Song Eon-sin Album of Confidential Letters and Song Eon-sin Portrait of King Seonjo Royal Letter Temple – Song Eon-sin Album of Confidential Letters of King Seonjo Royal Letter Temple

These are seven letters that King Seonjo of Joseon wrote personally and sent in secret to Song Eon-sin (1542–1612), who held the post of Minister of Personnel among other offices. Song Eon-sin passed the civil service examination in 1577, the tenth year of King Seonjo, and after holding a succession of posts served as Minister of five of the Six Boards, all except the Board of Taxation. During the reign of King Myeongjong he also opposed Buddhism, going so far as to propose the execution of the monk Bou. The album was made by cutting a long, continuous sheet of paper into suitable sections and attaching separate covers to the front and back. After viewing this album, King Jeongjo personally composed a colophon with explanatory notes on the seven letters, and ordered the Minister of Taxation to place the original album in a chest and return it to Song Eon-sin's descendants, while having an identical copy made and kept in the royal library. The present album of royal letters is the copy made at that time. The Seonjo Eoseosa Song Eon-sin Miljalcheop contains, among other things, a request made while King Seonjo was fleeing to Uiju that Song Eon-sin find and protect the king's three children, and a note bestowing gifts in recognition of that service; it measures 24.2 cm wide and 36.6 cm high. The Jeongjo Eoje Seonjo Eoseo Miljal-bal, recording King Jeongjo's impressions after viewing the letters, comprises 59 lines set out over ten pages of six lines each. A further document, the Board of Rites permit dated the eighteenth day of the twelfth month of the thirteenth year of the Wanli era, records that the Board of Rites, on 18 February in that year (1585, the eighteenth year of King Seonjo), authorised the childless Song Eon-sin to adopt a child from a cousin ten degrees removed. This collection offers a glimpse of King Seonjo's skill in controlling local officials, and forms a valuable historical source for Joseon's national defence at the time, the exchange of envoys and gifts between ruler and subject, the family system, and the lineage of Song Eon-sin.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongin, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물