Yi Jon-do Yuseo, Gwangmyeong

This document shows the effort made to carry on the family traditions of State Councillor Ori Yi Won-ik, and is an important record illustrating a cross-section of the household customs of the gentry (sajok) of Korea's central region during the Joseon period. It is a yuseo — a letter of instruction — written over four years, from 1734 to 1737, by Yi Jon-do (1659–1745), the fourth-generation descendant of Ori Yi Won-ik, and given to Yi Eon-su (1713–1774), the head of the main family line. Its contents may be summarised as follows: first, notes on the ancestors together with instructions on the seasonal first-fruits offering (cheonsin), the seasonal grave rites (siyang), and the ritual food and its arrangement; second, instructions mainly concerning the manner of arranging the ritual food for ancestral rites and the seasonal grave rites; third, instructions on the rotation, among family members, of the duty to perform the grave rites (myosa) and the death-anniversary rites (gije); and fourth, an emphasis that the family had for generations upheld frugality as a virtue, together with instructions that, even after his own death, ancestral rites should be conducted frugally so that the family should never be ruined through such expenditure.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산