Seongni daejeon seo jeoryo (Essentials of the Great Collection of Neo-Confucianism) (2004)

This work was compiled by the mid-Joseon court official Kim Jeong-guk, who abridged the Seongni daejeon into four volumes, then, using as a base the Geumseong wooden movable type kept at the time at the Naju government office and supplementing what was lacking, printed four hundred copies of the Seongni daejeon seo jeoryo. According to Kim Jeong-guk's postscript at the end of the work, the circumstances of its printing were as follows: after taking up the post of governor of Honam by royal command in the summer of 1538, the thirty-third year of King Jungjong, the compiler Kim Jeong-guk consulted with the assistant official Kim Hoe-baek, had the missing and incomplete characters of the wooden movable type kept at Naju-mok - also known as Geumseong - carved and supplemented, and printed the work that autumn. The work is arranged in four volumes bound as four separate books. A preface stands at the head of Volume 1, and Kim Jeong-guk's postscript is recorded at the end of Volume 4. After the preface of Volume 1 ends, the title of the work appears on a new page, and the main text then begins immediately with the section "General Discussion of the Diagram of the Great Ultimate." Looking at the layout of a half-leaf at the title page of Volume 1, the border framing the text is generally a single line on all four sides, though double lines occasionally appear. Each half-leaf is divided into ten columns, with nineteen characters set in each column. In the centre fold of the leaf, thick black bands appear at top and bottom, between which black "fish-tail" marks point inward from top and bottom; within these fish-tail marks are carved the running title "Seongni daejeon" and the volume-and-leaf number. At the head of each of the four books are ownership seals in the shape of a sinseollo - a traditional Korean chafing dish - and a bell, suggesting that the set once belonged to a well-known collector. At the end of Volume 4 is the postscript, which closes with the note "Written respectfully by Kim Jeong-guk of Munso in the autumn of the Wushu year of the Jiajing reign," confirming that the book was indeed printed in 1538, the thirty-third year of King Jungjong. The covers of all the books are in relatively good condition, and the main text shows no insect damage whatsoever, so the set as a whole is well preserved. In total, Volume 1 has 64 leaves, Volume 2 has 56 leaves, Volume 3 has 62 leaves, and Volume 4 has 67 leaves.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물