A Study on Lee Kyu-gyeong(李圭景)'s 『Oju-Pilju(五洲筆疇)』: In addition to introducing a newly discovered book

Abstract

『Oju-Yeonmunjangjeon-Sango(五洲衍文長箋散稿)』 by Lee Kyu-gyeong (李圭景, 1788~1856) is an encyclopedia of Joseon in the 19th century. It is highly evaluated for not only having a lot of content, but also for making good use of previous books. A symposium with the theme of 『Ohjuyeonmunjangjeonsango』 was held, and at this time Lee Kyu-gyeong's erudition was revealed and the level of Korean intellectual history in the 19th century was proved. Lee Kyu-gyeong's 『Shiga-Jumdeung(詩家點燈)』 is a book that criticizes Korean and Chinese poetry and sentences. Researchers do not use it as much as 『Oju-Yeonmunjangjeon-Sango』 because it is difficult to identify characters and it is not databased, but there is no disagreement that it has a lot of content like 『Oju-Yeonmunjangjeon-Sango』. 『Oju-Yeonmunjangjeon-Sango』 and 『Shiga-Jumdeung』 make us look forward to the value of another of Lee Kyu-kyung's books that have not been discovered yet. 『Oju-Yeonmunjangjeon-Sango』 says “It can be seen in detail in 『Oju- Pilju(五洲筆疇)』”, so 『Oju-Pilju』, which was obviously Lee Kyu-kyung's book but had not been seen before, was newly discovered. It is a hand-held book [袖珍本] similar in size to 『Shiga-Jumdeung』. There are 20 letters in 10 lines and a total of 72 pages. The condition of the book is very good, so it is easy to distinguish the letters. 『Oju-Pilju』 contains military operations, which are the core of war, walls for defense, pavilions to watch military camps, armor and weapons, carts carrying munitions, other things that could be weapons, military medicine, and amulets to defeat the enemy. In other words, it is a ‘book on military strategy(兵法書)’ with quite a bit of content. Through two prefaces written by Lee Kyu-gyeong, he emphasized that as a Confucian scholar, the purpose of separately writing the book on military strategy, 『Oju-Pilju』, was to achieve a peaceful era. Looking at the parts related to the walls, weapons, and carts that Lee Kyu-kyung said he put effort into in the preface, it is clear that he had a high level of knowledge about ‘strategy’. Through the review of 『Oju-Pilju』, it is possible to accurately grasp the level of Joseon books on military strategy in the 19th century.