 There is a tendency to 2 different opinions over our history. On the one hand, we perceive history as reflecting not only who we are, but how our future is going to turn out. Such beliefs have always been in our consciousness acting as mirrors to ourselves. On the other hand, we occasionally think of our history as a boring subject with many historical facts to memorize, or we tend to treat history as old stories told too many times.
History is not a "stuffed animal" accounting of the past. Since the creation of the Universe, mankind has coexisted with himself. Each generation has created its own system of living and social structure in which they must live and work. The ideologies that have developed for generations support these ways of living. This overall activity from generation to generation is what we refer to as our history. In fact, we are continually within or experiencing historical events. Hence, we can say that we are born of history.
The Annals of the JOSEON Dynasty, hereafter referred to as 'TACD', are volumes written during the whole JOSEON period, from the founder of the dynasty, King Taejo, to its 25th Crown King, King Chuljung, spanning a period of 472 years. These annals are preserved today as our 151st national treasury. Its compilation did not occur in a certain time, but was accumulated and written down over a time-span of generations. Generally, it was the custom at that time for a king to setup a temporary bureau (called Shillukchung) responsible for writing down the doings of his predecessor. The materials used as reference in writing the annals of the kings were ChoonChoogwanshijunggi (prepared reports from respective government bureaus), Sacho (data on Kings recorded by SAGWAN), Diary of SEUNGJEONGWON, Record of Uijungbu, Records of government branches or even individual writings, etc.
The original TACD were written in Chinese and comprised of 1,893 books. The translation into Korean characters was completed in 1993, and it covered 413 books. This translated version was further shrunk and recorded into 3 titled CD-ROM disks, and published in 1995. |  As its size shows, TACD reveals in details the circumstances of its time. Since it was primarily written for and about the Kings themselves and the royal palace, it was fundamentally limited in details relating to the common people of that dynasty. Nevertheless, compared to preceeding dynasty's records, it still remains a valuable cultural inheritance and is still used by historians and literary scholars today for researches, writings and collecting intuitive data of that era.
TACD was written in chronological order, and its main characteristic is that it was not a formal diary of the time. For it to remain true to its purpose of being an objective account of the time, the records were written and completed after the king's death. So, no king was able to read his own annals.
To maintain accuracy, designated persons (called SAGWAN) closely followed the king's speeches and actions. These became an important reference material for later compilation. Hence, as a rule, a king could not see these written references as well as those made of his predecessor's. Although kings in general accepted the presence of SAGWAN, they nonetheless are reluctant parties to this practice as all speeches and actions of his were closely watched at all times. There were usually 2 SAGWAN. One for speeches, and the other for actions. This practice began during the time of the 4th king, King Sejong.
For Korea, TACD is an essential material for historical researches. In recognition of this reason, there was a four year showing of an illustrated version of it at Kyung-sung-ze-kuk University from 1929 to 1932. It was a huge production and contained fields such as politics, diplomacy, defense, parliament, law, economy, industry, transportation, communication, community, customs, fine arts and religion. It would be difficult to observe this kind of records anywhere else in the world.
Although TACD is limited to details of governing bodies, it counts as the most fundamental information resource for observing the history and culture of the JOSEON dynasty. TACD is like a Black Box in an airplane. We must realize that whatever we know as truth in the 500 years of the JOSEON dynasty is based primarily on 'The Annals of the JOSEON Dynasty.' |
