Ganghwa archive. The Ganghwa archive suffered considerable damage in the Manchu invasion of 1636. In 1653, the fourth year of King Hyojong, some books were also lost to fire, and the damaged archive building was repaired in 1665, the sixth year of King Hyeonjong. In 1678, the fourth year of King Sukjong, a new archive was built on Jeongjoksan and the annals and the other books of the Ganghwa archive were moved there. In 1910 the Japanese moved the Jeongjoksan annals to Seoul, where they became part of the Kyujanggak collection under the Government-General; in 1928–30 they were moved again to the library of Keijo Imperial University. After liberation in 1945 the Seoul National University library looked after them, and when Kyujanggak became an independent institution of the university in 1990 it took on responsibility for holding and caring for them.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Designation

National Treasure · 국보