Bongsa Joseon changhwa sigwon (Poems Shared by Envoys in Joseon)

The Bongsa Joseon changhwa sigwon consists of three parts: a title inscription in seal script by Wang Shu'an reading 'Bongsa Joseon changhwa sichaek' (Poems Exchanged on an Embassy to Joseon), the main body of exchanged poems, and colophons written by the Qing-dynasty scholars Tang Hanti and Luo Zhenyu. It brings together, in a single scroll, poems exchanged between the Ming envoy Ni Qian and the Hall of Worthies scholars Seong Sam-mun, Sin Suk-ju and Jeong In-ji; the scroll was remounted in 1905, the Eulsa year of the Guangxu era. This scroll was compiled from thirty-seven poems selected from those exchanged over the course of about a month between Ni Qian, Reader-in-Waiting of the Hanlin Academy in Ming China, and the royal reception envoy Jeong In-ji together with Sin Suk-ju and Seong Sam-mun. Ni Qian had come to Joseon bearing an imperial decree announcing the enthronement of Emperor Jing (r. 1450–1457); he arrived on the first day of the intercalary first lunar month of 1450, the thirty-second year of King Sejong, and the exchange of poems continued until the third day of the second month, when he returned to the Amnok River. Several dozen seals of both the composers of the poems and successive owners of the scroll are stamped on it. Among the composers, Ni Qian's seals are by far the most numerous, including those reading 'Ni Qian', 'Jeongjon', 'Seal of Ni Qian', 'Private Seal of the Hanlin Reader-in-Waiting', 'Sawonjaepil', 'Donggak sagwan' and 'May Ni's descendants preserve this forever'. By contrast, the other poets each used only one or two seals: Jeong In-ji used 'In-ji' and 'The Jeong Clan of Hadong'; Sin Suk-ju used 'Suk-ju' and 'Beom-ong'; and Seong Sam-mun used 'Geun-bo'. In addition, seals used by later authenticators and collectors are also found, such as Chen Jizhong's 'A Famous Work Treasured by Chen Jide', Tang Hanti's 'Examined and Authenticated by Tang Hanti', and Luo Zhenyu's 'Collected and Appreciated by Songweng'. These show that the scroll passed down through Ni Qian's descendants, then through Chen Jizhong and Tang Hanti, before finally entering Luo Zhenyu's Tangfeng Tower collection. In a colophon added at the end of the scroll, written in 1905 (the ninth year of the Gwangmu era of Emperor Gojong), Luo Zhenyu states that he obtained the work from the Tang family of Jiaxing, confirming that it had previously belonged to Tang Hanti. Separate from the scroll itself, there is an authentication record written in classical Chinese on a single sheet of Korean paper, recording the results of an examination carried out in 1958 by six scholars — Kim Sang-gi (pen name Dongbin), Yi Byeong-do (Dugye), Kim Du-jong (Ilsan), Yi Yong-hui (Dongju), Jeon Hyeong-pil (Gansong) and Won Chung-hui (Dongchang) — showing that the work had entered Korea by 1958 at the latest. It subsequently remained in the treasured collection of Im Chang-sun (pen name Cheongmyeong) until recently, when it was transferred to the National Museum of Korea. This material is significant not only as a vivid record of Joseon's diplomacy with Ming China at the time, but is also regarded as an extremely valuable resource for the study of calligraphy in the early Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물