Artifacts of Kim Jeong-hui’s Family

This joint collection of artifacts handed down in the family of Chusa Kim Jeong-hui comprises items believed to have been kept at his old house: ten items related to Kim Han-sin, who held the title Wolseongwi (prince consort, having married a royal princess), and the Sinhae-nyeon Chaengnyeok, a Sinhae-year almanac (one title page and fifteen pieces of calligraphy). Together they are valuable as material for the study of the history of calligraphy. Among the items related to Kim Han-sin, Wolseongwi, is the Maeheon nango, his collection of poems gathering pieces composed between the ages of thirteen and thirty-four, twenty pages in all; together with the Gyosa simal below, it is presumed to be in Kim Han-sin's own hand. As no compiled anthology of his writings has yet been published, and other manuscripts of his are hard to find, this work, together with the Wolseongwi haengjang described below, is highly valuable material relating to Kim Han-sin. The Gyosa simal is a journal in Kim Han-sin's own hand covering 12–22 July 1747, thirty-two pages in all. The Wolseongwi haengjang is an account of Kim Han-sin's life written by his son Kim I-ju; its calligraphy differs clearly from the 'reverse inscription of Kim Han-sin's grave stele' known to be in Kim I-ju's hand, and so is thought to be the work of someone else. The piece known as Yeongjo eopil Wolseongwi Kim Han-sin myopyo, the inscription for Kim Han-sin's grave stele, is presumed to be in King Yeongjo's own royal calligraphy. On the front of Kim Han-sin's grave stele, now at Hwasun, the inscription reads (in part) 'Grave of the Suroktaebu Wolseongwi ... of Ming-recognised Joseon, with Princess Hwasun interred to his left,' with the small closing phrase '望七之年 抆涕以寫' ('written through tears, in his sixty-ninth year'); this manuscript, however, lacks both the opening words for 'Ming-recognised Joseon' and the closing eight characters. The Wolseongwi Kim Han-sin myopyo eumgi is the reverse inscription of the same grave stele, composed by Yu Cheok-gi (1691–1767), with the calligraphy believed to be that of Kim Han-sin's son Kim I-ju. The stele's reverse inscription at Hwasun states that it was 'written by his unworthy son I-ju' and erected in the year sinsa, indicating that it was set up in 1761, the thirty-seventh year of King Yeongjo. Although the calligraphic style of this manuscript matches that of the stele, some character forms differ, and since each line is numbered 'line one, line two, line three...', it is thought to be another copy transcribed separately by Kim I-ju. The Yeongjo eoje Hwasun ongju yujemun is a memorial text composed by King Yeongjo on 15 March 1758, the thirty-fourth year of his reign, to be offered at the memorial altar of his second daughter, Princess Hwasun, by the funeral supervisor Yi Se-tae; its calligrapher is unknown. The Sukbin Choissi sichaekmun is the investiture text that Kim Han-sin copied out in 1756, the thirty-second year of King Yeongjo, when the posthumous title 'Hwideok' was conferred on the king's mother, Consort Suk of the Choe clan (1670–1718); it is a folded album of eight pages. Also included are a spring blessing in King Yeongjo's own hand, in ink on paper; a seven-character quatrain composed and written by the king himself on the theme of welcome rain, in ink on paper; and a further seven-character quatrain composed and written by the king, likewise in ink on paper. As for Kim Jeong-hui's own writing in the Sinhae-nyeon Chaengnyeok, the front cover of the almanac he used bears the title and the name of its repository written in clerical script, indicating the almanac dealt with the seven governing bodies (the sun, moon and five planets) for the sinhae year. A note on its first page shows this corresponds to the first year of the Xianfeng era, that is, 1851, the second year of King Cheoljong. Pasted into this almanac are seventeen examples of Kim Jeong-hui's own hand — draft poems, letters, inscriptions and copied calligraphy — of which the objects of this designation are limited to fifteen, the remaining two (a pair of regular-script couplets and a piece of seal script) being excluded.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seogwipo, Jeju

Designation

Treasure · 보물