Calligraphy by Seo Geo-jeong

Calligraphy by Seo Geo-jeong is an album that contains, together, the writing of Gi Sun (祁順, a native of Dongguan, who passed the jinsa examination — a preliminary civil service examination — in 1460, courtesy name Chihwa, sobriquet Sonchon), the Ming envoy who came to Korea at the end of the first lunar month of 1476 (the seventh year of King Seongjong) as Vice Minister of the Board of Revenue, and the writing of Seo Geo-jeong (1420–1488), the reception envoy (wonjeopsa) who welcomed the envoy's party. The cover bears the title Cheonsa Sahan Jinjeok ("Genuine Traces of the Heavenly Envoy's Writings"). At the front of the album is a long poem in five-character lines that Gi Sun composed and wrote for Jang Yu-hwa, an official of the Bureau of Interpreters who served as interpreter at the time, at Uisungwan in Uiju on the eleventh day of the third month, after Gi Sun had stayed in Korea for about forty days. At the back of the album is a farewell preface that Seo Geo-jeong — who at the time held the posts of Left Vice-Councillor, reception envoy, host official, and escort envoy — likewise composed and wrote for Jang Yu-hwa on a gapsul day in the sixth month of that year (its opening portion is missing). At the end is a colophon dated to the sohang day, the day before the full moon, of the ninth month of 1736 (the twelfth year of King Yeongjo), stating that the person who acquired this album obtained the calligraphy from Kim Hong-gi (courtesy name Boksho) in 1718 and had it mounted as an album. Calligraphic works from the early Joseon period are extremely rare, and this album preserves in its original form a representative example of the calligraphy of Seo Geo-jeong, a celebrated fifteenth-century Joseon literatus and calligrapher. It is also a valuable record for examining exchanges between Korea and Ming China, since it contains the calligraphy of a Ming envoy alongside his own. At the end of each piece of writing, the date, official post, name, and courtesy name or sobriquet are recorded, and the 1736 colophon, which tells of how the piece was transmitted, further enhances the work's value. The original text, which Seo Geo-jeong wrote in semi-cursive script (haengseo), is included in his collected works, the Sagajip, in the piece "Jeungjang Wonjeongseo" in volume 6, and it is also recorded in volume 7 of the Tongmungwanji.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongin, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물