Although Kim Goengpil is an important figure in Confucian history of Chosun dynasty, there are only few remaining writings of him. Kyunghyun-Rok is almost the only text providing us the way to understand him. However, a greater part of Kyunghyun-Rok i...
Although Kim Goengpil is an important figure in Confucian history of Chosun dynasty, there are only few remaining writings of him. Kyunghyun-Rok is almost the only text providing us the way to understand him. However, a greater part of Kyunghyun-Rok is comprised of writings about him which were written by others, not by Kim Goengpil himself. Therefore, we need to figure out writers and process of compiling Kyunghyun-Rok first. Then we can understand Kim Goengpil properly. Kyunghyun-Rok has two major editions, Suncheon Edition and Dodong Edition. Firstly, this article would focus on Suncheon Edition and trace back the process of compiliation.
The initial Kyunghyun-Rok were published by Lee Jeong in 1563. And it was revised in opinion of Lee Hwang. The former is called Guam Edition, the latter is called Toegye Edition. And those two were merged into Suncheon Edition in 1565. The most important difference between Guam Edition, the first edition of Kyunghyun-Rok and Suncheon Edition is in their contents. Guam Edition contained Kim Goengpil’s thought about the family rules. But, Lee Hwang regarded the contents on family rules are not necessary for describing Kim Goengpil as a moralist. So, importance of the contents about family rules was reduced significantly in Suncheon Edition.
As appears by this case, the stance of compiler had great effect on each versions of Kyunghyun-Rok. Add to this, it’s restricted sources to approach Kim Goengpil caused many misunderstanding. That is why this article tries to figure out the process and the subjects of compilation.