Calligraphy by King Jeongjo

This work is a seven-character regulated verse in running script, composed and written by King Jeongjo (1752–1800) in February 1791 as a farewell to Jeong Min-si (sobriquet Jeongwa, 1745–1800), newly appointed to oversee the Honam region. The ground is deep pink silk, richly decorated with peonies, bats and cloud motifs rendered in gold and silver pigment. At the beginning of the text is an oval relief seal bearing a passage from the "Tianbao" ode in the Classic of Poetry — "like the mountains, like the hills, like the ridges, like the peaks, like the ceaseless flow of a river, like the waxing moon, like the rising sun, like the longevity of Namsan, like the flourishing of pine and cypress" — and at the end are two square seals, in intaglio and relief, reading "Hongjae" and "Man-gi jiga." This scroll was donated to the Jinju National Museum by Kim Yong-du, a Korean-Japanese businessman originally from Sacheon in Gyeongnam, and is mounted in the Japanese style. On the outer lid of the paulownia-wood box that holds the scroll is a title written in the sixth intercalary month of 1930 by Kim Don-hee (sobriquet Seongdang, 1871–1936), a leading calligrapher of the Japanese colonial period, reading "Calligraphy Composed by Emperor Jeongjo"; on the inner face of the lid are a colophon of the same year by the pro-Japanese figure Jeong Byeong-jo (1863–1945) and a further colophon of 1940 by the Japanese Buddhist monk Tokutomi Soho (1863–1957). Together with "Inscription for Munsang-jeongsa," held in the National Museum of Korea and likewise bestowed on Jeong Min-si, this dated work from King Jeongjo's fortieth year displays the highest calligraphic skill among royal works of this kind.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jinju, Gyeongnam

Designation

Treasure · 보물